This Is Your Brain On Iraq

[babylonsister]

This was difficult to snip down; I recommend reading the whole thing. And if you do, watch out for your blood pressure. :grr: :grr:

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/22/131041/441

This Is Your Brain On Iraq
by Curmudgette
Sun Apr 22, 2007

snip//

What's baffling is the Pentagon's failure to work with Congress to provide a steady stream of funding for research on traumatic brain injuries. Meanwhile, the high-profile firings of top commanders at Walter Reed have shed light on the woefully inadequate treatment for troops. In these circumstances, soldiers face a struggle to get the long-term rehabilitation necessary for treatment of a traumatic brain injury. At Walter Reed, Macedo said, doctors have chosen to medicate most brain-injured patients, even though cognitive rehabilitation, including brain teasers and memory exercises, seems to hold the most promise for dealing with the disorder.

In fact, last summer the Pentagon reacted to the startling numbers of brain injuries by cutting it's funding request for treatment and research of the problem in half; from $14 million to $7 million.

That maneuver seems consistent with a larger agenda of minimizing treatment funds to troops across the board. As reported by NPR, troop disabilities are being pencil-whipped down to nothing. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Parker USA (Ret.) found that the Pentagon is now providing disability payments to fewer veterans than they were before the war.

Parker started digging through Pentagon data, and the numbers he found shocked him. He learned that the Pentagon is giving fewer veterans disability benefits today than it was before the Iraq war -- despite the fact that thousands of soldiers are leaving the military with serious injuries.

"It went from 102,000 and change in 2001... and now it's down to 89,500," says Parker. "It's counterintuitive. Why are the number of disability retirees shrinking during wartime?"

more...

[Mnemosyne]

1. needs another kick and rec. n/t

:grr:

[babylonsister]

2. am kick. nt

[Monkeyman]

3. KICK

[Uncle Joe]

4. Thanks for the thread babylonsister

Kicked and recommended

[babylonsister]

5. Anytime, Uncle Joe,

and many thanks to you for kicking. I think this is really important and am glad people are reading it. My government never fails to amaze me recently, and not in a good way. :-(

[Uncle Joe]

6. I'm amazed as well, how on earth can the number of disability benefits drop during a war? Meanwhile,

at the same time, the military industrial complex reaps record earnings? To say Bush/Cheney are a national disgrace is too much of an understatement for my feelings toward them. I believe this is all a chess game to them, and the American People are nothing but pawns.

[FloridaJudy]

7. Just another example of GWB's "culture of life" n/t