The Future of the War

Hopefully, the future of the Iraq War will be approached with a lot more honesty than the war itself. Much of that future will be the care of Iraq War veterans--vets with amputated limbs, vets with post traumatic stress disorder, vets seeking college education, vets who are unemployed, and vets who have a lot of difficulty with civilian adjustment.

As was the case with Vietnam, the nation owes Iraq War vets an enormous debt for demanding that they fight in such a pointless, counter-productive war. We should be careful that we devote the full measure of the resources needed to assist returning vets just as the vets were ready to give the full measure of their devotion to our country when they were in Iraq.

CNN had an item today on a study that revised the number of Vietnam vets who suffered post-traumatic stress disorders down from 30% to 18%. Given that many vets have served several tours in Iraq, it seems likely that Iraq vets will have an even higher rate for post-traumatic stress. If the U. S. draws down it's troop commitment to Iraq as quickly as we should, we're going to have at least 100,000 men and women seeking re-entry into mainstream American life. They should be greeted with just as much enthusiasm and warmth in the U. S. that Dick Cheney wrongly predicted they would be greeted with in Baghdad.