The real cost of IRAQ: PTSD and the second war

[iamthewalrus109]

In recent weeks news stories have been appearing in liberal and conserative papers and publications alike on returning Iraq war vets. One in particular dealt with Andres Raya, a 19 year old Marine out of Modesto who on this past Sunday shot up a Ceres, California neibhorhood, intent on not going back to Iraq. Killing one cop, then later running into police gunfire this "boy" decided to commit suicide by cop then go back to the sands of hell in Iraq. This inccident has prompted me to dig into what the future is for this country and our returning troops.

Upon reading this story I immediately put my research skills to work on what is actually happening to these vets. As discovered in another bloody, sometimes senseless war: Vietnam, GI's returned changed men, not the same. Something about the nature of that conflict changed what was called in WWII, battle fatigue to Post traumatic stress disorder. Many of the individuals most adversely effected by this physcological affliciton ended up homeless, hooked on drugs, or worse. Now today we have reports of new homeless vets, who come back to a world foriegn to them now.

With the nature of this conflict and the aggregious under funding of proper VA support, we are facing big problems assimilating these men and women, and the issue is a real one, especially considering the nature of this conflict. In some expert estimations, the cases of PTSD are going to be even more severe than Vietnam.

-Walrus