Smell a Rat?
or izzit Just Me©
I have long thought that the military pays insufficient attention to their procedure for bringing combat veterans back to the US and their families. Plucking someone out of the jungle and away from their tight-knit group and plopping them down in an airport stateside within 24 hours did not a smooth transition make. I imagine it is the same for someone returning from the ME.
It takes months to prepare someone for the combat milieu—why would anyone think it wouldn’t take some time to prepare him to return?
Yet… there’s something wrong with this approach. For years there has been much ado in the mental health field about not ‘stigmatizing’ people. The ‘patient’ became the ‘client’ and finally, the ‘customer.’
This bill, making mental health care / counseling mandatory for all returning vets seems to stigmatize and paint them with the same bogus brush used to portray the “crazy Viet Nam Vet.”
Maybe it’s the sponsors [Obama & Snow]. Maybe it’s the IAVA backing, with their ’Mission Statement‘ of “We uniquely empower Iraq & Afghanistan combat veterans to use their credibility and experiences to speak truth to power, ...” Principles; “Our Troops must always be provided a clear mission (with goals and an exit strategy)...”
It’s not that there is nothing that needs addressing—it’s just that this particular approach is sending up a pile of red flags for me.
Just me©?
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