Post-traumatic Fraud

Alan Zarembo at the LATimes has done some good reporting on Post-Traumatic Stress (disorder), you can get a sample here, but I would like to focus on a much needed discussion area related to it - the inevitable fakers.

It is not a slight topic, as each person who fakes it, takes away time and money from those who actually have it an need help. Often times, the fakers over-due their drama as well - and as a byproduct injure the image of everyone who served. 

They are enabled by a cabal of compassion addicts whose whole lives are spent getting attention for themselves by demonstrating to others how much they "care," a medical industry that gets bonuses by the number of people they see and not the actual help they provide, and lastly the worst - those who promote it for political reasons in order to diminish and smear military service in general, and to marginalize veterans specifically.

We all know fakers are there ... they always have been (topic discussed in Stolen Valor) - but the question is - who is or is not?

The 49-year-old veteran explained that he suffered from paranoia in crowds, nightmares and unrelenting flashbacks from the Iraq war. He said he needed his handgun to feel secure and worried that he would shoot somebody.

The symptoms were textbook post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Robert Moering, the psychologist conducting the disability examination at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Tampa, Fla., suspected the veteran was exaggerating. Hardly anybody had so many symptoms of PTSD so much of the time.

As disability awards for PTSD have grown nearly fivefold over the last 13 years, so have concerns that many veterans might be exaggerating or lying to win benefits. Moering, a former Marine, estimates that roughly half of the veterans he evaluates for the disorder exaggerate or fabricate symptoms.

Depending on severity, veterans with PTSD can receive up to $3,000 a month tax-free, making the disorder the biggest contributor to the growth of a disability system in which payments have more than doubled to $49 billion since 2002.

For those of us who have experience with the VA, it quickly becomes clear that much of the disability ratings are off balance. It really is a case of overdoing the original concept ... and it encourages bad behavior.

To get paid for PTSD, veterans must link their symptoms to trauma that occurred during their service. In 2010, the VA expanded what situations could qualify. Credible fear of being attacked — without actually suffering or witnessing violence — became sufficient.


The VA also dropped its requirement to support each case of war-related PTSD with records of the underlying trauma. Those veterans are now taken at their word.

After the changes, the number of new PTSD claims rose 60% to more than 150,000 a year, and approval rates jumped from 55% to 74%.

Again ... here is the problem. For every dollar the government takes from taxpayers or borrows from their grandchildren to give benefits to people who shouldn't be receiving it, that is a dollar that is not going to someone who truly needs it.

Of the 572,612 veterans on the disability rolls for PTSD at the end of 2012, 1,868 — a third of 1% — saw a reduction in their ratings the next year, according to statistics provided by the VA.

Even some veterans whose diagnosis falls under deep suspicion have managed to keep their disability ratings.


In one case that Moering reviewed in 2009, he searched military records and concluded that a Navy veteran on the disability rolls for PTSD had lied to VA clinicians about having served in the elite SEALs and concocted his combat history.

The VA responded by reducing his PTSD rating from 50% to 30%, records show.
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Marines whose symptoms were fading expressed concern that medical records documenting their progress would be used against them in disability exams. One with mild PTSD was contemplating putting off college because he worried attending would make him appear too healthy.

Wilschke worried that some patients weren't being honest with her.

Several VA mental health providers said the incentives of the disability system have undermined their relationship with patients and inhibited them from fully engaging in treatment.

In 2005, the VA office of the inspector general looked at 92 cases of PTSD and found that while most veterans received treatment when their disability ratings had room to rise, visits dropped off after their ratings topped out at 100% disabled.
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Of the 572,612 veterans on the disability rolls for PTSD at the end of 2012, 1,868 — a third of 1% — saw a reduction in their ratings the next year, according to statistics provided by the VA.

Even some veterans whose diagnosis falls under deep suspicion have managed to keep their disability ratings.


In one case that Moering reviewed in 2009, he searched military records and concluded that a Navy veteran on the disability rolls for PTSD had lied to VA clinicians about having served in the elite SEALs and concocted his combat history.

The VA responded by reducing his PTSD rating from 50% to 30%, records show.

This too is a VA scandal. I wish more people than just Zarembo would cover it.

She was fired for you

You really need to read it all, but let this pull quote motivate you:

By the time the investigation into Mr. Alvarez was under way, Ms. Campbell had other concerns. Days after the trip to Big Creek, she said, she was suspended by the company and told that it was unprofessional to confront Mr. Alvarez.

One supervisor said, “I don’t understand why you made such a big deal. You’re not even a Marine anymore,” Ms. Campbell recalled.

“Do you understand what they do to earn their awards?” Ms. Campbell replied.

Suspended from her job, Ms. Campbell said she later got a phone call from the company asking her to attend a meeting. When she walked into the office, she said, she saw boxes full of her belongings.

