Civilian workers in Iraq suffering combat trauma

[nebula]

SFGate.com
(11-19) Asheboro, N.C.

When Steven Thompson returned from Iraq to North Carolina, the war followed him home.

He scans pastures and chicken farms for roadside bombs. He shoots wary glances at the faces of shoppers and moviegoers, searching for potential suicide bombers. Explosions blow off Thompson's limbs, over and over, in nightmares that stalk his sleep.

The war haunts him the way it haunts thousands of U.S. troops returning from their tours of duty in Iraq.

But Thompson is not an Iraq war veteran. He is a civilian truck driver, one of tens of thousands of private contractors hired to go to Iraq for fundamental support missions.

Their jobs are often as dangerous as those of combat troops. But because they are civilians, contractors are not eligible for the network of support that the Pentagon has designed to assist U.S. troops suffering from psychological trauma...

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Adrian Clay (left) looks on as Steven Thompson prepares his nightly medication.
Clay, a friend of Thompson's and a military veteran, is letting Thompson stay in his spare room.

[Monkeyman]

1. PTSD hit everyone in a combat zone

[nebula]

2. Will potentially become a huge social problem in the US

with large numbers of civilians and soldiers alike returning from Iraq with severe mental and physical health problems. I don't even want to think about it.

[Monkeyman]

4. We been watching very close

Right now one out of four returning troops have some sort of mental problem. The Brain Injury numbers are coming in in Feb. I saw this after Nam more deaths by cops, family break ups, jail time, and homelessness

[Mythsaje]

3. I know someone whose company wanted to send him to Iraq...

The pay was very good.

He quit.

[Nostradammit]

5. Am I a bad person for not feeling sympathy for this guy?

Did he think he was going to Club Med?

Wassa matter, Steven, war isn't as fun as they make it look in the movies?

That $1,850 a week don't look so good from this end, huh?

I understand that he probably didn't have many job opportunities here in the good ole USA, but who wouldn't think going into a war zone would be traumatic. KBR probably billed Uncle Sam $18,500 a week for his services.

[musette_sf]

7. All these guys see are the big bucks

They're mostly working-class guys who can't find any halfway decent-paying work in their communities. All is going according to the plans of PNAC and the Bu$h Crime Family. Marginalize the working class, and scare them to the point that this gig seems like a good idea.

[nebula]

6. Another article on post-traumatic stress from Iraq

Helps to remind Americans of what a gruesome business war really is.

Too many tend to think of it as some kind of video game (an attitude that the media helps to perpetuate).

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Army sergeant lost track of how many
innocent civilians he killed

"At first, you're scared to do it, to kill somebody and then
you just do it. And then you start noticing you enjoy it.
And you try to find as many as you can and kill
as many as you can. Then you come home
and see your kids and you think —
how could I do that?"

Haunted