The Most Pervasive Combat Injury Among U.S. Soldiers is Invisible --

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The Most Pervasive Combat Injury Among U.S. Soldiers is Invisible -- and the Pentagon Has Tried to Keep it That Way


http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/132067/the_most_pervasive_combat_injury_among_u.s._soldiers_is_invisible_--_and_the_pentagon_has_tried_to_keep_it_that_way/

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March is Brain Injury Awareness Month and to observe it, the Pentagon did something special: it told the truth.

In a news conference on March 4th, Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton estimated that as many as 360,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan may have suffered service-related brain injuries. Until now the Pentagon estimated that some 10,000 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq war had suffered brain traumas.

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Unfortunately, in the same news conference in which Brig. Gen Sutton offered new numbers, Lt. Col. Lynne Lowe, TBI Program Director in the Office of the Army Surgeon General, assured that blast injuries are just a concussion -- "the same as we see in a football game on TV." "Providers can give medication for headaches or dizziness, and reassure them that they will be OK … " Not true. Many veterans have long-lasting and serious symptoms.

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Eight years is better than eighteen for telling the truth. But there's much more truth to learn and tell. The blast injuries of Americans -- and Iraqis -- will remain when Brain Injury Awareness Month passes. Robert Gates's reformulated Pentagon has agreed to show us our dead soldiers. Now we need a thorough coherent approach to diagnosing, healing, and compensating the living afflicted by the current wars. Pre- and post-deployment neuropsychological testing and imaging studies would be an important step as would silencing the misinformation of Army spokespeople eager to discount the hidden wounds distinctive to this tragic war.
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