It was official, she said — she’d been fired.

Former Marine, Melissa Campbell stood to that lying, shameful bucket of goo Alverez - and her former employer slathered itself with perpetual shame by firing her.

California - figures.

She is has a job now serving her fellow Marines, Sailors and other servicemembers as a family readiness, so good on her.

Ms. Campbell; thank you, you are a great Marine. Bravo Zulu.

Well, shame it is then ....

As outlined first and foremost by B.G. Burkett's book, Stolen Valor - we all know that the fakes and poseurs out there are not just harmless braggarts. They are harmful frauds that smear those who actually served, and through their false statements, absorb funds and benefits from those who deserve them.

The Supreme Court - being without benefit of having served - just doesn't get it. They killed the Stolen Valor Act and there is nothing more to be done.

What we can do is continue to do what we have done for years and the internet makes possible. Find the poseurs and publicly shame them. Partner with local news organizations to get the word out.

If we no longer have the law - at least we will have fear and shame.

I wonder what they would think if a bunch of people went around claiming to be a Judge?

A drug addict is a psycho is a vet‏

The path to make all who served "damaged goods" that I warned you about in 2004 continues apace - this time in court.

Via Kevin Graman in NavyTimes,

There are other therapeutic courts — most notably Spokane County Superior Court’s Adult Therapeutic Drug Court and Spokane County District Court’s Mental Health Court — designed to divert defendants from the traditional criminal justice system into rehabilitative services. But Veterans Court is the first in Spokane County designed specifically for military veterans or active-duty soldiers. Thurston County began a veterans court last July, and Clark County is also starting one.

Veterans courts are part of a growing movement that began in Buffalo, N.Y., to divert offenders into treatment for psychological problems resulting from military service.

Fight it or accept that we are all being painted as damaged goods. I've encountered that attitude since I've joined the civilian world where good people who don't have a clue are convinced that we all need "special help" to deal with our PTSD. This only will make the smear job worse.

The VA doesn't help where it lets anyone claim PTSD - and as a result, those of us who actually need re-adjustment assistance will be lost in the crowd; killed by others selfish need to prove to the world their "compassion."

Stolen Valor act ruled unconstitutional

Folks, get your gear.

First, we all need to raise all holy h311. Second, we need to make sure this goes to the Supreme Court. I have emails out the the Salamander JAG corps ... so expect updates to this post as their briefs come in.

A federal judge in Denver has ruled the Stolen Valor Act is "facially unconstitutional" because it violates free speech and dismissed the criminal case against Rick Strandlof, a man who lied about being an Iraq war veteran.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn issued his decision this morning.

"The Stolen Valor Act is declared to be facially unconstitutional as a content-based restriction on speech that does not serve a compelling government interest, and consequently that the Act is invalid as violative of the First Amendment," Blackburn wrote in his opinion.

Where do we start? Dressing up in a uniform you did not earn and wearing medals you did not earn is not speech. It is theft.

This judge is a Bush 43 so there isn't a "Democrat judges" angle on this. Also, the legal team for these a55hats comes from The Rutherford Institute.

They won with logic like this,

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said the law is poorly written and should not be used to prosecute people for simply telling lies.

"You have to redraft the law to prove a particularized damage," he said. "If you run around Denver and yell out, 'I got the Medal of Honor,' you are guilty of the statute the way it is written."

In a recent motion to dismiss the case, Strandlof's attorney, Robert Pepin, wrote that "protecting the reputation of military decorations is insufficient to survive this exacting scrutiny."

Rutherford Institute attorney Douglas McKusick argues that Strandlof's lies did not "inflict harm" upon the medals he lied about or debase the meaning of the medals for the veterans who actually earned them.

"Such expression remains within the presumptive protection afforded pure speech by the First Amendment," McKusick wrote. "As such, the Stolen Valor Act is an unconstitutional restraint on the freedom of speech."

Once again - if you need to understand the damage these fakes cause to veterans - read Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History.

More to follow, but I have a request.

- Anyone have a link to the whole opinion by the Judge that came out today?

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UPDATE: Got the decision. I put it on googledocs - you can download it here.

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UPDATE II - Electric Boogaloo: EagleOne has a post up well worth your time. Also check out Mr. Wolf at B5 and DrewM at Ace.

Opening the door to PTSD fraud

This is a horrible step - and a sad day for all who have served. If you have PTSD or not - if you served you are being marginalized.

The Veterans Affairs Department will publish a final regulation tomorrow intended to ease the claims process and improve access to health care for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, VA officials announced today.

“This nation has a solemn obligation to the men and women who have honorably served this country and suffer from the often-devastating emotional wounds of war,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said in a statement issued today. “This final regulation goes a long way to ensure that veterans receive the benefits and services they need.”

