It's time to move on

Lee Woodruff today posted an astute essay, "Silent sufferers and walking wounded -- the brain injured," the link for which you'll find below. Lee's husband Bob Woodruff suffered from traumatic brain injury in January 2006 was injured when an IED exploded next to his APC in Iraq, and in this piece, Lee writes candidly and succinctly about TBI, and the need for the field of neuroscience to better understand TBI.

Although I am fairly confident that Lee's purpose in writing this essay was to focus on the need for a greater understanding of TBI, something different stuck a chord with me. Consider the following points from Lee's piece:
"The vast numbers of people returning from the war with these injuries, an estimated 15-30 percent of the 1.5 million cycling through Afghanistan and Iraq, are helping to redefine what we collectively know about brain injury."

And then: "At the same time we are tackling our veterans' care and demanding sufficient cognitive rehabilitation, we need to remain focused on the other Americans who are suffering from this disease. Only then will we be able to better understand how to help the legions of silent sufferers.

And only then will we be able to best serve those brave Americans who have so generously served us. There is a plaque in the cemetery at Iwo Jima in Japan, 'They gave of themselves today so that you could have your tomorrow.'"

What am I getting at? This understanding-- of TBI, of having "your tomorrow" -- all of this can only be accomplished when we move past the point that we probably shouldn't be in Iraq anyway. We are there, and many, many brave men and women are fighting because the rest of us don't want to. It's time to move past the politics of hindsight and stand behind the soldiers and reporters who are in Iraq, heading to Iraq, or have just returned home.

If there is going to be some upshot of this war, if, like Lee is suggesting we stand to improve veteran's rights, and encourage the scientific community's understanding of TBI, then I'm all for it. But sadly, I don't feel we will get anywhere past the chatter of an optimistic few until the many cynics figure out that our soldiers aren't baby killers; they're doing a job that the majority of us never want to have.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-woodruff/silent-sufferers-and-walk_b_58706.html