The Empire 262

Israelische soldaat die geen pers wenst terwijl het Israelische leger in actie is.

Israelische militairen in bezet Palestijns gebied die kennelijk trots zijn op hun vermogen om Palestijnse burgers te vermoorden. Volgens Amnesty International werden vorig jaar 120 Palestijnse kinderen gedood door Israelische krijgers of door joodse fundamentalisten.

Terwijl vooral Inez Polak van Trouw en Alex Burghoorn van de Volkskrant hun lezers geestelijk rijp maken voor een nieuwe slachting van Palestijnen door de Israelische strijdkrachten worstelen de Amerikaanse soldaten die uit Irak terugkomen met ernstige psychische trauma's. Collateral Damage?

'The War Inside
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
The Washington Post
Sunday 17 June 2007

Troops are returning from the battlefield with psychological wounds, but the mental-health system that serves them makes healing difficult.
Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.
But a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.
In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.
At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post- traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."
None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army. They also said that Cruz had not proved he was ever in combat. "The available evidence is insufficient to confirm that you actually engaged in combat," his rejection letter stated.
Yet abundant evidence of his year in combat with the 4th Infantry Division covers his family's living-room wall. The Army Commendation Medal With Valor for "meritorious actions ... during strategic combat operations" to capture Hussein hangs not far from the combat spurs awarded for his work with the 10th Cavalry "Eye Deep" scouts, attached to an elite unit that caught the Iraqi leader on Dec. 13, 2003, at Ad Dawr.
Veterans Affairs will spend $2.8 billion this year on mental health. But the best it could offer Cruz was group therapy at the Bronx VA medical center. Not a single session is held on the weekends or late enough at night for him to attend. At age 25, Cruz is barely keeping his life together. He supports his disabled parents and 4-year-old son and cannot afford to take time off from his job repairing boilers. The rough, dirty work, with its heat and loud noises, gives him panic attacks and flesh burns but puts $96 in his pocket each day.'

Zie: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061600866.html?hpid=topnews Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061707Z.shtml