News Analysis: July 9, 2009

After eight years of war, deployments, lengthy and grueling time apart from family and the loss and injury of scores of friends, there is no doubt our troops are stressed out. So why is the Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control, the folks who help you quit smoking or get back in shape, only now focusing on “psychiatric health as a key aspect” in our troops’ health? Why was the center just created last September, when the need has been intolerably huge for years? Launched with a three-person staff, the center now employs fewer than 36 staffers, and is responsible  for educating and helping every member of the Navy and Marines about stress and mental health. Again, that is fewer than 36 staffers for more than 500,000 of our Sailors and Marines.

With so few resources committed to the stress and psychological problems besetting our troops, problems that are deep and well-known, is it any surprise the top military officer in the land is beseeching ordinary Americans to step and do more for our shattered troops and their families? “The suicide rate is up in all our services,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We see a growing stress on family members — spouses and children. We have the signature wounds of these wars, which are traumatic brain injury, whether it’s mild or severe, post-traumatic stress — and in that regard, really, for our force, I think stress is the enemy, more than anything else.”

More and more, the children of our troops are facing and succumbing to the same stress as their parents. It’s a cruel cycle now engulfing entire military families and communities. More must be done, not simply by volunteers, but by the country — which sent our troops, these fathers and mothers, into battle over and over again. It’s a serious problem, and it’s not going away. It’s growing.

Researchers still struggle with finding effective treatments for post-traumatic stress…

Veterans still struggle with getting needed treatment and benefits from the VA…

Meanwhile, roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan have shattered a grim record. And Iraq’s violence hasn’t ended.