Bush admin believed soldiers who believed in "God and country" did not "get" PTSD

[Hamlette]

(Paul) Sullivan was working as an analyst at the Veterans Benefits Administration in Washington in early 2005 when he was called to a meeting with a top political appointee at the VA, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Michael McLendon. McLendon, an intensely focused man in a neatly pressed suit, kept a Bible on his desk at the office. Sullivan explained to McLendon and the other attendees that the rise in benefits claims the VA was noticing was caused partly by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were suffering from PTSD. “That’s too many,” McLendon said, then hit his hand on the table. “They are too young” to be filing claims, and they are doing it “too soon.” He hit the table again. The claims, he said, are “costing us too much money,” and if the veterans “believed in God and country . . . they would not come home with PTSD.” At that point, he slammed his palm against the table a final time, making a loud smack. Everyone in the room fell silent.

“I was a little bit surprised,” Sullivan said, recalling the incident. “In that one comment, he appeared to be a religious fundamentalist.” For Sullivan, McLendon’s remarks reflected the views of many political appointees in the VA and revealed what was behind their efforts to reduce costs by restricting claims. The backlog of claims was immense, and veterans, often suffering extreme psychological stress, had to wait an average of five months for decisions on their requests.

http://bostonreview.net/BR34.6/mckelvey.php

another example of religious nut cases running and ruining our country. Here, PTSD was not treated in part because Bush officials thought it was a made up ailment which resulted from not believing in God. (Many PTSD sufferers admitted they lost their faith in God after witnessing the horrors of the war in Iraq. The article explains how PTSD rates are higher in wars of choice, this one and Vietnam, (a big duh there) and Sullivan is suing the government for not adequately treating PTSD.)

Good read about our own Taliban.

[Odin2005]

1. WTF?

:grr:

[Turbineguy]

2. Well, then again,

they would.

[rasputin1952]

3. THIS...from an administration where virtually none of

them had any military experience...:wtf:

No wonder Powell left.

[Cha]

4. How does anyone even deal with such inept stupidity and gross negligence?

They didn't "believe in it" bc they'd have to set aside money to help our VETS instead of stealing it for their campaign donors' tax cuts.

[Deja Q]

5. Bush believed in God and Country(tm), so offshoring the infrastructure would make it stronger...

Who knows what that man thinks. Send him to a psychiatrist; there are numerous forms of psychosis he surely qualifies for.

[Warpy]

6. That stupid man believed a lot of stupid things

That's why we threw him and the party of lunatics he rode in on out of power.

Still, you've got to admire the sheer chutzpah of a draft dodger who hid out in the guard and couldn't even finish that giving lectures to people who have been thrown into combat.

[ClarkUSA]

7. BushCo was full of insane delusionary leadership like this. We barely survived their passing. nt

[budkin]

8. I would like to slam my fist into that asshole's face.

And then tell him to pray to Jesus to heal.

[intheflow]

9. The answer is clear: we should forcibly convert the disbelievers to Christianity,

preferably the second we get them into boot camp! You know what they say, an ounce of prevention... Think of the budget savings!

:sarcasm:

[jwirr]

13. Or better yet let's draft the rw christians to fight our wars.

[C_Lawyer09]

10. Very saddening

Yet not surprising, when you consider the fact that according to Knight Ridder polling conducted throughout 2003, around fifty percent of Americans believed that Iraqis are whom brought down the twin towers. Seems like lately every time I think about a tragedy, I think about the media's failure to report. One thing that pisses me off is that for several years I've seen Fox News on many TV's on post. Where you pick up meds and the housing office to name a few. I followed up some but didn't make any progress. Quit showing propaganda!

[Zoeisright]

11. I want all of those repigs homeless and suffering on the street.

Belief in God my ass. The repig's total stupidity is mind-boggling.

[cliffordu]

12. I hope bush suffers a thousand hells. Scumbag.

[valerief]

14. How handy of them to believe that! nt

[Seldona]

15. So believing in 'god and country' makes you a remorsless killer,

as opposed to someone who has a conscience about the killing?

Interesting argument.

[Hamlette]

16. that is exactly the argument

it has to be unquestioning belief. The most troubling part of religion to me is that it allows you to escape your conscience. We are seeing it in DC right now where the Catholic church is telling the city if the legalize gay marriage, the Catholic church will stop serving the poor in that city.

Of course, when the issue is the death penalty, which is also against Catholic church doctrine, they could give a rats ass as evidenced by the fact they supported Bush, who probably put more ppl to death than anyone else in this country, over Kerry.

If you really want to see how bad it go, read Imperial troops in the Emerald City about the first year after the Iraq invasion when Bush sent ppl based on their positions on abortion and not on their expertise in the areas they were sent to work in. It is the most maddening book I've ever read. After the Bible of course. (God is a dick).

[Seldona]

23. I simply can't get over the fact that this was seen as some sort of virtue.

I may be an atheist now, but I did grow up in a very religious family, even to the point of attending parochial schools. I can't remember anyone ever warping religion to this point. Seems to me the group that claims to have the most 'stable' killers would be a logical group to avoid. At all costs.

[Hamlette]

24. not my idea of religion either

I'm a 3rd generation godless commie pinko but my mother "taught" us all the good stories from the bible as lessons, not as truth. These days I fell like I'm the only one who "got" them. (It doesn't matter if you're too poor to afford a room at the inn or if you're a bastard, you can achieve much good for the world etc.)

I tend to think things went bad when they started preaching "if you're rich, its a sign that god loves you". Where the hell did THAT come from? Opiate of the masses indeed.

I'm still disgusted over a conversation I had with several ppl at work a few years ago. They were all very religious people, I was the only atheist. They all defended torture. I was dumbfounded. I didn't think there could possibly be a question.

