Experts: Vets' PTSD, violence a growing problem

This is something I hammered my adversaries over repeatedly on the political board. We will all be paying the price for this failed war for the rest of our lives, and those who fought in it will be paying the most, with no WW 2 hero worship.


http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/17/us/veterans-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

A man opens fire in a national park, killing a ranger who was attempting to stop him after he blew through a vehicle checkpoint.

A second man is suspected in the stabbing deaths of four homeless men in Southern California.

Both men, U.S. military veterans, served in Iraq -- and both, according to authorities and those who knew them, returned home changed men after their combat service.

A coincidence -- two recent high-profile cases? Or a sign of an increase in hostile behavior as U.S. troops complete their withdrawal from Iraq, similar to that seen when U.S. troops returned home from the Vietnam War?

"You're going to see this more and more over the next 10 years," said Shad Meshad, founder of the National Veterans Foundation, who has been working with veterans since 1970. "... There's a percentage that come back, depending on how much trauma and how much killing they're involved in, they're going to act out."

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"The VA and the military can only do so much," Ritchie said. "It really takes a nationwide effort and a local community effort ... this is an issue that's not going to go away. It's going to be with us for 10, 20, 30 years."