If one tour in Nam fucked up so many kids,what will two in Iraq do.

[Swede]

Many are on there second tour,with the mess there could they expect a third.

[mikehiggins]

1. We'll never know

Many of our legions will never return to the US.

[aquart]

You don't want to marry one and find out.

[Warpy]

3. Marriage is what saved a lot of Vietnam vets

from crawling into a bottle and living on the street. It gave them a social anchor (ball and chain?) and a place in the world, something to hold onto.

It's still been a struggle for most of them.

The one stupid thing they did during Vietnam that they're not doing now is rotate people in and out individually. One thing that made Vietnam so damned hard to deal with afterward was knowing one's unit was still back there, that one's buddies were still in hell. The survival guilt was tremendous. At least the Iraqi vets are returning home with their units, most of them.

[Not_Giving_Up]

8. My biological father was in Vietnam

He married my mom after he came back. When I was two, he took off, never to be seen or heard from again. His family claims they haven't heard from him either, but I don't believe them. I've looked on the net to try to find him, but it seems as though he's fallen off the planet. I can't help but think that whatever he went through over there played a role in his actions. I have no memories of him, but I have a few pictures of him holding me as a baby.

[mordarlar]

24. a friend's stepfather held the family at gunpoint. Thought they were ...

"the enemy". After her mother left him he sent a dead mouse in the mail for my friend's birthday.
: / War does horrible things to a person's mind.

[PaDUer]

26. I married a Nam vet

I don't want to go into the entire story, but when he pulled the covers up my head w/ a knife in his hand because he thought I was a gook, that was it. Plus, the medical problems he has and my children, don't go away.

[bluestateguy]

2. "Yeah, well, it's an all volunteer army!"

They chose to go!

(OK, back to Wal-Mart now)

[Swede]

25. They did not "choose" to go.

They chose to defend their country,an honorable choice. Some needed money for education,have you seen the pictures of the fallen. Black and hispanics are over represented. The minorities and the poor white soldiers will have the least support when they get back.

[Best_man23]

4. I have a friend who does Mental Health Counseling

She confided in me that she has several patients who are OIF vets who suffer from PTSD and other war-related issues.

[specimenfred1984]

6. And Who Says Counseling Can't Be Fun

Just imagine, mentally disturbed repugs who are further mentally disturbed by the double horrors of real war horror combined with their cognitive dissonance horrors?

Ahhhhhh, what a way to make a living! There's gold in them there hills!

[ultraist]

5. Probably the same thing will happen to the Iraq vets as did the VN Vets

Why would it really be any different? The military doesn't provide decent therapy and debriefing consists of watching a couple of videos. There IS no re-entry program for them.

Iraq vets are already showing up in homeless shelters, committing suicide and murdering their loved ones. We are already starting to see some of the same things.

[madrchsod]

7. i don`t think we really want to know

it is going to be truly awful. they will haunt the streets and haunt their families.they will kill and be killed. they will live in shelters and underpasses. they will be the shadow people. death will be their salvation

[blondeatlast]

23. On my way to and from work each day, I pass right by the Veteran's

Hospital.

Desperate men, not sick enough to be there, waiting until they are sick enough to be admitted.

Some clearly have mental problems, others are violent. All are seemingly waiting to get ill enough to be taken in.

It's a horrible sight but it speaks to what NeoCon culture promises for all of us.

We had some idea what they faced in Vietnam, we saw at least a small degree on the nightly news. Now, we haven't a clue thanks to the lapdog media.

We can't even begin to imagine what they've been through.

[anarchy1999]

9. First response, don't even think about it. We are in for deep trouble.

Viet Vets pale in comparison along with Vets from the first Gulf War. We are all in for so much heartache and trouble, disease and the list just goes on and on.

When can we stop to cry and when can we stop the crying?

[gumby]

10. This is horrible.

Judging from Gulf War I, the majority will be dead or on permanent disability within a few years after their return from exposure to Depleted Uranium.

Whatever the injuries, mental or physical, they are all victims of Depleted Uranium.