The new rule, to be published in the Federal Register, will relax the evidence requirement if the PTSD stressor claimed by a veteran is linked to “fear of hostile military or terrorist activity and is consistent with the places, types and circumstances of the veteran’s service,” a VA news release said.

Currently, VA decision makers are required to confirm that a noncombat veteran actually experienced a stressor related to hostile military activity, the release said.

Under the new rule, VA no longer will require substantiation of a stressor tied to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity if a VA psychiatrist or psychologist can confirm that the experience recalled by a veteran supports a PTSD diagnosis and the veteran's symptoms are related to the stressor, a VA release said.

“With this new PTSD regulation, we are acknowledging the inherently stressful nature … of military service in which the reality and fear of hostile or terrorist activity is always present,” Michael Walcoff, VA’s acting undersecretary for benefits, said during a news conference today.

It opens the door to wholesale PTSD fraud - which there already is plenty - and will cause a dilution of resources, intellectual capital, and funds from those who have clear PTSD.

PTSD fraud is well documented and grew huge roots after Vietnam. Those who practiced PTSD fraud then are largely responsible for the smear of that generation's vets - both with and without PTSD. This will only make it worse for our generation.

Make no mistake - there is $$$$$ in PTSD fraud. If you make it easier to practice that fraud - ECON 101 tells you all you need to know. Sure - you may help one; but you create enough fraud to smear thousands.

As a friend put it in correspondence with me yesterday, it DEFINES PTSD as "something a veteran says they have." It follows that legally there can be no such thing as PTSD fraud. (unless someone claims vet status fraudulently.) The fraud is the one the government is perpetrating on the American people.

This also separates veterans into two classes - those who admit they have PTSD and those who deny it. I believe Orwell saw this coming. "there is $$$$$ in PTSD fraud" - there is even more money in treating an "epidemic."

This makes me sick.

As well documented in B.G. Burkett's book about what happened to the Vietnam War generation of Vets - Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History - PTSD has a long history of fraud, and even worse, being used to smear all vets by using it as a cause of everything that may go wrong in a person's life.

The VA needs a human psychology and economics lesson it seems. They should know better.

Veterans Affairs Department officials who are lowering the bar for veterans to receive benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder say they don’t expect more people to try to jump over it.

But VA may be underestimating a potential flood of claims that could result from an Obama administration decision to make it far easier for veterans who served in noncombat jobs to prove their mental health issues are service-connected.

Final rules are expected to be published in Tuesday’s Federal Register, and will apply to any PTSD-related claim filed beginning Tuesday or that is pending before VA, including those under appeal at any step in the process. As a result, retroactive benefits claims are possible for some veterans, because the effective date for benefits is the date a claim is filed.

Veterans whose PTSD claims were denied will have to reapply, with their benefits effective from the day of the claim.

Dr. Robert Petzel, VA undersecretary for health, described the new policy as “historic,” especially beneficial to women veterans and those who had been assigned to support and administrative units. Those veterans, unlike troops from combat units, had to prove they experienced something in their service that caused their PTSD. And the records of people in supporting units often don’t contain information about sniper fire, explosions, mortar attacks and other incidents that could be the cause of fear, helplessness and horror — the root causes of post-traumatic stress, Petzel said.

This is bad, very bad. This is bad for the taxpayer, for the veterans who have ligit PTSD, and for all veterans.

Like I warned in 2004 when I started this blog - they will marginalize us by making us all victims. If we are marginalized, then we don't have to be taken seriously and our opinions are of less value.

Stolen Valor Sen. candidate in CT

No excuse. No quarter. No gray area here. If the story holds, Blumenthal must go. Via NYT,

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008.
...
There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.

In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.

Is this how the Democrats research their candidates? The guy was CT AG - and this is only discovered now? CT Republican opposition reasearch head should be fired for not finding this out earlier ... especially with the long record of false claims over the years by others.

Maybe the political parties need to hire more people, ahem, with a military record to help them figure this stuff out.

...what is striking about Mr. Blumenthal’s record is the contrast between the many steps he took that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, and the misleading way he often speaks about that period of his life now, especially when he is speaking at veterans’ ceremonies or other patriotic events.

Sometimes his remarks have been plainly untrue, as in his speech to the group in Norwalk. At other times, he has used more ambiguous language, but the impression left on audiences can be similar.

In an interview on Monday, the attorney general said that he had misspoken about his service during the Norwalk event and might have misspoken on other occasions. “My intention has always been to be completely clear and accurate and straightforward, out of respect to the veterans who served in Vietnam,” he said.

But an examination of his remarks at the ceremonies shows that he does not volunteer that his service never took him overseas. And he describes the hostile reaction directed at veterans coming back from Vietnam, intimating that he was among them.

