Just a quick note to say, it's amazing to think that this blog/website was begun four years ago today. It feels like several lifetimes ago. So much has changed in the landscape. When we first began blogging about PTSD and combat veterans, there was literally nothing out there...at least on the Web. Now, thanks in part to our societal conscience/guilt over maltreatment of the Vietnam vets, and their amazing longsuffering with that poor and undeserved treatment, we're finally -- as a society -- at least paying attention to the topic. Soldiers (using the term generically) goes to war -- and often comes back with PTSD.
As a nation (and other nations around the world face this same problem, but we're writing from America), we have to address the issue of what happens after combat...and we have to provide for our veterans and their families so that they don't fall through the cracks into suicide, desperation, homelessness, violence and despair. It's a fine line, though, between doing for people, and helping them do for themselves. It's doubtful that what vets really want is a handout; it's much more likely that what they want is a fair shake. They've given and sacrificed for this country and for us; in turn, we need to meet their very real needs and that of their families. Let's not leave combat veterans hanging; they deserve our attention and our care. As a nation, we're fortunately beginning to come around to that. Whether the VA is an obstacle to that, or part of the solution, remains to be seen. Let's hope for the best: that America will care for those who have borne the battle with the best of what we have. That's what they gave; it's only fair that we reciprocate in kind.
