Link Here.
Darn fine reporting job. Daniel Zwerdling interviewed a dozen or so soldiers who have had psychological issues since returning from Iraq. These people include the soldiers, their supervisors, retired Army lawyers. All say that soldiers who have stress-related issues from Iraq are denied timely treatment, punished, mocked and often discharged in such a way as to hide the real reason for the dismissal. This is done to hide the problem and to reduce health-care costs.
Fort Carson officials simply refused to talk to NPR. (Way to win the information war guys!)
They report seemed to have have all the facts, checked and double-checked. Sergeants interviewed said soldiers who needed help were weak.
The lesson seems to be that the Army did not learn from Vietnam or the Israeli experience. If you are injured in battle, the Army will throw you away.
But as to your assertation that the army uses soldiers up and throws them away, are you really surprised? Really? My take is that there’s been some slight improvement in that area, but overall the military never has and never will reciprocate the kind of loyalty they demand from the people who join up. Individuals, yes, the military as an institution, no. I can’t find a detailed story on all the times our country has brokent promises to those who served, but here is a short article from a few years back. No doubt now while there is a war on, the public pressure to support the troops and give them their benefits will be high, but once they get back, the bean-counters will be looking to screw them six ways to Sunday.
You seem to think that “support the troops” in some way involves providing things for soldiers. “Support the troops” means endorse without question all acts of the commander in cheif, or his immediate minions.
What makes you think that we will need to wait until it is over before the troops are screwed? As this article showed, it is ongoing. As noted at the time, the Administration/Defense Department tried reducing/eliminating combat pay in Iraq in 2003, mere months after the stupid move that got them bad press from the backstabbing they had tried in the article to which you linked. Outrage at the news caused them to give it up at the time, but it is clear that no one in the administration or military brass thinks enough of the troops to resist such games unless news leaks to the public.