Not having the balls to blatantly stab Veterans in the back here in the United States, B.G. Burkett and his right-wing Tugboat crew of Veterans for Bush have taken their "Stolen Valor" views to turn back the clock on research and treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) across the border to Canada for discussion.

In doing follow up research on the roll of toilet paper "Stolen Valor," I ran across this association to B.G. Burkett.

A 2005 Guest Editorial in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry called "Troubles in Traumatology" in which Burkett is thanked for his contributions and comments, although B.G. Burkett is neither a Psychiatrist nor has a PhD in Psychology. What is wrong with this picture?

http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2005/november/GuestEditorial.asp

I give proper LINK to the article and paraphrase extracts from those parts that are of interest to Veterans and Military Families only. I had to rewrite it to translate the medical jargon.

What I wish to highlight is the fact that the same arguments and attacks made here are the same excuse made by Neo-Cons in the Congress, Bush appointees within the VA itself, plus anyone else who supports yet another look at (study of)PTSD. Folks it is all just more right-wing NEO-CON smoke and mirrors to DIVERT more money from the VA to pay for the War in Iraq without having to Repeal Tax Cuts for those not sacrificing anything for the War Effort.

The smoking gun: Check out who paid for this Guest Editorial to appear in a Foreign Journal? A grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant Number  MH 61268 to be exact) That is right U.S. taxpayer money is being used against America's Veterans. If that is not grounds enough for Veterans to raise Holy Hell, I don't know what else will get you off your feet to protect yourselves. If the right-wingers will go after PTSD using taxpayer money, what will be next Agent Orange?

Note also that the Department of Veterans Affairs has contracted with (you got it) the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD to do yet another study on PTSD. How fair would any study be? Read on to find out.

Bobby "Indy Thinker" Hanafin

Extracts from the article, "Troubles in Traumatology," By Richard J. McNally, PhD.1

This is one of the premises of B.G. Burkett's "Stolen Valor," that liberal Psychologists and Psychiatrists working for the VA in cahoots with Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) conspired to create PTSD, and it is wasting precious time, money, and effort, fighting the war to recognize PTSD all over again. Gerald Nicosia goes into great detail in his book Home to War: History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement to show how difficult the initial struggle to get PTSD recognized by "the entire Psychiatric community" was not to mention the opposition and resistance from established Veterans groups, right wingers like Burkett, O'Neil and teh Swiftboaters, a Pentagon hard up for combat troops, and Republican politicians concerned about budget costs. Nevermind the fact these were Vietnam Veterans. (Chapter Four: Invisible Wounds: PTSD)) Bobby "Indy Thinker" Hanafin

Dr, McNally continues, "Several years later, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment (NVVRS) study reported that 30.9% of all men who served in Vietnam —cooks and clerks as well as infantrymen— had developed PTSD and that another 22.5% had developed partial PTSD (4, p 63). Over one-half of all who served developed at least some partial form of the disease should have been surprising, especially because only 15% of those who served in Vietnam were in combat units (5, p 209). The NVVRS suggested a hidden epidemic of untreated PTSD among Vietnam veterans, and funds poured into Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) hospitals to cope with the problem. However, few seemed to notice that the NVVRS reported that twice as many men developed PTSD as were assigned to combat units. The mystery behind the discrepancy in numbers of those with the disease and of those in combat remains unsolved today.

This boils down to conspiracy theory spread by Burkett's Stolen Valor that is nothing more than what it is TODAY in Iraq piss-poor military planning and bureaucracy. Just because a GI was not officially assigned to a combat unit in Vietnam (or Iraq) does not mean they were/are not exposed to trauma nor does the MOS they held make them immune from trauma. One only has to ask the cooks, clerks and other low ranking REMFs who survived the Tet Offensive how much difference it made being in a combat unit when the Viet Cong infiltrated a sector or the ourskirts of Saigon were overrun. That is the practical way of looking at it without the right wing political motives of Mr. Burkett and physcians who subscribe to his political views. The bueraucratic way to look at his is that during wartime the military just don't keep good records on replacements in any units. I know, because I was in the 4th Infantry Division Replacement Company as a clerk when I wasn't being sent into the field on graves detail when the mortician company got overwhelmed filling body bags Burkett. Unfortunately the fact that I was occasionally placed on graves detail will not appear anywhere in my military records though being in the 4th Infantry Division will. If my records were not burned at the fire at Fort Benjamin Harrison that destroyed a lot of Vietnam Era military records. Indy Thinker. 

