GAO finds that DOD has stopped trying to find veterans used in Cold War experiments that used chemical weapons and biological weapons and drugs such as LSD and PCP. They basically just gave up in 2003 and have no plan to continue.

On Thursday the Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed what many of the veterans involved in the Cold War Experiments, known as Operation SHAD/112, Edgewood Arsenal's chemical weapon and drug tests 1955 - 1975 and the Fort Detrick  Biological Weapon tests from 1953 - 1972. There were thousands of soldiers used in these experiments, on ships, on the ground and in the air, they were exposed to many types of toxic materials and many of the programs have never conducted follow up medical studies.

A few of the programs have ran some studies but the way the Institute of Medicine (IOM) received the contracts from the DOD it was constructed to ignore much of the known research already done. This is a given there is not much in the way of living victims of chemical weapons and biological weapons attacks. The 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin attack, the victims of Iran/Iraqs war in the 1980s, but we don't have much interchange with Iran.

ePluribus Media has just published Blaming the Veteran: The Politics of PTSD.

Along with their PTSD Timeline, the folks at ePM hope to shine a light on the plight of veterans returning to us suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. They're not the only ones working on educating the public on this issue -- Garry Trudeau has been doing his part, too.

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

Following up on my last diary on the award-winning comic strip, let's find out how returning character B.D. (a hard-nosed wounded Iraq combat vet and amputee) is dealing with his PTSD...

Let's take a look at the War President's budget through the veteran lens. Does Bush put his money where his mouth is? Does his budget support our troops when they're done fighting his wars?

List of veteran and force cuts below the fold...

Let's get right down to it.

First off some good news for our troops: if the President has his way, they'll be getting a 2.2% raise. That translates to $1,188 per year for an Army captain. It doesn't quite keep up with inflation, but an increase is an increase. I applaud the raise. Increase it, and I'll throw in a free cheer, too.