We, as citizens, understand and sympathize with the trauma and serious medical and mental health conditions suffered by our vets.

However, the government has appeared to take a strong stance that these conditions do not exist, or if they do, they were not a result of the wars that were fought. Using this excuse, benefits and treatments are denied to the returning soldier who ceases to function in society.

These studies are necessary to rebut the self serving "research" conducted by the military, validate the soldier's expereince, and bring to the public the injustices so we can stand up for those who stood up for us. To me, it may be worth the money.

Rain, In this comment, you are no in reality. This talk made sense in the days of "Rambo; First Blood" but the reality now is that everyone and their dog with Gulf War service gets a PTSD diagnosis, provided they say the right magic words like. "I check my door locks at night" and "I have panic attacks three times per week." I do feel bad for veterans who show up for their VA examination without the right prep work. They are more honest, tell the truth, and walk away with a non-diagnosis or a diagnosis that can't be related to military service. This is rare, but it happens. They don't understand that it's a game and you have to say the right things to get cash. The government isn't turning it's back on any of this junk, it's gone full circle and the problem is that reporters like this guy are still digging in the same garbage can for there stories. Times are slow in the journalistic field.

Dan-- Your comments are ignorant! Agent orange is real. When you come back from patrol dusted orange, and get cancer at 30; that's as real as it gets. I read that you're all for paying the servicemen what they can make in private sector. That really big of you. How much does getting shot at pay in the private sector? How about you suit up and ditty your pompus rear over there and we'll pay you. You could study the problem up close.

Dan-M is one of these people who, if he hasn't personally experienced it and you can't show it to his eyes, then he says how can it exist?

PTSD is well understood to be an information processing issue caused by extreme stress. The stress may have been one-time such as seeing your buddies torn apart by gunfire, or it may have been long term such as torture in years of captivity. The information from the event(s) is too strong to be processed by the mental schema in the mind of the victim, so processing stops. The severe event stays permanently in the "front office" of the mind, never mentally processed so it can move to the "back warehouse." This interferes with normal life.

PTSD is chronic stress from which there is no relief from even in sleep. This kind of chronic stress continually generates stress hormones which tear down the brain like alcoholism and causes stress related physical health problems. The human body was not designed with withstand acute stress 24/7. That is what PTSD does.

Not True. But actual medical disabilities based entirely on subjective complaints are rare. Which begs the question why there are so many of them now? I have my answer, you just buy the party line because you can't think critically.

Unfortunately, in the psychiatric context, shrinks are human and often lack the ability to discern between subjective complaints and real problems. So, when a Veteran learns from his buddy at the Am Legion bar that you need to say you saw dead babies and now you have panic attacks whenever you hear a helicopter, then that's what he says at his mental health examination. The shrink has no way of disputing the account, so he assigns a PTSD diagnosis. That's the reality.

Dan M, you seem to know a lot about how the minds work of everyone who disagrees with you. And you back up your simple diagnosis of other people with, "That's reality."

Now I will try it on you. Basically, you bridge the gaping holes in your understanding of people and how the world works with your imagination. Most children who grow up get wiser about the potential of more possibilities and stop doing that.

• Those who can, do.
• Those who can't, teach.
• Those who can't do and can't teach, troll.

I personally knew a vet from the first Gulf War. He had brain cancer from handling freaking depleted uranium ammunition (which the government denied using). Dan you don't know what you are talking about.

oh, well then, that says it all. You are an expert, you know what he died from, and all people with brain cancer got it from deleted geraniums.

@Dan M,

C'mon, dude, that's not what "No More" said. He said he knew a Gulf War vet who handled DU ammo who got brain cancer and died---not absolute proof that one caused the other, I grant you, but if you knew anything about DU, you'd know that it's a wicked munition in the best case scenario. I knew a lot of guys who posed for pictures on Iraqi tanks that were knocked out by DU shells. A decent number, but not all, got sick (like with cancer or other things that match up with exposure to radiation) at young ages. Everything else being equal, how many people do you know who received any sort of cancer diagnosis at 25, 26, or maybe 30 years old, from fighting forest fires? Given the choice, I'd rather be around burning trees than oil wells...

Where did "No More" post that all brain cancer deaths are caused by handling DU ammo? I didn't see it, and this close to a computer monitor even I couldn't miss it if it was there---and no, the bad eyesight isn't from the war; I've never been able to see all that well without glasses.

