[oh8eleven]

Touting post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), more than half of returning veterans are considered suffering from a war-related mental disorder.
Sorry, but that description is way over the line. I agree that anyone who's been in combat suffers stress related problems.
But the author makes it sound like the vets become mental midgets, zombies and basket cases. Not so.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It's not the author, Suzanne Posel, who is asserting that our vets are all psychiatrically disabled; she's quoting AND QUESTIONING this study published by the Archives of Internal Medicine, collaborating with the VA Medical Center.

Posel's point is, that if local judges, VA and Mental Health people are going along with this, it opens up the opportunity to detain almost any vet they want to detain, on the grounds that he or she is likely to "need" psychiatric detention just on grounds of being a combat vet.

In other words, the govt. has the perfect pretext to detain vets who are "dissident," "anti-government," "non-conformist," "have an attitude," etc.

This is exactly what the Soviets did. Their rationale was that if you didn't go along with the enlightened, humane, progressive Communist program, you must be out of your mind.

Then they gave you "treatment" which actually undermined your mental capacity or your sanity.

I am sure certain people allied the present Administration see this as a useful example of how to both destroy and discredit dissidents. Targeting vets will only be the first step, not the last.