In 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas. “When we returned, we saw nothing like this,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Let us do better by this generation of men and women.”
...
In at least eight newspaper articles published in Connecticut from 2003 to 2009, he is described as having served in Vietnam.

The New Haven Register on July 20, 2006, described him as “a veteran of the Vietnam War,” and on April 6, 2007, said that the attorney general had “served in the Marines in Vietnam.” On May 26, 2009, The Connecticut Post, a Bridgeport newspaper that is the state’s third-largest daily, described Mr. Blumenthal as “a Vietnam veteran.” The Shelton Weekly reported on May 23, 2008, that Mr. Blumenthal “was met with applause when he spoke about his experience as a Marine sergeant in Vietnam.”

And the idea that he served in Vietnam has become such an accepted part of his public biography that when a national outlet, Slate magazine, produced a profile of Mr. Blumenthal in 2000, it said he had “enlisted in the Marines rather than duck the Vietnam draft.”

It does not appear that Mr. Blumenthal ever sought to correct those mistakes.
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Asked about the Bridgeport rally, when he told the crowd, “When we returned, we saw nothing like this,” Mr. Blumenthal said he did not recall the event.

Once again - none of this should be a shock. Read B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley's Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History.

Here is the sad part. There is nothing wrong with saying that "After many deferrments, I joined the USMCR and served stateside while many of my generation served honorably overseas .... " and so on. Serving is serving - and even in a well protected USMCR status, he was a Marine and served his country more than 90% of his peers. There. Is. No. Shame. There is only shame when you try to make yourself out to be more than you were.

Understanding and coming to terms with the decisions you made in your youth that in hindsight you may not agree with is fine - and the sign of a secure and mature mind. The great author and Southern Gentleman Pat Conroy I think said it quite well. No one thinks less of him in 2010.

Mr. Blumenthal - it is time to go. It is the honorable thing to do. Let another Democrat run for the office if there is still time.

You will not be able to stand on the same stage in a debate with your Republican challenger, Rob Simmons;

Rob’s public service career began when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1965 as a Private, and spent 19 months in Vietnam where he earned two Bronze Star Medals. Rob continued his military service in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer, retiring as a Colonel in 2003 with over 37 years of active and reserve service.

He is past commander of the 434th Military Intelligence (MI) Detachment New Haven, CT, which won the Reserve Officers Association’s Outstanding Small Unit Award in 1996. In 1998, Rob was recognized by for his contributions to the Military Intelligence Corps with the Knowlton Award for "Integrity, Moral Character, Professional Competence and Selflessness.”

Following his active duty service in the Army, Rob joined the Central Intelligence Agency, working as an Operations Officer for a decade, including five years on assignment overseas in East Asia where he participated in difficult and dangerous missions to protect America’s national security.

Unless the NYT's story is a total fabrication - which being that you are a (D) from CT and we are talking about the NYT here I doubt it - then fade back with some honor intact - don't double down. This is 2010 - the story if it has teeth to it won't die - milblogs won't let it, and we don't do nuance.

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UPDATE Well - you can't spin this Shipmate.

Hat tip HotAir.

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UPDATE: It just gets better. Blumenthal runs out a bunch of "vets" as a backdrop as he doubles down .... and who does he have with him? A well known fake. Go over to TAH for the details. Priceless.

BG McSoulpatch arrested by FBI

Remember him? Well, our friends at ABC 13 in Houston have some news for us.

Michael Patrick McManus was arrested Friday night after a federal judge signed a warrant for his arrest. The FBI says he was arrested without incident.
A blog reads like an old time wanted poster: Wanted for stolen valor. Do you know this man? Reward.
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The FBI now identifies the man in the picture as Michael Patrick McManus. We tracked McManus to an address in Houston where we attempted to get his side of this story on at least five occasions. A man who answered the door the first time claimed the man in the picture wasn't him.

However on another visit, another man at the house told us the man in the picture has lived at the address. Neighbors said he sure looks like the guy in the picture.

"He was always kind of strange," said one neighbor.

The pictures ignited a flurry of bloggers attempting to figure out who was parading around town as this highly-decorated war hero. They pushed to expose what they see as improper and illegal, saying "the violations of uniform regs are legion" and "This is illegal as per the Stolen Valor Act and this guy needs to go to jail. This has been a cancer for a long time, but with the internet we can do what other generations could not."
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McManus is now in federal custody charged with stolen valor. He is scheduled to appear in court first thing Monday morning. The Army is also investigating this incident.

This was a Joint operation between milbloggers, the traditional media, POWNet, the FBI, and mostly you - the readers of milblogs.

Thank you for helping bring this guy in.

...one last note as I stick out my bottom lip like a 4-yr old; that "quote from a blogger" that is, ahem, unidentified - yea - that's me.