As my mom always said: just because everyone believes it doesn't make it right.

[impik]

17. More from that story:

"The 2010 budget proposed by President Obama includes the largest funding increase for veterans in the past thirty years, and much of it is devoted to treatment of PTSD. The new secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, a retired general who was injured in Vietnam (and fought with Rumsfeld over the size of the force needed in Iraq), has shown a strong commitment to the care of veterans".

[Orsino]

18. What about the ones who were unpatriotic enough to get killed?

Can they still be court-martialed posthumously?

Seriously, though--no, the Bush Administration believed no such thing. This was merely their excuse for inaction.

[uponit7771]

19. THe Bush admin didn't progress America in MANY MANY areas

[tanyev]

20. Did McLendon ever serve in the military?

I'm guessing no.

[Hamlette]

22. not much about him online except he was fired for the leak of the VA records

the records were stolen from a VA employee's home (they stole an external hard drive) with like 20 million vet records on it. I think McLendon was fired as a result (as was the employee who took the records home). According to this WAPO article, McLendon knew about the theft an hour after it happened but didn't report it for 13 days. He was discharged for not reporting it (I think). There isn't much info on him online, no Wiki page. Problem is when you google him, you get a guy who killed 10 people in his family in Alabama of the same name. This is Michael H. McLendon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501237.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. I thought I knew everything that was going to leak out of the Bush Admin.,

but this is scaring the crap out of me.

[Hissyspit]

25. Fucking nut cases in charge of our country for eight years.

[Hamlette]

26. and the whole country goes insane because Obama bowed in Japan

just

shoot


me

[Hissyspit]

27. You're not crazy. It's preposterous.

[defendandprotect]

35. Obama "bowed" in Japan . . . not good . . . !!!

Wow . . .

At the point where we had JFK in the White House we were getting reading to bring

down royalty --

Certainly not acknowledge it as many of our Congress people have been doing by accepting

citations from them and others accepting TITLES . . . TITLES, GOOD GAWD!!!

Unfortunately, people who embrace democracy don't embrace bowing!!

[Hamlette]

38. that's exactly what I mean

who the hell gives a rat's ass? He was in Japan for gawd's sake. They bow to a bowl of rice.

We are not going to bring down royalty in other countries by refusing to show respect for the lives of others.

It was not the royalty he was showing respect towards, it was the whole fucking country of Japan you idiots.

How would you feel if some foreign head of state refused to shake Obama's hand because in his po dunk corner of the globe shaking hands elevates Obama to a human being or royalty or some other such nonsense.

Get over yourself and we should all get over ourselves. The fact that you were born in the most powerful nation in the world or a democracy was an accident. You did nothing to deserve it.

People who embrace bowing can embrace democracy...hell, the majority of democracies in the world still have royalty.

[Vinca]

28. Last night I finished reading Bob Woodward's "State of Denial"

and it's mind boggling how badly managed and foolishly thought out this whole escapade has been. Anyone on this forum could have come up with better plans for Iraq on a weekend with a few beers and a note pad (if, of course, there actually were WMD). Bush was essentially nothing more than a cheerleader who contributed the "go ahead" and that's it. Rice and Rumsfeld were totally incompetent and the generals had been emasculated by Rummy. But I'm not telling anyone here something they didn't already know.

[Hamlette]

next read Imperial Life in the Emerald City

about the incompetence and religious bs during the first year's occupation of Iraq. It is the scariest, must unbelievable book I've ever read. They sent 20 year olds, chosen only on the basis of whether they loved Bush enough and hate abortion and gays enuf, to design a new stock market, run the health care system, write new laws etc for Iraq. He gives specific examples of people who knew what they were doing, chosen on merit, being fired within the first month because it was found out they were not the right kind of republican and replaced with anti abortion idiots who decided the number one health care priority in a country with no functioning hospitals or clinics (think looting) should be a campaign to get Iraqis to stop smoking.

It will curl (or straighten) your hair and make you more angry than you have ever been at the Bush admin.

[defendandprotect]

36. And these "know-nothings" are using "god" to distract the public while they run off

with the Treasury --

It has also distracted the public from our most important reality - GLOBAL WARMING

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/climate_09_jellyfish_menace

ALL science and statistics have been SCREWED to confuse the public as to what's actually

going on.

What's going on?

Stealing of oil -- drug running -- and killing 1.5 million Muslims!!!

Now who does all of that benefit?

In the end, it benefits no one, of course --

"Americans are really smart about really stupid things... "

We need to overturn these hierarchies of power -- especially the "god" freaks!!

[treestar]

29. Talk about being out of touch, behind the time, ignorant

and just a plain old asshole.

[madmax]

30. Yes and if they believed in God

They'd be 10' tall and bullet proof, too.

[YOY]

31. Some puppet master felt the need to put an architecture of aggression into religion...

Possibly to "compete"...

Fucking sad that anyone would follow that lead.

[defendandprotect]

37. That was done long ago -- "god" turned into a Roman Emperor of war ...

[DU GrovelBot]

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[thereismore]

33. None of them got killed either. nt

[defendandprotect]

34. Wow . . . and, as usual, "god" is worried about MONEY . . . !!!

We really have to go after this "god"-football that's been being tossed around now for

decades and which has invaded our military and Congress -- and all of government, evidently!!

Nothing like a Christian who supports "god" the warrior --

and "our country" with imperialistic aims!!

[old mark]

39. Akin to the RW take on sickness - real christian believers don't get sick...

bad things happen only to bad people, god people get rich because god loves them.
SO: No need for healthcare, drug treatment, rebuilding after hurricaines - it's all god's will and as it should be.
Very simple when you understand it all.

mark

[krispos42]

40. sonuvabitch

What a giant asshole! :grr: