Arbitrary and Capricious—locked down in the Rumsfeld Reich

Weep for yet another example of BushCo's faux-support for our troops, and Rumsfeld's egregious effort to fight war on the cheap...

For some time now I've been collecting information on post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide in the armed forces, going all the way back to World War II. As my dossier grows, so does the evidence that today the Army is seriously short-changing its Iraq warriors by denying them the dignity of their service-related psychological disorders — which translates to denying them adequate treatment and denying them disability pay.

Salon's Mark Benjamin reports here on conditions inside Walter Reed Army Hospital's psychiatric facilities, and in the Letters section, a retired colonel describes his own battles with the brass, stating categorically that the military disability evaluation system is "arbitrary and capricious," and is "stacked against the [service member]."

One soldier whose circumstances Benjamin describes is also featured on his hometown TV news — he faces a court martial for being deemed AWOL while he was hospitalized for PTSD and depression.

My longer piece will give this broader context. But Behind the walls of Ward 54 made me so mad, I thought I'd better put it out to readers right now, so you can get mad too.

[Cross-posted to BOP.]