[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9107]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                    SMART AND VETERANS MENTAL HEALTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Marchant). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, we recently passed the conference report on 
yet another supplemental appropriations bill for the war in Iraq, 
bringing the total amount of taxpayer money being spent on this ill-
conceived, built-on-lies war to over $300 billion. The longer we keep 
funding this irresponsible effort, the more harm we are doing, not just 
to the people of Iraq but also to our very own troops.
  The New England Journal of Medicine recently reported that as many as 
one out of four veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq treated at 
VA hospitals in the past 16 months were diagnosed with mental 
disorders. Alarmingly, this number has been steadily rising, and we can 
only guess how many soldiers do not come forward to get help because of 
the stigma that is associated with mental illnesses.
  Post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is the most 
common disorder seen in returning soldiers and has been diagnosed in 10 
percent of returning soldiers at VA hospitals. Other mental disorders 
that are being seen are drug or alcohol abuse, depression and anxiety 
disorders. Also phobias and panic are part of the whole diagnosis.
  These are the hidden scars that young men and women who serve in 
combat are left with when they return home. While mental and emotional 
problems cannot be seen as easily as a physical wound, they are just as 
debilitating.
  Large numbers of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home, 
and they are showing up in our homeless population in numbers that have 
not been seen since the end of the Vietnam War. This is a shameful 
epidemic, and we must work to confront it before it is too late.
  Serving in a combat zone not only affects soldiers but also their 
families. When service members come home, they face a real challenge in 
learning how to readjust to civilian life, often taking a toll on 
relationships with family members and sometimes leading to even more 
mental and emotional problems.
  Every time we send our young men and women into combat, we are asking 
them to make a huge sacrifice for the rest of us. Their lives and their 
health are the real follow-up costs to any war. That is why I have 
introduced H. Con. Res. 35, asking for the immediate withdrawal of 
troops from Iraq. Thirty-three other Members of Congress have signed my 
resolution with me, because we know that the longer we keep our troops 
in harm's way, fighting a war of occupation, the higher the costs in 
human lives. Coupled with that bill, I am also reintroducing 
legislation to support a SMART security platform for the 21st century.
  SMART stands for Sensible, Multilateral American Response to 
Terrorism. SMART treats war as an absolute last resort. It fights 
terrorism with stronger intelligence and multilateral partnerships. It 
controls the spread of weapons of mass destruction with a renewed 
commitment to nonproliferation, and it aggressively invests in the 
development of impoverished nations, with an emphasis on women's health 
and women's education.
  We must take a smarter approach to our foreign policy and homeland 
security measures. The sacrifices made by our soldiers are so great. We 
should be asking them to make sacrifices only after careful and 
thoughtful deliberation, not rushing to war on unreliable intelligence 
and on personal grudges. We must take careful and measured steps when 
putting lives on the line, something that the Bush administration has 
not done.
  As we work to protect those who protect us, instead of throwing our 
money into an ill-advised war, we must commit first to keeping our 
troops well equipped with safety gear and modern equipment, and we must 
provide them with real and comprehensive health care, including mental 
health support services, when they come home.
  Mr. Speaker, war has long-lasting effects on those who serve. Let us 
work to ensure that we limit those effects by using our troops only 
when we must and treating them with the dignity they deserve when they 
return.

                          ____________________