Mentally Unstable Soldiers Redeployed to Iraq

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Stretched Thin, Army Puts Some Vulnerable Soldiers Back on the Frontlines
By BOB WOODRUFF, JAMES HILL and JAIME HENNESSEY


Two weeks before his second deployment to Iraq last September, Army Specialist Michael DeVlieger broke down.

"At first, I thought it was something that everybody experienced," DeVlieger told ABC's Bob Woodruff, "and just through time and perseverance I guess it would pass." It didn't pass.

After an 11-day hospitalization, DeVlieger was given a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, three psychiatric prescriptions -- and deployment orders.

"Eighteen hours after he got out of the hospital, he deployed to Iraq," DeVlieger's wife, Christine DeVlieger, recalled. He left for Iraq despite Pentagon policy requiring that service members establish three months of "stability without significant symptoms" before deploying.

"I was a ticking time bomb," Michael DeVlieger said.

Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/WoodruffReports/story?id=6095812&page=1

[babylonsister]

1. I don't know how to express my disgust at this. It's just so wrong, why

are they continuing to ruin these people? And why is it legal? :grr:

[cbayer]

2. Shameful beyond words. Our treatment of soldiers who have been psychiatrically

damaged by this war is truly shameful. The stigma is alive and well.

Thanks for posting this.

[MetaTrope]

3. Soldiers have always only ever been cannon fodder to the GOP

[katandmoon]

4. Outrageous and heartbreaking

[happygoluckytoyou]

5. Mentally unstable man running whitehouse... mentally unstable woman runs for VP... the list goes on!

[marylanddem]

6. Appalling, sickening, horrific - all fucking needless too.

Bush's war. goddamn him.

[uppityperson]

7. Steven Green. RIP Abeer.