No luv for 'ole Sal ... again.... but the blog did get a little facetime on the video .... but that is just being petty on my part, again.

Bravo Zulu to all involved.

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UPDATE: An update on the story from ABC-13.

Launch the ready pitchfork

Tar; check. Feathers; check. Rail; check.

All we need it a name.

If that guy is a General Officer, then I just relieved Admiral Harvey as Commander Fleet Forces Command .... and Skippy-san is my Chief of Staff, MTH my Aide, Maggie my Flag Sec, AW1 my Flag Writer, LBG the Staff JAG, E40 my J2, Sid my J3, Byron my J4, Lee my J5, and I don't know who my J6 is because I just fired all the contractors and geeks make me twitchy.

Here is the background on this dude; was spotted at George R. Brown Convention Center at the Annise Parker for Houston Mayor Victory Party.

Even for a Navy guy, the violations of uniform regs are legion - to start with he is way too young and ghey - but to the non-military, Brigadier General McSoulpatchy seems OK. I don't want to waste time quoting all the violations, but let me help you out in the review of the theater of the absurd.

Well, lets review the "awards" at least. You can see a high-res here and a full-frontal here.

His decorations include;
Round Patch, right side says "Central Intelligence Agency." Ummm yea. Great start.

Awards:
Around the neck is the British Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
2 Distinguished Service Cross
Air Medal
Flying Cross
2 Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
National Defense (too bad he didn't make it easy on us and forget this one)

Devices:
SAS crest
CIB w/ 2 stars
Master jump wings
Helo pilot badge
Air assault wings
Pathfinder

.... and so on. How did he ever have the time to complete JPME 1 & II?

To the point Texas readers;

WE NEED A NAME. If you know, email-twitter-facebook me at the POC above. This is illegal as per The Stolen Valor act and this guy needs to go to jail. This has been a cancer for a long time, but with the internet we can do what other generations could not. As I always mention at times like this, if you have not read B. G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley's book Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History you need to follow the link and get a copy.

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UPDATE: Here's the pig pile so far.
Blackfive
Boston Maggie
Bouhammer
Bring the Heat, Bring the Stupid
From My Position
Hooah Wife
Kiss My Gumbo
Little Drops
A Soldier's Perspective
This Ain't Hell

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Update II - Electric Boogaloo: We have a CERTSCUM. Bouhammer has the details. He won't do well in prison.

PTSD and thee

Since DEC 2004, I seem to do this once a quarter, so being that it is 1QFY10 - I might as well give it a go.

If you have not already, you need to read and keep handy in your library B.G. Burkett's, Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History.

In the book there is a chapter about PTSD. In order to understand what is going on now, you need to read how PTSD was used as a tool to abuse the Vietnam Generation. You need to read the other guy's playbook as reported by someone on our team.

Don't get me wrong - PTSD is real, it is there, and I know people who actually have it, military and civilian alike. It has been known by many names through the centuries - it is nothing new.

What I do know is that it is not a virus that you can "catch." It is not a catch-all for every little issue that people may or may not have. PTSD is a term that those in the military especially need to guard jelously for two reasons.

1. If everything is PTSD - then nothing is. Real cases will be lost in the chaff.
2. If everyone has PTSD from their time in the military - then we are all going to have trouble finding a job. You don't think that is happening? You don't think civilian minds are being reprogrammed to look at Long War vets differently? Ha. You need to get out more and talk to people who are not associated with the military.

Finally, one thing I do know about PTSD - it had nothing to do with the Ft. Hood terrorism case. I could not believe the garbage I had to read and listen to this weekend trying to make excuses for that sack.

Shipmates - the Vietnam generation went through this before us. They did not know it was coming. They did not have an alternative media. They did not have email, the internet, etc.

We do. We can fight those who want to turn us into a problem and therefor weaken us. Do not let them get away with this. First of all though - learn from their history. Feed your brain. Read the book.

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UPDATE: From DBS - not totally unrelated.

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UPDATE II - Electric Boogaloo: Perfect example via Allah - Time magazine's house a55hat, Tim McGirk.

As a U.S. Army psychiatrist treating soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, Major Nidal Malik Hasan had a front-row seat for the brutal toll of war. It is too early to know what may have triggered his murderous shooting rampage on Nov. 5 at Fort Hood in Texas — Hasan is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 32 others before he was wounded by a police officer — but it is not uncommon for therapists treating soldiers with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to be swept up in patients' displays of war-related paranoia, helplessness and fury.
...
At Fort Hood, ..., there was no shortage of horrific tales that could have set loose the demons in Hasan's mind.