FYI, I'm a Gulf War vet myself and I had/have a few medical issues that I didn't have when I went over there. I didn't need someone at the local VFW post to give me an idea that I was sick--- I and many of us (Gulf War, Vietnam as well) truly resent people who weren't there trying to tell us "it's all in your head" or we're just grifting the taxpayer for some "free money."

I'll assume that your use over "geraniums" is an oversight, and that you meant "uranium," because Gulf War Syndrome---whatever its' cause--- is no laughing matter.

Radioactive materials, in the right doses, destroy living tissues. No question. In that regard, we are in agreement.

The problem is, how much radiation? What levels were each veteran exposed to? How radioactive is depleted uranium? Which Persian Gulf soldiers and airmen came close to the stuff? You certainly don't believe that we should outlaw x-rays do you? If not, then how much radiation do we allow before we say "no more". Or, in the context of disability payments, who should get the check and who shouldn't? Congress doesn't have the wherewithall to distinguish, so they have just said that anyone in theatre gets cash if they report the right "undiagnosed" symptoms. You would never ever be able to win a lawsuit if you filed such a silly claim in court, but the American taxpayer is a defenseless defendant because Congress has decided that appealling to its core Veteran constituency is more politically expedient than the fiscal soundness and common sense that they would otherwise advocate.

Moreover, what diseases are caused by radiation? Does it cause migraines? That will get you cash. What about diabetes? Sorry, no cash. Constipation (based purely on subjective complaints and never proven)? Cash. Diverticulitis? No Cash. It's really a silly game, when unproven disabilities get payments that proven disabilities don't.

One possible solution is for Congress to just agree on a standard pension that every Veteran should get for their service. This could take into account the multiple problems that can never be proven. The current pension system is a joke because there is no money in it and it is income based. The disability payment system is even more of a joke because it's more important that you say the right things than you actually suffer disability.

@Dan M,

Now this post has some excellent points. The disability system is totally screwed up. Sometimes, even after one "says the right things" and can document with medical reports, one does not get a payment that's deserved. I once heard the VA health care system described thus: if every country the USA ever defeated in a war teamed up and formed a conspiracy against the armies that beat them, they would have formed the VA.

Can't say that's always true. I have a co-worker who's an ex-Marine, for whom the VA is doing everything they can---on the other hand, when they screw up, they pull all the stops.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of troops in our armed forces have not randomly gone in and gone gung-ho on a village of innocent civilians on their own accord.

I'm also pretty sure that in a situation where guns are being shot, people aren't thinking about video taping each other dying. Is that what you would think to do if your neighbor just had his head blown off? "Where's my video camera!! Gotta catch this one!"

Let's put the blame for innocent lives lost where it belongs: with the superior officials, not the troops who have given up their lives to serve their country. You are delusional.

*Foreigner*

You obviously have never served, nor have you ever had a substantive discussion with someone who has---otherwise, you wouldn't spew such BS through your keyboard.

How about having about 5 seconds to decide whether the person coming toward you---yes, even the woman or the kid---with hands hidden isn't about to throw a grenade, pull a firearm, or just plain blow themself and you to Kingdom Come? How about being 17 or 18 years old and being scared out of your skull through most of your waking hours?

How about, years later, having to count up the friends you lost to the hostile actions of these so-called innocents?

Got news for you---the military prosecutes murder very strenuously, even during wartime. But in wartime, not all killing is murder.

Thank you, PKWright... Foreigner is past delusional.

I suppose you both still believe the U.S. is in Iraq looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction; that was the only pretext for the invasion.

Remember that Iraq is their country; the citizens of Iraq are entitled to walk their streets, go to church, visit friends, go shopping, etc... But, the U.S. soldiers just kill anyone that is walking along the street, even the cowards in the cockpits use 500 pound bombs to kill a group of neighbours going to their church, as in this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AXN3H3BPQU
and last week it was the Apache pilot that murdered those 12 civilians and two reporters. Every week there are more innocents being murdered, yet you try to justify it with nonsense.

Dozens of war crimes videos have been censored from YouTube by the U.S. Government because they don't want you to know the truth about what your soldiers are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

@Foreigner,

No, I think it's pretty clear there aren't any WMDs in Iraq, likely never were. And FYI, I also know that Saddam was never in league with Al-Qaeda and didn't have anything to do with September 11th.

