Another post about how we are letting down our returning troops

Bob Geiger takes on a subject today that I have been railing about for a while, both here and at the new place. Bob does a fine job and writes a powerful post. I present it in it's entirety, without editorializing or comment. Read it, and then use the links on the left side to contact the veterans affairs committees of the House and Senate and demand that these Americans get the treatment they deserve and do not take no for an answer.

These Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are more important than a tax cut for Paris Hilton and the Bush twins.

Young Marine Dies Of PTSD - And Neglect

Jonathan Schulze was a United States Marine.

He died earlier this month at the age of 25 -- not in Iraq, but back home, in Minnesota.

He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.

Schulze had a harrowing time in Iraq, spending time in the heated battles of Ramadi in April, 2004. While he was there, 35 Marines in his unit were killed, including 17 of them in just 48 hours of combat.

The young Marine was wounded twice in battle but returned home to rebuild his life and to cope with the things he had seen, things he had done and friends he had lost. But, by the time he was discharged from the Marines in late 2005, he was deeply troubled with images of combat and violence that he could not get out of his mind.

According to Minnesota press reports, Schulze went to the Veterans Administration (VA) center in Minneapolis on December 14, 2006, met with a psychiatrist and was told that he could only be admitted for treatment four months later, in March.

On January 11, 2007, accompanied by his parents, he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota and told people at that VA facility that he was thinking of killing himself. They told Schulze that they could not admit him as a patient and sent him on his way.

The next day, January 12, Schulze called the VA, reiterating that he was feeling suicidal. He was told that he was number 26 on the waiting list.

A man who had risked his life in Iraq and done everything that was asked of him by the United States government, was told by that same government that his sacrifice would be repaid by being 26th on a list of Veterans similarly crying out for help.

"Jonathan wanted help so bad," said Marianne Schulze, Jonathan's stepmother. "At the end of the conversation, Jonathan got off the phone so distressed."

On January 16, Schulze called his family and told them that he was going to do it -- he was going to kill himself. His family called the local police, who raced to his house, kicked in his door and found him hanging from an electrical cord.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Having read about Schulze while on a trip to Minnesota, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) brought the story to the floor of the Senate and read it into the record on Monday.

"The story is nearly unbelievable to me," said Dorgan in a speech on the Senate floor. "The newspaper description of the flag-draped coffin of this young marine who earned two Purple Hearts fighting for his country in Iraq contains a sad, sad story of a young marine who should have gotten medical help for serious psychological problems that were the result of his wartime experience."

The Marine's family says that he couldn't sleep, would have nightmares reliving the combat he had experienced and suffered from vivid flashbacks when awake.

“He was a delayed casualty of the Iraq war,” his father, Jim Schulze, a Vietnam Veteran, said of Jonathan.

Jonathan Schulze, who leaves behind his fianceé, a 6-month-old daughter and who had another baby on the way, was a machine gunner who wrote often to his parents about what he was experiencing in Iraq, the firefights, the bombings and dismembered bodies blown apart by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

“I pray so much over here and ask God to keep me out of harm’s way and to make it back home alive and in one piece,” he wrote to his parents in 2004. “I bet I easily pray over a dozen times a day and I always pray while I am on patrol as I am terrified of getting hit by an IED aka a bomb. Our vehicle elements and Marines on patrols are getting hit hard by these bombs the Iraqis plant all over and hide on the ground.”

He survived all of that only to come home and find neglect, the results of an administration big on tax cuts for the wealthy, but not real strong on taking care of Veterans returning home from the war created by the George W. Bush and, until this month, left unchecked by the do-nothing Republican Congress.

As is often the case when things like this happen, the VA is citing privacy laws and won’t talk about the Schulze family’s account of what happened to Jonathan or issue any comment at all.

But Senator Dorgan says he's going to press for answers.

"I am going to ask the inspector general to investigate what happened in this case," said Dorgan on the Senate floor. "What happened that a young man who was a marine veteran with two Purple Hearts turns up at a VA center and says: I am thinking of committing suicide, can you help me, can you admit me, and he is told: No, the list is 26 long in front of you?"

"Are there others who show up at a VA center and say: I need help, only to be told no help is available? I hope that is not the case. It is the unbelievable cost of war."

posted by Bob Geiger at 1/31/2007 09:42:00 AM

(Hat tip to Apollo 13 for sending me the link to Bob's post.)

Liz Cheney on the WaPo Editorial Page

The Spawn of Satan™ was given a spot on the editorial page of the Washington Post today, and boy does she never fail to disappoint! She chugs the Kool-Aid and churns out a propaganda piece that would make Brezhnev blush. And I can only assume it was aimed at the 28% that comprises the Armageddons-a-comin' crowd because I have read more cogent arguments from 12-year-olds. The kindest descriptives I can muster are vapid, insipid, trite and vacuous. Proof once more that a world-class education can be, and indeed often is, wasted on it's beneficiaries.

Let's parse her *points* and rip her to shreds, shall we?

Let's start with the real reason she wrote this. Reasons, actually. First, it was a generic drive-by smear against Hillary Clinton, who came back from a trip to Iraq speaking out about the ab-surge-ity that Bush is advocating; election be damned.

But the main reason is more below the surface - it's written at a the level of a 12-year old because it's the talking points for the dead-enders - and that is about their level of comprehension. If they were not uneducable, they wouldn't be continuing to ingest the spoon-fed poison dished up by this administration.