[gumby]

11. delete

double post

[FloridaPat]

12. How about the Gulf War 1 vets? A lot of them are hurt by

Gulf War syndrome. No one knows what caused it, but a lot of people think it was depleted uranium. There were 325 (about) fatalities from that war - at first. I have seen reports that the death toll is now at 3500-10,000. 50% of those vets are on disability and half the rest have requested disability. And they were there only 6 weeks.

[radar]

13. I wonder how many will be like Timothy McVeigh...

...John Allen Muhammad (Beltway sniper), Robert Flores (University of Arizona gunman), Jeffrey Hutchinson (murdered his girlfriend and her three children in Florida), or the Fort Bragg servicemen that murdered their wives.

Gulf War syndrome Shanghai Star. 2002-11-21
http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2002/1121/fe19-1.html
Killing Isn't Witnessed Just By War Heroes Anymore
by Farai Chideya
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1123-02.htm

[phusion]

14. I saw my first Iraq war vet today...

It tore me up seeing him. He was walking around on the streets. I'm not sure if he was homeless, although it's rare for someone to be walking in this particular area.

Anyway, mid-20's, short buzzed hair, and a prostetic left leg from the knee down.

sigh...

;(

[Swamp Rat]

15. I'll ask my cousin when he comes home.

:mad:

[Placebo]

16. Well far fewer soldiers have been killed in the Iraq war...

than were killed in the 'Vietnam War'.

...

I'm just sayin'

[LynnTheDem]

19. MORE troops have been killed in Iraq than in the first 6 years of Nam

Give it time for total troop deaths to exceed Nam; Nam was over a decade.

[Stinky The Clown]

27. The Iraq War (tm) has hardly begun

And yet it surpasses the casualties of the early years in Nam. We'll be there for a long time, and, as in Nam, it will get much, much, much worse than Viet Nam.

And those 58,000 names on that black scar in the earth on the National Mall? Their numbers are far eclipsed by the walking dead left from that war

Fuck you, George Bush.

[Stinky The Clown]

28. Another reason for lower casualties

is better body armor (yeah, I know the whole shitty story and that many have none, but many also do), better medical care, and faster medivacs. More gravely wounded men who would have died were this the Nam era are surviving. What will they face in coming years, what with their broken bodies? We see all the stories showing the brave faces from Walter Reed, but what is in the future?

Fuck you, George Bush.

[FloridaPat]

29. Vietnam went on for 20 years. The Iraq invasion is way ahead

on a year to year comparison.

[corbett]

17. Unspeakable Scars Will Be Left

Look at our desertion rates, too. Even though far fewer of our people have died so far in Mess-o-potamia, our desertion rates now rival those of the 'Nam era. Canada may need to open a whole new province just for our fleeing soldiers.

[LynnTheDem]

18. Here at Ft. Hood, we have

lots of armed robberies, DUIs, suicides, murders, spouse-beatings, and a LOT of rape happening...by US soldiers back from Iraq.

And Ft Hood soldiers are due back to Iraq this Spring.

[Disturbed]

20. Killing is fun.

If a murderer said this on TV most Amerikans would be appaled but when a U.S. General says it people make excuses for him and some even praise him. Is it any wonder that atrocities and torture are being commited in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[LynnTheDem]

21. Nope. No wonder at all.

And no wonder either that so many troops are coming back and killing Americans, including their own families and themselves.

And now they're dying and killing to "spread democracy". I wish to hell bush had said that as his reason for war of aggression invasion & occupation back in January 2003; he'd have been laughed out of office & locked up in an insane asylum.

[jedr]

22. john Wayne is the problem

most kids in the service have john Wayne as role-model in their heads.....john Wayne never was in the service, he stayed at home , got paid millions and took care of Laina turners need....if you ever open up that trash magazine from the V.F.W. they actually think he was a hero...go figure???? the fact is that the human brain can not handle seeing people in the prime of their life turned into sausage....yes we will have a problem with these people and the repugs will give them no suport....thanks for serving your country...as a Vietnam vet I speak form experience