Psych Relief Finally On Its Way for Vets

The NYTimes reported today that (finally!) regulations may be changing for veterans in need of psychiatric care. Thus far, soldiers and former soldiers have had to "prove" their need for such care through documentation of their experiences in combat, which is (needless to say) ridiculous and with a marked LACK of understanding about what exactly mental illness is. For the full article read here. One fascinating report indicates that as many as 20% of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from PTSD.

The problems surrounding soldiers and their psychological states are myriad. This article on what happens to soldiers gone AWOL, from TomDispatch a while back (now linked through Common Dreams), talks about the conditions under which AWOL soldiers are imprisoned. Military industrial complex and prison industrial complex collapse and become one. Almost poetic. Mostly just frustrating and upsetting. It makes me wonder if everyone doesn't see these connections, too, and why the masses aren't demanding CHANGE right now!!!!! Or if they are, how the dominant patriarchy manages to keep it stifled and hidden...I know that millions of Americans are affected by these situations far more than I am, in my little bubble of privilege... AH

In related news, all of the Hawaiian female inmates in a Kentucky prison are being removed from the Otter Creek Correctional Center after widespread documentation of serious sexual abuse. Kentucky is one of the only states in which sex between a prison guard and an inmate is a misdemeanor rather than a felony, and at least five correctional officers (including one chaplain) has been proven, at this point, to have had sex with the women at Otter Creek. (For the full NYTimes article read here.)

Interestingly, the discourse in the NYTimes article and how officials are explaining this absurd abuse of power is how problematic private, for-profit prisons are and how they lack transparency... as if government run prisons are these oases of justice and rehabilitation. And while the article explains WHY Hawaiian women are in Kentucky prisons (lack of adequate funding and beds in HI, for example) they don't really even begin to talk about the tensions that can emerge and how the rape of Hawaiian imprisoned women fits into a history of violence and repression (sexual and otherwise) against indigenous women in the Americas. I guess that would be expecting too much from the NYTimes... but it's disturbing in the implication that your average privileged Times reader is not encouraged to examine this as anything more than a glitch in the system rather than an example of what the system requires.

(Note: While the article doesn't specify that the women are indigenous Hawaiians, I have to assume that some of the victims are, considering the disproportionate numbers of native Hawaiians who are locked up in the U.S. today.)

Mistreating Our Soldiers/Vets

There has been increasing coverage of our collective failure to provide for soldier and veteran needs, physical and psychological. As Obama steps up the war in Afghanistan and begins one in Pakistan, it also appears to some (or at least this article in Commondreams) that he is adopting or continuing a colonialist strategy in Iraq. It baffles my mind that as our leaders repeatedly commit soldier-power to more and more troubled regions of the world that don't want us there, they don't think it necessary to also provide for the impact of those violent situations in any way. One major oversight is how soldiers and veterans are treated. How are we surprised about the atrocities at Bagram, at Abu-Ghraib, etc etc etc on and on and on (in all armies, everywhere!) when young, un- or under-trained and un- or under-equipped men and women are put in frightening situations where they are taught to dehumanize the enemy, shoot anything that moves, and they see their friends and comrades dying around them. It is so disgraceful and honestly, every time I read one of these articles I just want to cry.

Recently, there are reports of US soldiers being exposed to extremely dangerous chemicals (remember Erin Brokovich? Yep, that same thing) in Iraq and then being told that their health complaints are the normal reactions of their bodies to being in the deserts. The AP reported (in this article I found on Commondreams) on ill, dying, and dead soldiers that were protecting workers in one specific region of the desert:

The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases. No one disputes that, but that's where the agreement ends. Among the issues now rippling from the courthouse to Capitol Hill are whether the chemical made people sick, when KBR knew it was there and how the company responded.

The case has raised broader questions about private contractors and health risks in war zones, says Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who plans hearings on the matter: "How should we treat exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals as a threat to our soldiers? How seriously should that threat be taken? What is the role of private contractors? What about the potential conflict between their profit motives and taking all steps necessary to protect our soldiers?"

Dozens of National Guard veterans have sued KBR and two subsidiaries, accusing them of minimizing and concealing the chemical's dangers, then downplaying nosebleeds and breathing problems as nothing more than sand allergies or a reaction to desert air.

The AP also reported yesterday that the violent actions of GIs when they get home is tied to experiences in combat. NO WAY.. really?? These young men and women are not getting the help they need, indeed they are sometimes discouraged from seeking psychological treatment, and then SHOCKER they can't readjust to society. WHY ARE WE SURPRISED? Why, the bigger question remains, are we not providing for them? How are these soldiers serving life sentences for committing murder upon their return, when the government goes unpunished?

The NYTimes published a really good piece a couple of weeks ago reporting on the shocking depth of these inadequacies. Worth reading.

Sorry for ranting. Peace.