Despite the fact that we may have been misled from the start about Iraq, I could almost be encouraged to support the war effort on the basis that we have broken the eggs and now need to finish the omelet. Well, that and the fact that it pains me to think that the young men now serving doubt our support for them and their mission, which is not proper and regrettable in the extreme. But there is another matter to consider and it concerns our those same men.

According an airing of PBSs' 'Now' broadcast Friday night, the Veteran's Administration is so overwhelmed that 30% of vets returning from Iraq have to wait 30 days to see counselors and other mental health professionals. This war is causing not only horrendous physical injuries - which the health services branch of our government is already hard-pressed to address - but also psychological injuries; matters of the mind which can be far more complex and require extensive, long-term treatment. We have to face the fact that these guys, many of them teenagers, are seeing things that they will have to deal with - somehow. And that due to the complexity of the human mind, there is much that we dont know. Then consider the level of care that has come to represent the VA and ask yourselves if you think that our soldiers are going to get effective treatment and the help they need to enable them ALL to function again and take up their lives where they left off.

That was the promise, right? That they perform this vital service for their country - for US - and then they can come home and be the better for it. But are we keeping that promise? I worry that we are not. If that's the case, I volunteer. The way things look, I would much prefer to be sent to Iraq than these young guys. I've lived for almost 50 years and have lived a good life. Not great, but good. Better than what I think awaits some poor kid who has seen the raw face of this war and will have to deal with the unpredictability of it. It's got to be pure hell for these guys. I doubt that even I, who likes to think hes seen it all and am certain that I know more of what life is like than I did at twenty... Even with all of that, I would have a good chance, I think , of seeing something that Id have trouble dealing with. And its not that Im fragile. I think that Im like most of us that way, If I had to do it, Id find a way. Even with all of that, I have to wonder if I could cope with the pure devastation that I know is going on.

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