Keith Olbermann Special Comment: John Mccain - Iraq (Part 2)

The surge is not working... If it was, then our troops could come home now. But John Mccain still insists that the surge is working, yet he is unable to ascertain when we can draw down to below pre-surge levels. Halfway through June, and already, 14 soldiers have been killed this month. However, Mccain states that it's "not too important" when we can withdraw our forces.
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As an internist at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Stephanie Santos is used to finding odd things in people's stomachs. So last spring when a young man, identifying himself as an Iraq-bound soldier, said he had accidentally swallowed a pen at the bus station, she believed him. That is, until she found a second pen. It read 1-800-GREYHOUND. Last summer, according to published reports, a 20-year-old Bronx soldier paid a hit man $500 to shoot him in the knee on the day he was scheduled to return to Iraq. The year before that, a 24-year-old specialist from Washington state escaped a second tour of duty, according to his sister, by strapping on a backpack full of tools and leaping off the roof of his house, injuring his spine.

Such cases of self-harm are a "rising trend" that military doctors are watching closely, says Col. Kathy Platoni, an Army Reserve psychologist who has worked with veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. "There are some soldiers who will do almost anything not to go back," she says. Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the Army's top psychologist, agrees that we could see an uptick in intentional injuries as more U.S. soldiers serve long, repeated combat tours, "but we just don't have good, hard data on it." Intentional- injury cases are hard to identify, and even harder to prosecute. Fewer than 21 soldiers have been punitively discharged for self-harm since 2003, according to the military. What's worrying, however, is that American troops committed suicide at the highest rate on record in 2007—and the factors behind self-injury are similar: combat stress and strained relationships. "It's often the families that don't want soldiers to return to war," says Ritchie.

Soldiers have long used self-harm as a rip cord to avoid war. During World War I, The American Journal of Psychiatry reported "epidemics of self-inflicted injuries," hospital wards filled with men shot in a single finger or toe, as well as cases of pulled-out teeth, punctured eardrums and slashed Achilles' heels. Few doubt that the Korean and Vietnam wars were any different. But the current war—fought with an overtaxed volunteer Army—may be the worst. "We're definitely concerned," says Ritchie. "We hope they'll talk to us rather than self-harm."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/140478

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[FlaggyStar]

McCains TOP 4 contributors 2005 - 2008

Merrill Lynch $293,010

Citigroup $251,851

Goldman Sachs $223,995

Morgan Stanley $212,821

Over $1 million from the banking industry that he was trying to de-regulate.

McCain's top 4 contributors were all from the financial sector.

The man is a loser and a liar. The choice is clear

Obama/Biden08

[FlaggyStar]

McCains TOP 4 contributors 2005 - 2008

Merrill Lynch $293,010

Citigroup  $251,851

Goldman Sachs $223,995

Morgan Stanley $212,821

Over $1 million from the banking industry that he was trying to de-regulate.

McCain's top 4 contributors were all from the financial sector.

The man is a loser and a liar. The choice is clear

Obama/Biden08

[bobo85301]

YOUR AN IDIOT DOBERMEN 

[MShoasz14]

Obama said no earmarks...the stimulus bill had 8000 of them....who's the liar now?

[MShoasz14]

right on, keith sucks Bill get 4x his viewers. Also, anticonformist, 14 soldiers means a significant decrease in violence...also, NBC is rated behind every other cable new channel, you sir seem to a liberal fool, just like keith, chris, rachel, brokaw, and everyone else at NBC

[jimmini1983]

Keith Olberman is gonna tell John McCain about war.... Fuck you Keith! You don't know shit

[conservativekid18]

But there was an oppurtunity to stop it in the beginning, at the source. I think everyone shares the blame here, just not equaly.

[AlwaysSomething]

8 years of Clinton may have contributed to 9-11, but what's the excuse from that day on? How can we blame Clinton on the mishaps (there were many) that happened that day from the administration, and the 8 years of reaction afterwards? Bush had warnings, according to C. Rice and R. Clarke. Yet every part of goverment intelligence failed that day, right down to the 4 airport's security procedures. Not to mention a breakdown in communication between government agencies. No Insane McSame in 09.

[CaliBeach0007]

McCain/Palin '08!

[keepitlegalmygeeza]

Sorry, he is to prideful to be a real person, he must be an alien. No really, theres no soul in there. And mis-using his power as a platform to make himself better. You who are Non-Conformist. Do you really believe that someone who bashes Bush and McCain, and not Obama is non conforming? Really? How many will say they are not conforming. Those are the ones who are conforming the most. Quit watching TV altogether. Read a book, or a newspaper.