Originally Posted by jinx

the rat bastard is trying to save a dime and cheating the troops returning with PTSD. I suppose he'll get a "heck of a job" backslap from dubya.


MILITARY -- VA SECRETARY CALLS VETS' CONCERNS ABOUT PTSD 'OVERBLOWN': Over the weekend, VA Secretary James Peake visited Alaska with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). While there, they met with Vietnam veteran John Guinn, who questioned the Secretary about the growing problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst veterans. Peake suggested that some concerns about PTSD are "overblown," adding that many of the brain injuries were "akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered." On Saturday, Peake also said that many vets with PTSD may just need "a little counseling" and shouldn't "need the PTSD label their whole lives." Peake's comments are disturbing, especially in light of new numbers released by the Pentagon this week showing that the number of new PTSD cases "jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007." Additionally, as Brandon Friedman at VetVoice points out, Peake's comments are undermined by VA psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who has stressed the seriousness of PSTD: "Combat PTSD is a war injury. Veterans with combat PTSD are war wounded, carrying the burdens of sacrifice for the rest of us as surely as the amputees, the burned, the blind, and the paralyzed carry them."

PR Web Version

edit>> if you go to the link, there are links within this paragraph to follow about the story.