Speaking Of Our Troops, A Few Issues Worthy of Note

[Ed. note: See the previous post about Bush's plan to possibly send up to 57,000 more American troops to Iraq right after January 1st.]

First, the "official" death toll for U.S. soldiers in combat in Iraq has reached 2,939.

Second, read this troubling Hartford Courant story about a 24-year-old soldier who returned from Iraq with serious mental problems including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), judged to be at 70% disability, and yet is now being ordered to return to active duty for deployment to Iraq. [What's with Bush and the Pentagon? What's next? Will they have corpses dug up and ordered back to the front lines?]

Third, there is this report on NPR with soldiers claiming the U.S. Army not only ignores but actively punishes soldiers who suffer from mental health issues, including PTSD (the Army keeps claiming almost NO soldiers have it while soldiers and veterans' groups insist the Army is doing its damnest not to document any cases so they can make such a ridiculous claim).