Keith Olbermann Special Comment: John Mccain - Iraq war

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

• Category

  News & Politics

[librophile]

- Remember that John Exxon McCain OPPOSED the "Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women" Act!!

- He OPPOSED the "New G.I." bill granting a 4 year paid college education for our returning war Vets!!

- He OPPOSED 9 times out of 12, the "Increase of Health Benefits" for our Vietnam War Veterans!!

- He OPPOSED the "Expansion of the S-Chip" bill providing Health Care coverage to 9 millions American children!!

- He OPPOSED the "Increase of the Minimum Wage" for the Middle Class.

Obama/Biden 08

[swimfastfly27]

You're a moron. If you would like to grow a brain, tell me this. How do you win the "War on Terror"? Terror is an action, not a country with some supposed leader. Any person can commit an act of terror at any particular moment.

Waiting to hear your brilliant reply...

[darkwarriorkane]

You called it mate.

[LMLR187]

but who wrote what is on the teleprompter. in all fairness it could be him or a ghost writer. but its not broadway you know, its not like they can completely remember what it is that they have to say.

[m pres]

john mccain, that is madness

[sl0wm0]

wow... keith olbermann's teleprompter sure told mccain

[whateverpall]

How BUSH together with THE BIN LADENS made TENS OF MILLIONS ON THE WAR IN IRAQ, AFGANISTAN...

Search video: FAHRENHEIT 9 11 CARLYLE GROUP

Also Google: NEW WORLD ORDER

[RZMagnum]

USA should hold a referendum and vote to send John McCain to Iraq instead of voting him to be president. What happpened to the days where our kings would lead us fron the front-line? How could anyone look at this businessman and see a leader? Alexander the Great, King Richard the Lion, Constantine the Great, WHERE ARE YOU?

[sgnpro]

If you learn how to spell (deFINITELY and Al-QAEDA) and construct useful, fact-based arguments, you might be of some use. Right now, your adding nothing to the conversation.

[danielbdib]

WELL SAID

[oceanbound222]

The surge has NOT worked.

The surge has NOT worked.