Our government doesn’t take care of veterans. Steve Robinson does
The New Republic– Before there was Walter Reed–before the revelations in The Washington Post, before the congressional hearings and presidential commissions and resigning generals–there was Joshua Murphy and his bad dream. In November 2005, Murphy returned home to Wichita Falls, Texas, after service that included a year patrolling the treacherous Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City as a specialist in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Prior to the war, he had been outgoing, social, well-liked–”just your basic eighteen-year-old kid,” in the words of his mother, Monica. But, after he came home, he started drinking heavily and hardly slept–in no small part because of a recurring nightmare.
In it, Murphy, who was a driver in Iraq, was in his Humvee. The Tigris River was on one side of him, a crowd of innocent Iraqi citizens was on the other, and a band of insurgents were right in front of him. His little brother and sister were in the backseat, and Murphy knew he had a terrible decision to make. (more…)