Using ammunition against American Veterans provided him by Stolen Valor, Dr. McNally concludes his attack on PTSD. "Like a tsunami that has yet to strike shore, the impact of the most serious controversy in Traumatology has yet to come. It concerns the validity of self-reported trauma exposure in American war veterans receiving service-connected disability payments for PTSD. Burkett and Whitley’s award-winning book Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History (9) alerted the field to the possibility that many individuals diagnosed with PTSD may never have been exposed to trauma in the first place. Mainstream Traumatologists, however, either ignored Stolen Valor or privately maligned the authors’ motives without substantively rebutting Burkett and Whitley’s critique of the field. 

Well then don't WE think it is about time that the non-U.S. military, non-U.S. government controlled (neutral) Psychiatric community got off it's duff and did just that?  I am not talking about the National  Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD that is most likely run by a Bush appointee, but the American Psyciatric Association or so me other neutral that has the interests of the patient not politics or profits at heart.

McNally claims that, "...subsequent work has vindicated Burkett and Whitley. In a landmark study, Frueh and colleaguesconsulted archival data for 100 patients assessed at a DVA hospital reportedly exposed to PTSD-inducing trauma in Vietnam (10). Only 41% of them had any evidence of combat exposure in their military personnel files. Although with PTSD 94% diagnosed, some were never in Vietnam or never in the military at all. Others who served in Vietnam as clerks or cooks described having suffered battlefield trauma. An investigation recently completed by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the DVA revealed that 25.1% of 2100 randomly chosen patients receiving service-connected disability had no convincing evidence in their clinical files of exposure to any traumatic events (11). The rate of these apparent false-positive cases of PTSD varied from a low of 11% in Maine to a high of 40.7% in Oregon. Because the report did not indicate how many had been involved in research studies, it is unclear how seriously false positives infected the scientific database. However, in a recent neuroimaging study on combat-related PTSD, the researchers found that 53% of the combat-related PTSD subjects had no evidence of documented exposure to combat (12). The OIG uncovered other bizarre facts. For example, the modal PTSD case got worse over time, despite treatment in the DVA hospital, until the service-connected disability rating reached 100%. At that point, mental health visits plummeted by 82%; for many patients, they ceased altogether once achieving maximum financial compensation. Why has PTSD, unlike the other anxiety disorders, been so often embroiled in serious controversy? One possibility is that concern for the plight of victims has led clinical researchers to suspend their scientific skepticism. To question those reporting exposure to childhood sexual abuse or those who served their country during wartime seems offensive and morally repugnant. As scientists, however, Traumatologists are committed to discovering and publishing the truth, and pursuing the truth about trauma is ultimately best form of victim advocacy."

Give US a break, here is someone with a PhD trying to convince anyone that based on invading the privacy of 100 patients at one VA Hospital and another 2100 other Veterans by Bush appointees of the right wing managed VA system today vindicates Burkett's "Stolen Valor" and the witch hunt it has inspired. Dr. McNally needs his head examined. 

In closing Dr. McNally and Mr. Burkett, I am not officially diagnosed with PTSD, unlike the 2200 other Veterans whos privacy the Department of Veterans Affairs and their VA physcians under orders from Bush's handlers saw fit to violate including the confidentiality of their medical records. Many Veterans are under the impression the VA cannot be sued for violation of Patient/Doctor priviledge or Invasion of Privacy, I also do not claim to be a decorated Vietnam War hero Burkett, but you have no business looking at my military records without my permission and will never get it not for what you do. VSO magazines are crawling with advertisements from lawyers willing to take on the VA for malpractice. I am certainly WE can dig up enough business interest for what you criminals are doing.

If we can't now maybe post-November 2006 (Wink).

Bobby "Indy Thinker" Hanafin