politics

Support The Contractors Too

Up to 126,000 Americans, Iraqis and other foreigners are working for the United States government in Iraq as contractors yet the toll the war’s toll on them has largely been hidden. About 1,000 have died since the conflict began, and nearly 13,000 have been injured. Although some are well paid, many more actually collect only modest wages. It is these people who provide support services vital to the military, not the military itself anymore.
As their reward, they are facing the same issues that the military is facing yet they receive zero of the support that the military receives (okay, after reading about Walter Reed, it doesn’t seem that everything is rosy over there either). Their injuries and problems are not really addressed and their health insurance is surprisingly not helpful (shocker!).
For instance, 24% of the Dyncorp police trainers showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after their deployment and those findings parallel an Army study earlier this year that about 17% of personnel in Army combat units in Iraq showed symptoms of P.T.S.D. one year after their deployment, said Dr. Charles W. Hoge, chief of psychiatry at the Army’s Walter Reed Institute for Research.
The numbers actually are worse than that though because if marital problems, alcohol abuse and other adjustment problems are counted, the number rises to 30% to 35%, said Col. Elspeth C. Ritchie, a psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general.
Doesn’t this sort of info just warm your heart? To me, it’s yet another reason why we need to end this stupid war already.

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