[Gimpy]

A CRUEL CUT FOR THOSE WHO FACE REALITY --


Bob Kerr comments on funding cut for Brain Injury Center.


Bob Kerr from: www.projo.com/news/bobkerr/ August 11, 2006 ---- A cruel cut for those who face reality.


It is the "signature wound" of the war in Iraq, the one that isn't immediately visible but the one that will probably have the longest, hardest impact on veterans and their families.


And it is being coldly pushed aside by Congress and the Whitehouse in one of those moves that makes all the lip service to the sacrifices of our men and women in combat ring just a little bit hollow.


Sen. Jack Reed has seen it in the hospitals. He has seen 18- and 19-year-olds with missing arms and legs. And he has seen that other wound, the one that makes it hard to put thoughts and words together.


It is the wound that comes with the explosions that often happen so anonymously and unexpectedly in Iraq. It is the wound that comes despite body armor and state-of-the-art weapons and incredibly fast battlefield medical treatment.


"You look at one of these kids, their families, and you know it's going to be a struggle their whole lives," Reed said yesterday.


The brain injury often comes home under cover of other, more visible wounds. The missing leg will get a lot of attention. The missing ability to express thoughts and emotions might not.


Reed says his Senate colleague Barack Obama is pushing for a more thorough assessment of returning veterans for brain injuries.


"There are some who have problems they don't even know about," said Reed.


So the senator is disappointed but not surprised that money for the research and treatment of battlefield brain injuries is being cut.


"The cost of the war is so great, the Army and Marines are being underfunded by $10 to $13 billion just for equipment repairs," he said.


So $7 million is no big deal in the billions that are being burned up in the war every day -- except for those who sustain injuries that might leave them messed up for a lifetime.


The news that the budget for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center is going to be cut in half has been moving through veterans groups and military medical centers and drawing responses such as "unpardonable," "unbelievable" and "disgraceful."

Scientists at the center, working at military and veterans' hospitals, develop methods to diagnose and treat brain injuries. And they push for a more thorough program to identify brain injuries inflicted by the mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs that have become the standard weapons of insurgents in Iraq.


In other words, they deal with the results of a war that was never planned for. They deal with the cruel things that happen when Americans are blown up by people they never see. In some ways, they point the way for military medicine for years to come.


And their efforts are being shortchanged and cut back.


Last year, the budget was $14 million . This year, there is $7 million (all that was requested by the Whitehouse) in the House and Senate versions of the Defense appropriation bill.


There is no way to justify this kind of cut. It is an insult to every soldier or Marine or sailor pounding on the side of a hospital bed in anger and frustration over the inability to tell people what he or she is feeling.


But why start making sense now? The Brain Injury Center is all about dealing with reality and that has become a very hard sell.


Reed says he is definitely not happy with the cut in the center's budget but the fight to help those bringing their invisible wounds home from Iraq must continue.


And it is not just the current budget that is involved, he said. Veterans' hospitals will be dealing with the lasting effects of head wounds for the next 50 or 60 years.



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And THIS is how they 'support the troops'???????-------Just asking.