News Analysis: June 22, 2009

As more older recruits join the military, a new concern arises: a greater likelihood of post-traumatic combat stress. All of our troops need more help. PTSD is ripping through the ranks, grabbing public attention in suicides, substance-abuse problems and failed marriages. We must save our troops.

It’s not easy on the families left behind by war, either.

And the deployments continue, at the briskest pace in memory.

Three years ago, the VA established a state-of-the-art medical facility in Austin, Texas to research and treat combat-related brain injuries. Three million dollars later, the facility has yet to test a single veteran with traumatic brain injury and the VA has announced it is moving the facility to Waco. How has this helped our ailing and in-need combat veterans?

Civil society is coming slowly in Iraq — too slowly, for some, as Parliament has yet to take up a raft of laws to govern the war-ravaged country. It’s still a place of violence, too. Some are ready for the US to withdraw, others less so — but our war-weary, over-deployed troops are in dire need of rest and recuperation. And lets not forget Afghanistan - it’s still violent there, as well.

Everyone can help our combat-injured veterans adjust to life back home.

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