The Iraq soldier in the photo to the right died of a drug overdose last week. In 2003 that picture was splashed across the MSM, his name was Joseph Patrick Dwyer. From the Editor and Publisher article:
Dwyer served with the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of Fort Stewart, Ga. He earned the Combat Medical Badge and other military awards.
His mother said the military could have done more to help with post-traumatic stress. "He just couldn't get over the war," Maureen Dwyer said. "He just couldn't do it. Just wasn't Joseph. Joseph never came home."
More soldiers are going to die not from physical wounds but from the emotional and psychological wounds they received from multiple tours of duty and just the carnage of war in general. Again from the E&P writeup:
The day he died, Dwyer apparently took pills and inhaled the fumes of an aerosol can in an act known as “huffing.” Thomas said Dwyer then called a taxi company for a ride to the hospital...
When he returned from war after three months in Iraq, he developed the classic, treatable symptoms of PTSD. like so many other combat vets, he didn’t seek help. In restaurants, he sat with his back to the wall. He avoided crowds. He stayed away from friends. He abused inhalants, he told Newsday. In 2005, he and his family talked with Newsday to try to help other service members who might need help. He talked with the paper from a psychiatric ward at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he was committed after his first run-in with the police.
There are more invisibly wounded soldiers than dead soldiers right fucking now m'dear reader. And their numbers will only increase as this madness known as the Iraq War continues. PTSD is a silent killer. I dealt with my former husbands PTSD for almost 20 years. He never received proper treatment for it as a Vietnam Veteran. Last I knew, he was living homeless in AZ. He fiinally walked away from life and our family never to return.
I want these Iraq War Vets to get the treatment and help they deserve. I demand it of our government.
All of us should.