Who is McGirk? Let me steal something from Noah Pollak at Commentary;

This shouldn’t be surprising coming from Tim McGirk. He went to Afghanistan after 9/11, had Thanksgiving with the Taliban, and wrote a long piece for National Geographic about what agreat time he had and how we’re all just human beings doing our thing on this big blue marble, so let’s not judge. Then he went to Iraq and singlehandedly created the Haditha Massacre hoax. Then he went to Jerusalem and spent a few years slandering Israel. Now he’s trafficking in pop psychology on behalf of a likely domestic jihadist. It’s been quite a career.

No Purple Heart for PTSD? Good.

Before anyone feels a need to call me names or otherwise emote; I ask them to think a bit after they read the section about PTSD in Stolen Valor and note that my position has been consistent since before 2005.

No question, PTSD is real, but it isn't everywhere or everything. Like ADD, it is over diagnosed and over used in a therapy soaked (nothing personal T1) culture that in many areas is only comfortable with those in uniform when the servicemember is seen as a victim.

Tyler E. Boudreau, who as per his book Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine is not an objective source when it comes to PTSD, in the NYT last week makes some good and not so good points.

I felt that in a way they subverted the obvious intent of the Purple Heart — honoring soldiers who have been seriously hurt. But where to draw the line? Perhaps it should be awarded only to those who required admittance into a combat support hospital. “The Purple Heart deserves at least one night out of action,” I argued at the time. But my own commander stood fast by the rules, affirming: “A combat wound is a combat wound, no matter how small. So they get the medal.”

I agree; we need to define better and define consistently. We need to be careful to avoid being both stingy to the deserving and "everyone gets a trophy." As someone who due to some funky medical stuff post-DESERT STORM has been told since the early '90s that I have Gulf War Syndrome (I don't), and if I was honest in the forms I fill out, have PTSD (I don't, not even close) - I understand too well that we are over diagnosing both GWS and PTSD out of a well meaning desire not to let anyone slip through the cracks.

In that light, here is the bad idea. The last thing we need is another medal.

But there may be another solution — perhaps a new decoration, a new medal, could be established specifically for those suffering from post-traumatic stress. It would be awarded to those whose minds and souls have been sundered by war.

I urge General Eric Shinseki, the new head of Veterans Affairs and former Army Chief of Staff, to work hand in hand with the Defense Department to bring about some form of official recognition for these wounded veterans. The currentstigma of post-traumatic stres s would likely prevent many soldiers from wearing the medal initially, but its mere existence would help crystallize in the American — and the American military — consciousness one of the more obscure human costs of war.

I suggest we call this medal the Black Heart. Certainly the hearts of these soldiers are black, with the terrible things they saw and did on the battlefield. Certainly the country should see these Black Hearts pinned on their chests.

No, no, no, no.

Sestak misrepresenting his rank again

Or by his inaction allowing others to. From InsideDefense's "Inside the Pentagon,"

“We’ll see how it comes out,” Sestak said of the assessment Gates proposes, in a telephone interview with InsideDefense.com. A retired Navy vice admiral who is well acquainted with how capabilities-based assessments are conducted, Sestak said Gates’ plan to complete the assessment by the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 “seems unnecessarily long.”

As everyone in the military knows or should know; because he was fired and had to retire before he had been a VADM long enough, Rep. Sestak (D-PA) retired as a RADM. Click the Sestak tag below if you are new to this "issue" he has with his past.

Jason Sherman is the InsideDefense.com author - anyone know his email? I know he would want to be accurate ......

Name 'em & shame 'em

Take to to the Supreme Court? Sure, more chances to out Alvarez and show is face to more people so they will know him as the lying coward that he is.

When Xavier Alvarez was asked to say a few words about himself at a meeting of a California water board last summer, he decided on these: “I’m a retired marine of 25 years. I retired in the year 2001. Back in 1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. I got wounded many times by the same guy. I’m still around.”

Only the last three words were true.

You can't get away with that as easy as you used to.

Mr. Alvarez is scheduled to go on trial next month in federal court in Los Angeles for violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which makes it a crime to lie about having received certain medals.
...
Mr. Alvarez is facing the possibility of two years in prison and a $200,000 fine.

Now, hold your Constitution close, you are going to love this.

He is represented by a federal public defender, Brianna J. Fuller, and he has filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the First Amendment protects him.

Nice; firmly attached to the public teat the whole time.

Free speech experts say the motion is unlikely to succeed.

“On the other hand,” Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on his blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, “the legal issue is not as clear as one at first might think.” He cited the somewhat muddy Supreme Court jurisprudence in this area and an October decision of the Washington Supreme Court that struck down a state law making it illegal for politicians to lie about candidates for public office.
...
“My instinct is that there probably would not be a winning First Amendment defense because of the confluence of two factors,” Professor Smolla said. First, he said, it is hard to identify anything positive Mr. Alvarez contributed to any debate. Second, he said, “the integrity of the honors that the military bestows is very important.”