We are at war. America faces an existential threat. Really? I thought the military was at war, and America was at the mall. As to the existential threat she wants us all to set our hair on fire about - Bullshit. Any *existential threat* our nation faces is due to undermining the Constitution, suspending Habeas Corpus, the Insurrection Acts of 1807 and Posse Comitatus. The threat to America is from her president and her father and the fools who follow them. Terrorism is a tactic, it is not an entity, and fighting this tactic militarily is just, well, stupid.

Quitting helps the terrorists. Don't take my word for it. Read the plans of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman Zawahiri to drive America from Iraq, establish a base for al-Qaeda and spread jihad across the Middle East. Don't worry, you miserable bitch, I wouldn't take your word that the sky is blue. if you said it, I would go outside and look up. Zarqawi is dead, so scratch him off the list-o-threats. Let's all remember, as well, that al Qa'eda is a Sunni organization, and Iraq is majority Shi'ite. That civil war in Iraq? It's between Sunni and Shia. Anyone who believes that the Shia would stand for an al Qa'eda takeover of their country should contact me immediately, because I have millions sitting in a bank in Nigeria that I need your help and $50,000 dollars to retrieve...

Beware the polls. In November the American people expressed serious concerns about Iraq (and about Republican corruption and scandals). They did not say that they want us to lose this war. They did not say that they want us to allow Iraq to become a base for al-Qaeda to conduct global terrorist operations. They did not say that they would rather we fight the terrorists here at home. Until you see a poll that asks those questions, don't use election results as an excuse to retreat. Anyone catch that whiff of desperation? A Republican snatches at the straw of Republican corruption, claiming that was more to blame for the electoral disaster the Republicans were handed than the war. Anyone remember the post-election analysis and exit polling? It was about the war!!! Here is the defining race that crystallized that point: The Kansas 02, home to Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley, tossed Jim Ryun out on his ass and installed Democrat Nancy Boyda. Listen up, bitch. We took a poll in November - the only poll that matters - and the results weren't what you wanted, so you tell us to "beware the polls." Oh for fucks sake. Grow up and deal. The jig is up and you guys have been repudiated. As for that "fighting them there, rather than here" bullshit...Did you ever play sports? I did. Still do in fact. Homefield advantage is not to be underestimated. We fought them here at home just fine prior to the cock-up that is Iraq and the travesty that is the Bush presidency. We caught the first WTC attackers without a Patriot Act, without suspending Habeas and without launching an illegal war. Of course, we used to have a President, not some fucking idiot who dismissed the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing with an "Okay, you've covered your ass now." And then cleared brush rather than attempting to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001. Personally, I would rather be the one who can fade into the populace, rather than a sitting duck.

Retreat from Iraq hurts us in the broader war. We are fighting the war on terrorism with allies across the globe Allies are bailing right and left because of the incompetence and fecklessness of her Daddy's war-mongering. The War on Terror™ and the war in Iraq are two separate and distinct entities, and conflating them is the height of intellectual dishonesty.

What about Iran? There is no doubt that an American retreat from Iraq will embolden Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read a fucking newspaper. Ahmadinejad is a figurehead, and a fading one at that. The only reason he was ever allowed to be ensconsed was to stick a thumb in Bush's eye after that Axis of Evil crap. Iranians dished up a thumpin' for him along the lines of the one Bushbaby took.

Our soldiers will win if we let them. Read their blogs. Talk to them. Fine. Here is a comment left on the 75th page of overwhelmingly negative comment to your piece on the WaPo website in response to your blathering, and I will let this soldier have the last word:

Since you decided to invoke soldiers and what we think, I will tell you: Liz Cheney, you're an idiot. You have no idea what you're talking about. I could go on and on about every point you make here, but in particular Ill address your comments about the courage those of us who have actually been to war unlike you, your father, the president, etc.. Of course terrorists cant beat us militarily, but guess what. They're beating us. Why? Its not a military victory were looking for. Its a PR fight. Its hearts and minds. If you had ever been there, or knew anyone closely who had, you'd know its a counterinsugency, and I can only assume from your column that you know nothing about counterinsurgency. Its easy to talk tough when you have no personal stake in the fight at all. You have evidenced a complete misunderstanding of this conflict, and all of us in uniform would be better served if you either educated yourself on the issue, or you just shut up. This administration has left those of us fighting this war out in the cold at every opportunity, from resources in the field to VA funding to brain injury research. How dare you try to use our collective voice to support a policy and an administration that don't support us.Jan 23, 2007 3:08:34 PM

"...this war we find ourselves in"

Did anyone else catch that? Did that fucking idiot really say that? The feckless fool who started this clusterfuck, in a speech last week actually said that. Talk about ducking ones responsibility!

Let's refresh, shall we? We didn't wake up one morning and find that while we slept, our forces had been magically transported to the desert of Iraq and enchanted by an evil Vizeer to make war. We are not losing a war in Iraq due to circumstances beyond our control; we are there because of a hard-on for Saddam that the "Decider" has been sporting since 1991. We are there because we have a frat-boy punk in the oval office who has never felt he measured up to his daddy; and had to start a war to prove to the entire world that he indeed couldn't measure up to his one-term-wonder daddy.

Just so no one forgets, it is absolutely not "this war we find ourselves in". It is, instead, this ill-advised pissing contest that was started by a fucking moron with small-man complex.