Posted on 09/07/2008 11:41:16 AM PDT by Nachum
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Pentagon officials are blaming some mental health discharges of U.S. troops in Iraq on what they call pre-existing mental conditions.
Experts say many of the approximately 10 soldiers and Marines discharged every day for mental health problems actually have combat-related problems, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday.
By classifying the health problems as non-combat related, the military is saving money on treatment, the newspaper said.
Sens. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have inserted language in a defense authorization bill to make it harder to discharge troops on those grounds, and to require a review of procedures by the Government Accountability Office.
Bond called the practice an abuse of the system. Obama said the lack of care for returning soldiers is deeply disturbing.
His comments/actions that recently come to mind: "Giving Hillary the finger"
Personal savior comments...
"57 states"
The "clinging to guns and religion" San Francisco gaff
His repeated interest in mental health legislation
The "My Muslim faith" gaff this morning.
Is this man hiding something about his own mental health? Will we see a psychotic break further on in the campaign? "
What other episodes have there been that we have missed?
Barack Obama is not always wrong. We should give our veterans the benefit of every doubt.
Barackly is “stupid” and not mentally ill...I have seen many mentally ill people in for treatment who are VERY intelligent...to be metally ill is NOT the same as very STUPID.
Obama’s issues would be better resolved in a psychotherapists office, than in the Oval Office.
The article has nothing to do with Obama’s real or perceived condition of mental illness. You don’t have to make up misleading adders to headlines. There are plenty of real issues with him.
After working in psychiatry for many years it is doubtful that someone with Obama’s family history of abandonment issues will mature without some scars. These scars are usually indicative of a personality or behavior disorder. Obama certainly fits the picture of someone with a Narcisstic Personality Disorder. These are taken from the DSMIV....(Psychiatry Diagnostic)
1. An exaggerated sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. Believes he is “special” and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. Requires excessive admiration
5. Has a sense of entitlement
6. Selfishly takes advantage of others to achieve his own ends
7. Lacks empathy
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him
9. Shows arrogant, haughty, patronizing, or contemptuous behaviors or attitudes
This is a tough situation. Certainly there are vets with combat related mental illness. On the other hand those in the military are at the prime age for the emergence of mental illnesses that have no relation to combat. How one differentiates one from the other I am not sure.
“How one differentiates one from the other I am not sure.”
You can’t, so you give the troops the benefit of every doubt.
I generally agree. The military get's a bad rap since it needs large numbers of men and women who just happen to be in the age demographic where full blown mental illness manifests itself.
I know a guy that went into service at the age of 23 after abusing drugs since his early teens and had all kinds of bipolar, dissasociative disorders, including suicidal tendendies. He had a back condition that required him to wear a back brace (when he wanted sympathy or an excuse not to work). After finishing boot camp he went to the medical platoon due to an “injured back” and threatened to commit suicide if they didn’t discharge him. So now the taxpayers have supported him the last 3 or 4 years to the tune of $800 a month, plus tuition, room and board - and a free laptop — at a school on the resort island of Hilton Head. He’s run up $50k in student loans which is nothing but a big bar tab. If we can stop this kind of robbery, I’m all for it.
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