I don't think it will get too far either - but we are talking CA and the 9th Circuit. Speaking of CA, any CA tax-payers out there?

In California, where Mr. Alvarez continues to sit on the board of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District, an elected position, patience is wearing thin.

“There’s no question he’s pathological,” said Bob G. Kuhn, the board’s president, recounting some of what has come out of Mr. Alvarez’s mouth. “He’s had three helicopter accidents. He’s been shot 16 times. These are all fabrications.”

But Mr. Kuhn said the board was powerless to expel Mr. Alvarez, who continues to receive $200 per meeting and health insurance. The board has censured him, though, for putting a woman he falsely claimed was his wife on the board’s health plan.

At first, Mr. Kuhn said, he took no position on the wisdom of the criminal prosecution of his colleague.

“But we’ve had 40 or 50 veterans parade before our board, asking him to publicly apologize,” Mr. Kuhn said. “He has refused to do that. With that said, I have no problem with the prosecution.”

Yep, he is still there - and still lists his cell phone number.

Once again, we have B.G. Burkett and his book Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History, for setting the move towards having a law to get these jerks. I hope the law stands.

Does anyone care?

You have an officer who has a distinguished, but otherwise standard issue career path through Flag Rank. He gets promoted to Vice Admiral, 3-stars - but soon after his promotion is fired in disgrace due to the "command climate" he created with those he works with and those who work for him.

Due to the short time as a VADM, he has to retire as a Rear Admiral, 2-stars. After his military service though, he runs around claiming to be a 3-star. When challenged, he bluffs or waives his child's medical record in the questioner's face - or goes old-school old-school Shoe on them.

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) is at it again - he is misrepresenting his rank. It is all in the official U.S. Navy Register if you want to check yourself. He continues to allow his staff and other refer to him as a "retired VADM" when there is no question that he is a "retired RADM." I would give some a pass if they didn't want to rub the fact that he was fired by the then Chief of Naval Operations and now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen - but to let him get away with misrepresenting his official rank is just wrong.

Follow the Sestak Label for the details of his pathetic Sea-Lawyering during the 2006 election - but I won't let it pass. No one else may give a d@mn, but I do. It is a disgrace and shameful act on his part - all because his tender ego can't deal with the fact he was fired and forced into retirement when his chickens came to roost on the corpses of the bodies he build his career on.

Once again, Sestak laughs at you and in a way, lies to Senator Clinton.

What can I do? Well, maybe this time I will email the Washington Post Ombudsman and see what happens. I doubt anything - but I will give it a go. Maybe you can try too....
Hat tip readers Dave & Pete.

Samuel Johnson would understand

He would understand why there is in parts of popular culture a need to make those who have served in the military all seem like damaged goods. From The Deer Hunter to the latest homeless smear ... to this add being run in UK movie houses:

Oh, the quote by Samuel Johnson? Most know the first line, but I like the whole exchange.

We talked of war.

Johnson: "Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea."
Boswell: "Lord Mansfield does not."
Johnson: "Sir, if Lord Mansfield were in a company of General Officers and Admirals who have been in service, he would shrink; he'd wish to creep under the table."
Boswell: ""No; he'd think he could try them all."
Johnson: "Yes, if he could catch them: but they'd try him much sooner. No, Sir; were Socrates and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden both present in any company, and Socrates to say, 'Follow me, and hear a lecture on philosophy;' and Charles, laying his hand on his sword, to say, 'Follow me, and dethrone the Czar;' a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates. Sir, the impression is universal; yet it is strange. As to the sailor, when you look down from the quarter deck to the space below, you see the utmost extremity of human misery; such crouding, such filth, such stench!"
Boswell: "Yet sailors are happy."
Johnson: "They are happy as brutes are happy, with a piece of fresh meat, --with the grossest sensuality. But, Sir, the profession of soldiers and sailors has the dignity of danger. Mankind reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness."
Scott: "But is not courage mechanical, and to be acquired?"
Johnson: "Why yes, Sir, in a collective sense. Soldiers consider themselves only as parts of a great machine."
Scott: "We find people fond of being sailors."
Johnson: "I cannot account for that, any more than I can account for other strange perversions of imagination."

Hat tip Bluto at Jawa.

Show you care about our homeless...

Yes, join IowaHawk in our concern for those who have given so much in public service.

Doesn't the self-righteousness feel wonderful?

It is time to fight....

As many of us have suspected for years, when victory comes - those who have a base desire to bring down those who served while they pontificated will come out of the woodwork to smear, slander, and slime the Veterans of this war just like they did the Vietnam Vets.

Mark Steyn has done the best job of calling everyone to the barricades.

