Report: Suicidal troops sent into combat

HARTFORD, Conn. - U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported for Sunday editions.

The Hartford Courant, citing records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and more than 100 interviews of families and military personnel, reported numerous cases in which the military failed to follow its own regulations in screening, treating and evacuating mentally unfit troops from Iraq.

In 1997, Congress ordered the military to assess the mental health of all deploying troops. The newspaper, citing Pentagon statistics, said fewer than 1 in 300 service members were referred to a mental health professional before shipping out for Iraq as of October 2005.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12777489/

They don't give a shit about the troops...but it makes a helluva slogan for the sheeples.

All I can think of is that there is one more atrocity to add to the list of Dubya's many, many sins. The mentally ill do not need to be sent into battle. What is going to happen to their families if they live to return? There has never been a worse threat to liberty and democracy than Bush. Ironic, really, that he claims to be spreading peace and democracy and things have never been worse.