So I'll be doing the info-wrangling for the great state of California. Seeing as how there are 56 Congress-critters (including our senators), I won't list them all here and frankly I won't be able to follow all of them. And although the new Speaker of the House is my very own representative, I think most of us will be able to get news about Speaker Pelosi pretty easily, so I will try to concentrate on the committee chairs and others that might not get as much press. But in the spirit of this endeavor, I will keep an eye on her, and I can tell you that we who sent her have high expectations.
Given President Bush's speech last night (my take on it here) and given the movement of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade in theatre (to Kuwait) , I'm particularly interested today in Representative Bob Filner (California's 51st) who is the new head of Veterans' Affairs:
- Bob has fought to get attention to health problems affecting soldiers serving in Vietnam and the Gulf War. He has worked for more mental health care for veterans and to ensure that GI benefits keep up with inflation. He was successful in getting better pay for VA dentists and increasing small business opportunities for veterans.
To see just how important such policies will be, we need only look as far as the tragic story of Pfc. Steven D. Green:
- An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.
Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
...
Eleven days before Green's first visit with the stress team in December 2005, he and five others were manning a checkpoint when an Iraqi civilian approached, according to testimony in military hearings. The civilian was familiar because of his status as a sometimes informant. He greeted the soldiers warmly before pulling a pistol from his belt and shooting two of them at point-blank range.
Setting aside for now the agonizing question of guilt and the harrowing implications for Iraqi civilians, this story illustrates the stresses that our soldiers are currently experiencing in Iraq. The vast majority of soldiers would never even consider staining themselves, their units, and their country with the heinous crimes that Green is accused of, but there are a growing number of mentally ill soldiers that are being kept on the front lines to help keep up our troop levels. And when the military talks of extending tours to help President Bush get the troop escalation he wants, guess what that means for soldiers who are at or near their breaking point? They'll be asked to give even more of themselves. And soldiers being soldiers, they'll do what they're asked. Because that's what soldiers do.
These soldiers will need treatment when they get back. And not just the ones whom the military has already identified as at risk. The price of being there in that war will be paid by every soldier who goes. And every soldier will pay a different price, and many will not suffer worse than a few bad dreams, or the pronounced startle reflex at the odd back-fire from a car, maybe a little insomnia now and then; but some will need help readjusting themselves to life here with the rest of us, with their loved ones, and in this home that they agreed to defend. So Representative Filner has a quite a responsibility on his hands as Chairman of Veterans' Affairs. I'll deifinitely be keeping an eye on him.