Have you been in an airport recently and maybe seen a gaggle of America's heroes returning from Iraq? And you've probably thought, "Ah, what a marvelous sight. Remind me to straighten up the old 'Support Our Troops' fridge magnet, which seems to have slipped down below the reminder to reschedule my acupuncturist. Maybe I should go over and thank them for their service."

No, no, no, under no account approach them. Instead, try to avoid making eye contact and back away slowly toward the sign for the parking garage. You're in the presence of mentally damaged violent killers who could snap at any moment.

You hadn't heard that? Well, it's in the New York Times: "a series of articles" – that's right, a whole series – "about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home." It's an epidemic, folks. As the Times put it:

"Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: 'Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.' Pierre, S.D.: 'Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.' Colorado Springs: 'Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.'"

Obviously, as America's "newspaper of record," the Times would resent any suggestion that it's anti-military. I'm sure if you were one of these crazed military stalker whackjobs following the reporters home you'd find their cars sporting the patriotic bumper sticker "We Support Our Troops, Even After They've Been Convicted." As usual, the Times stories are written in the fey, more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger tone that's a shoo-in come Pulitzer time:

"Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak."

"Patchwork picture," "quiet phenomenon."… Yes, yes, but exactly how quiet is the phenomenon? How patchy is the picture? The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan either "committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one." The "committed a killing" formulation includes car accidents.

Thus, with declining deaths in the war zones, the media narrative evolves. Old story: "America's soldiers are being cut down by violent irrational insurgents we can never hope to understand." New story: "Americans are being cut down by violent irrational soldiers we can never hope to understand." In the quagmire of these veterans' minds, every leafy Connecticut subdivision is Fallujah and every Dunkin' Donuts clerk an Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Read it all, my post on it last week, and the PowerLine posts, then click the Stolen Valor tag at the end of the post to see - this is all part of a standard, normal Course of Action of the Left. If we are all basket cases, then our opinions and ideas and deeds are just as unworthy of a sane world.

Good people, like Chaplain Key and those who take the specifics of their experience and believe it applies to the general population, will be taken in by the web of poorly designed statistics and outright lies - but just as well you will find those who have a political or financial reason to make everyone believe that we are all walking time bombs.

We have the "New Media," use it. Don't let them get away with this. Like I always suggest, go to Amazon and buy new or used copy of Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History, by B.G. Burkett and read the cold hard facts of what was done to the Vietnam Vets. The anti-war Left is using the same playbook this time, except now we have it as well. Don't let them get away with this.

I will do my part; you do yours. Again, from the Steyn article,

In 2008, the editors of the Times, our college professors and Hollywood celebrities, are horrified by a fiction. Faced with a historically low cost of war, they retreat into fantasy. Who's really suffering from mental trauma? Who needs the psychotherapy here?

No, I won't give them the easy out. My vote, as is my nature, is when you find yourself under attack - you go on the attack. Fixed fortifications (family, good will, mythology of the people's support) are monuments to the stupidity of man. Attack, attack, attack, attack.

These people hate; they hate victory, they hate their country, they hate those who serve things greater than themselves, they hate Western Civilization, but most of all they hate themselves. Treat them as such.

Chaplain Key, please use your brain

....not your heart.

I was walking out of a grocery store recently when a homeless man approached me and said, "Excuse me sir, I'm trying to buy some food. Can you help me out?" After talking to him for a few minutes, I discovered that he was a Vietnam War veteran. I gave him a few dollars knowing that my humble contribution might help him eat today. But what about tomorrow?
...
Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the USA, though they are only 11% of the general population, according to The Alliance to End Homelessness.

There are myriad reasons for these dismal numbers: limited access to affordable housing, inadequate health care and employment instability. But many cases are fed by the fact that displaced and at-risk veterans often live with the lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder or substance abuse. These are the hidden costs of fighting a war.

I only repeat those stats because Chaplain Key did - but I don't buy them?

They guy Chaplain Key talked to may have been a Vet, but odds are he was not telling the truth. To start, I would recommend that Chaplain Key and everyone else buy and read Stolen Valor, specifically the chapter on "homeless Vets."

The facts may be hard to accept, but in the book they are all put out there. It is best to run with the cold facts, and not to spread the lie that those you serve with are damaged goods.

They are at it again ....

Get ready to vomit.

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

All the lies spread over the Vietnam veterens are, as predicted, being spread over our generation. Read B.G. Burkett's book Stolen Valor for the context, and you will see that the play book is well known and well worn - this time however we have a chance to fight back. You in?

Phoney Soldiers

I don't think Soros's slime merchants really understand the minefield they have wandered into. Sure, lie about Limbaugh if you want - next you can go to ABC News.

As I have recommended before; this and other post-Vietnam War FOD, are nothing new. Read B.G. Burkett's book Stolen Valor for the context.

Hat tip HotAir.