All I'm saying is this---the opinion of one man who has actually carried a rifle into combat---"soldier" and "war criminal" are not synonymous! US soldiers, on the whole, are not just randomly, playfully and joyfully shooting just anyone who crosses their path---and have never done that. Does this mean there aren't "bad apples" in the ranks who can/will/have done these things? No, not by a long shot---and I have every confidence that when they cross that line, the system (a system that basically functions under the premise you are guilty of a crime until proven innocent) will deal with them. I have that confidence because I've seen that system work with my own eyes. Quiet as it's kept, "precision bombing" is a myth unless the bombs are laser-guided. Those who call close-air pilots "cowards" as you have are usually jealous because they can't call their own. It sounds to me like you're "broad-brushing" every American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan as a murderer, and if my perception is correct then I respectfully submit that YOU ARE FULL OF IT, FROM THE CROWN OF YOUR HEAD TO THE SOLES OF YOUR FEET!

I agree that Iraq is their country and America should get out of there soon! IMO, the USA had enough internal problems to solve, that it's time to give up the delusion on empire and stop policing the world. As for censorship on YouTube or whatever, I seriously doubt it's being done to cover up "murder," just as any murderer with any sort of brain isn't going to post evidence of his crime for the world to see.

Has it occurred to you that the people who own YouTube don't want graphic combat footage all over their web site---and last time i checked, these people were NOT the US government?

VA has no trouble addressing the medical side. The problem now is that VA overaddresses the compensation side. Do you really understand that everyone with a PTSD diagnosis due to military service, who chooses to push the system, will get 100 percent disability payments for the rest of their lives (ok, 70 percent plus a determination of unemployability= 100 percent)? Battle stress, shell shock, and now "PTSD" has been around as long as warfare, but how would the Roman legions have ever found success if they lost 1/3 of their soldiers to unemployment after each battle? Don't tell me that modern warfare is scarier. Imagine being in a wall of men attacking another wall of men with the sole objective of hacking them to death or of being hacked to death. They managed, and I would venture to guess that very few of us are not the descendants of soldiers from some point in history, who got on with their lives after being successful in battle.

I would imagine that most soldiers are haunted by their memories, and some soldiers truely can't take it. Unfortunately, that doesn't account for the current amount of veterans who are fully functional and collect checks.

Sorry--Dan M 744640.

We all get older and we all get sick. Our government should care for people who are sickened by their military service. The problem I address is when problems like Gulf War and PTSD create a vehicle for disability payments, then people quickly start becoming dishonest. Medical diagnoses and etiological determinations are based largely on subjective complaints, but those complaints and reported histories are corrupted to the point of unreliability by the fact that cash is given for saying the right things. Just look at "Old Vet's" comments above. He states that people came out of the jungle with "orange dust" on them. Agent Orange is (was) a clear liquid given only it's name to distinguish it from other chemicals used at that time to clear vegitation. I am sure Old Vet means well, but his misinformation is compounded 1,000 times over by people who are trying to seek redress for an unproven wrong. Congress commissioned an unbiased study of the use of herbicides and found no corellation between them and certain diseases (Vietnamese people, still living there, have no higher incidence of many of the diseases now on the "list" for American Veteran's to get cash). Not happy with the unbiased studies reports, Congress sent the study back until they got the answer they want. To make matters worse, when Gulf War Illness came along, it wasn't even required that you prove you have a diagnosed medical condition. INSANE?

Stop judging those who live this every day! I think you want to believe the worst about these veterans. They are by and large honorable men and women who simply want to be given the respect they are due. Yes, these are based on subjective complaints but the people complaining are honorable people. I wish you could walk in my husband's shoes just one day. You might sing a different tune.

I have no reason to doubt that your husband is honorable. The problem is that we incentivize dishonor and bring the worst out of people when we create a disability system that pays more money for more subjective complaints. Compensation systems have always been the subject of fraud, but up to and until now they were at least grounded in the reality of having a disability. Now, people just make stuff up. While your blanket assertion that most veteran's are honorable is largely true, too many veteran's are not. I have seen their claims. We don't take robbery laws off of the books because most people do not commit robbery. So, why do we not care about veteran fraud because most veterans are honorable? That is why I point out Gulf War Syndrome and PTSD, because they are currently being used to transfer billions of dollars from hard working and honorable tax payers to people who served honorably but have now become corrupted by a system of entitlement. And dont' give me that "stop judging" crap. I am not speaking about any particular veteran. I am responding to an article written by another naive journalist who is only willing to address one side of a story, without taking monetary bias into account. This is yellow journalism.