News Analysis: July 2, 2009

“The wounded expressed concern that, at Fort Hood, they were stigmatized and treated as lesser soldiers for being wounded, ill or injured,” wrote Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a confidential memo in April. We owe our wounded troops our complete dedication in healing their wounds, not ignorance, disrespect or silence. Mullen noted in his memo that Fort Hood’s mental health treatment course can accommodate only eight soldiers at a time — at a base that is home to more than 50,000 troops at any one time.

A suicide epidemic is tearing through our military ranks. We owe it to our troops and their families, as well as to our country, to make our psychologically wounded troops whole again. Our troops and families continue to pay an extremely steep price for continuous deployment policies. We’ve seen bailouts for Wall Street and AIG — how about for our suffering military families?

Visiting the wounded is an age-old tradition for military and political leaders — and so too are visits by families. The wounded lucky enough to have families to help them recover can still also use some additional help: welcome to the Yellow Ribbon Fund.

The war in Afghanistan rages on — even as the US is not planning to send more troops this year. One of our soldiers apparently has been captured by insurgents there. Our troops continue to patrol Iraq, even if the footprint has changed — and countless landmines remain. And militants in Pakistan are preaching anti-American hate to the civilians displaced by the country’s brewing civil war.

President Obama will spend the nation’s birthday celebrating with soldiers from Fort Campbell, KY. Happy Fourth of July.

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