Editorial: Support Funding Brain Injury Cases

From the Kennebec Journal

Pentagon officials who regularly call for everyone to "Support the Troops" should listen to themselves.

We can think of no more obvious support than providing money to care for soldiers who suffer brain injuries in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet Congress is about to approve a defense appropriation bill requested by the Pentagon that would chop funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center from $14 million to $7 million.

The center runs 10 facilities to care for injured soldiers.

"It's just ridiculous," Army Sgt. Maj. Colin Rich told the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer. Rich has been legally blind since he was shot in the head in Afghanistan in 2002. "Whoever is cutting the budget must have a head injury themselves."

Head wounds have been called the signature injury of the Iraq war. Roadside bombs and suicide attacks too often inflict head injuries -- more than in other wars.

Doctors at the head injury centers asked for more money to help more injured soldiers. Pentagon brass refuse to explain why that request for more turned into a decision to cut the funding in half.

"With the bombs, the gunshot wounds and everything else, their plate is full," Sgt. Maj. Rich said. "They need that money."

Your Senators and representatives, should not allow this bill to pass without asking lots of questions.