Suicidal And Facing A Third Tour In Iraq

These troops have been diagnosed with mental illness due to the stress from this invasion. They are a a clear and present danger to themselves and to the Iraqi's they come in contact with.

This may be one of the factors that led some troops to "snap," then torture and execute innocent Iraqi civilians. Even Iraqi prisoners who were perceived to be Resistance members or members of Al Qaeda/Iraq.

By Aaron Glantz
May 16, 2007
AntiWar

New guidelines released by the Pentagon in December allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders.

According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, service-members with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a "treatable" problem.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to an event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. A person having a flashback may lose touch with reality and believe that the traumatic incident is happening all over again.

"It's just terrifying," said Dr. Karen Seal, a clinician at San Francisco's Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center who treats soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological illnesses.

Seal told IPS that patients under her care have been deployed despite serious mental health conditions.

"I feel like writing them a medical excuse," she said, "but that's not my responsibility as a VA clinician. Because I'm a VA provider, I don't have the authority to do that."

According to a study co-authored by Seal and her colleagues at the Center, about one-third of the more than 100,000 returning veterans seen at VA facilities between Sept. 30, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2005, were diagnosed with mental illness or a psycho-social disorder such as homelessness or marital problems, including domestic violence. Over half suffered from more than one disorder.

Other researchers suggest those statistics may only represent the tip of the iceberg. Many veterans, they note, don't come forward to seek care. The stigma associated with PTSD may account for part of this gap, they say.

In addition, according to recent report by Linda Bilmes of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, waiting lists for returning veterans are "so long as to effectively deny treatment to a number of veterans."

In the May 2006 edition of Psychiatric News, Bilmes notes that VA Undersecretary of Health Policy Coordination Frances Murphy wrote that when services are available, "waiting lists render that care virtually inaccessible."