DETROIT — Every time I see Vice-President Joe Biden on TV talking about “warriors” and smirking, it really bothers me. Now I know why.
This morning, I opened the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and a headline on the front page caught my eye. It said: “Last Marine Standing: A Life Tormented by Survival.” It reminded me of 48 years ago. We were the children back then.
The article said, “Marine Lance Cpl. Williams is the sole survivor of his 12-man squad. His comrades were wiped out by a roadside bomb in Iraq, leaving him physically unharmed but with psychological wounds that remain unhealed seven years later.” (WSJ)
I’m sure Joe and the other politicians who “support” these warriors have no idea what they have done to them.
“Cases like that of Lance Cpl. Williams might constitute a different kind of mental injury from war, some clinicians are concluding, one that falls into less-understood categories of ‘traumatic loss’ and “moral injury.”’(WSJ)
Or maybe they do.
“Those who suffer traumatic loss, by contrast, often experience guilt over surviving and tend to isolate themselves. Among Dr. Maguen’s patients are a vet who killed a child who reminds him of his own son; a medic who, after saving a comrade’s life, killed an enemy fighter in self-defense; and a veteran who was ordered to shoot into a crowd of unruly civilians.”(WSJ)
USA Today, on February 13, 2013, reported that the VA estimates the suicide rate among veterans is 22 per day.
“In 2006, he left the Marine Corps. On his 23rd birthday, he and a Marine friend, Wes Dudley, ended up drinking at a Missoula bar. Lance Cpl. Williams went to the alley to urinate. His thoughts flashed back to the moment he nearly shot the Iraqi boy. When Mr. Dudley found him, he was banging his head against the brick wall “to stop thinking about it.” Then he ran up an exterior staircase and launched himself over the railing some 18 feet to the alley below, breaking an ankle. To the extent he can parse his drunken intentions, Lance Cpl. Williams thinks it was a suicide attempt.” (WSJ)
On December 28, 2012, NextGov.com reported that there are more than 900,000 backlogged VA disability claims.
“The government pays him $300 a month for his PTSD. Over the years, doctors have prescribed Adderall, Prozac, Wellbutrin, buspirone, Ritalin and amitriptyline. Some pills made him sleepy. Others kept him up. Some made him famished. Others killed his appetite. One helped him concentrate, but also made him feel like vomiting.”(WSJ)
So Joe, the next time you have the urge to say warriors, say instead “I support Universal Single Payer Health Care For All because war is not healthy for children”. And shed a tear for your vote to go to war with Iraq and Afghanistan.
