Too little, too late

According to a subheader in this morning's Miami Herald, "Army officials are growing more concerned about the high levels of anxiety disorders among soldiers serving multiple tours in Iraq."

I will resist the urge to say, "Duh."

Among combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers' mental health.

The stress of long and multiple deployments to Iraq is just one of the concerns being voiced by senior military officers in Washington as Gen. David Petraeus, the senior Iraq commander, prepares to tell Congress this week that he is not ready to endorse any drawdowns beyond those already scheduled through July.

President Bush has signaled that he will endorse Petraeus' recommendation, a decision that will leave about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq at least through the summer.

But in a meeting with Bush late last month in advance of Petraeus' testimony, the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed deep concern about stress on the force, senior Defense Department and military officials said.

Among the 513,000 active-duty soldiers who have served in Iraq since the invasion of 2003, more than 197,000 have deployed more than once, and more than 53,000 have deployed three or more times, according to a separate set of statistics provided this week by Army personnel officers. The percentage of troops sent back to Iraq for repeat deployments would have to increase in the months ahead.

The Army study of mental health showed that 27 percent of noncommissioned officers -- a critically important group -- on their third or fourth tour exhibited symptoms commonly referred to as post-traumatic stress disorders.

That figure is far higher than the roughly 12 percent who exhibit those symptoms after one tour and the 18.5 percent who develop the disorders after a second deployment, according to the study, which was conducted by the Army surgeon general's Mental Health Advisory Team.

Mental disorders are far less visible and carry far greater stigma than the lost limbs and other injuries suffered needlessly by our troops in Iraq -- not to mention over 4,000 completely unnecessary American deaths. So consider that if the Bush crime syndicate refuses to publish images of caskets coming through Dover or soldiers recovering at Walter Reed, getting word out about mental disorders skyrocketing among the military must mean it's exponentially worse than they're letting on.

You want another reason to work very, very hard to make sure that Huggy Bear only sees the inside of the White House as a guest of President Clintobama -- or as a tourist? Along with the horrific impact a Huggy presidency would have on the federal judiciary -- reason enough in itself to vote Democratic in November if you care about America -- recall that he is willing to commit our military to a century in Iraq, and then read this:

The Army and the rest of the service chiefs have endorsed Petraeus' recommendations for continued high troop levels in Iraq. But Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and their top deputies also have warned that the war in Iraq should not be permitted to inflict an unacceptable toll on the military as a whole.

"Our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it," Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, said in stark comments delivered to Congress last week. "Lengthy and repeated deployments with insufficient recovery time have placed incredible stress on our soldiers and our families, testing the resolve of our all-volunteer force like never before."

Did you catch the code? Why did Gen. Cody refer to the "all-volunteer" military? Just to say how brave they are for volunteering? Or was it a warning that continued action in Iraq will necessitate a draft? Have you stopped to consider how Huggy Bear can maintain his BFF's illegal war for a hundred years without a draft? Can't be done -- period.

How much worse do things have to get -- in Iraq, in the economy, in American government and society -- before the country fucking wakes up and realizes, as a whole, that we can't survive four more years of Drunky McStagger? Because that's exactly what we'll get with Huggy Bear McBush.