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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (482006)	5/19/2009 9:58:27 AM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1575166

This is part of war. Have you ever read E.B. Sledge's famous book about the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa? Where American Marines on Peleliu actually had to kill one of their own because he came unglued and made so much noise he endangered the entire company? Where they were forced to sleep amongst the corpses of fellow Marines and dead Japanese for days on end, rotting in the sun? Where a company could endure 30 straight days of heavy shelling and machine gun fire over the head? Our soldiers today are as secure as a military can possibly be -- physically and mentally -- and still conduct a war. There is little else that can be done. And they did volunteer to protect our country so, they did enter the process with their eyes wide open. You never know to what extent these incidents are a result of some external factor that has nothing to do with the military. A former Marine employee of mine who never saw a minute of combat decided to take his own life. Who knows why?

To: Road Walker who wrote (482006)	5/19/2009 2:00:18 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575166

The fallout from the psychic stress of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been vast, but there was no reason for its destructive effects to have surprised anyone. There was plenty of evidence that this would be an enormous problem. Speaking of Iraq back in 2004, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, who had been an assistant secretary of defense during the Clinton administration, said, “I have a very strong sense that the mental health consequences are going to be the medical story of this war.” I remember writing a column about Jeffrey Lucey, a 23-year-old Marine who was deeply depressed and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or P.T.S.D., when he returned from Iraq after serving in the earliest months of the war. He described gruesome events that he had encountered and was harshly critical of himself. He drank to excess, had nightmares, withdrew from friends and wrecked the family car. The connection they have yet to make is the impact of the heat of the Iraqi desert on these soldiers while carrying 50 lbs of army equipment and wearing heat retaining body armor. I am sure soldiers from the colder climates of the US are feeling the stress effects of this heat. When I am exposed to high heat, I begin to hyperventilate.....breath faster.....many people do. Breathing faster activates the Fight or Flight mechanism in our bodies. When that higher level of hyperventilation becomes a constant, that can lead to a diagnosis of PSTD as it did with me. Its unfortunate that so little is known about the subject in this country. Good article.......I hope a lot of people read it.