Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Whatever Happened To The Purple Heart?

I guess they phased those out along with body armor when it became clear that useless stealth fighters were more profitable.


This should make you sick:
For three years The Nation has been reporting on military doctors' fraudulent use of personality disorder to discharge wounded soldiers [see Kors, "How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits," April 9, 2007]. PD is a severe mental illness that emerges during childhood and is listed in military regulations as a pre-existing condition, not a result of combat. Thus those who are discharged with PD are denied a lifetime of disability benefits, which the military is required to provide to soldiers wounded during service. Soldiers discharged with PD are also denied long-term medical care. And they have to give back a slice of their re-enlistment bonus. That amount is often larger than the soldier's final paycheck. As a result, on the day of their discharge, many injured vets learn that they owe the Army several thousand dollars.
According to figures from the Pentagon and a Harvard University study, the military is saving billions by discharging soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan with personality disorder.

It's not really surprising. No one really gives a damn about the troops once they come home. They're important when they are over there, of course, because you can justify invading foreign countries with some nonsense about supporting the troops. But when they come home, they're mostly just poorly-educated, lower-income citizens, and a large percentage of them are minority. Why would anyone care about a group of people like that?

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