The war comes home.

The Seattle Times reports the saga of Dana Beaudine, who went to Iraq with his Reserve unit, picked up a Purple Heart and a mild case of PTSD, and came home to a life of unemployment checks while he struggles to get his old job back.

Beaudine was a security guard at the Federal Building in Seattle, where security responsibilities are contracted out to Securitas Security Services USA, a subsidiary of Swedish security conglomerate Securitas AB. Although he's been cleared for return to work by a series of doctors, Securitas sets up new hurdles at every step.

Beaudine is just one of the 3,200 returning veterans who have filed Labor Department grievances over their inability to return to employment when their Guard or Reserve duty is complete, and we've barely begun to scratch the surface of the problem. Most of the 361,000 Guard and Reserve members who've been mobilized to support Rumsfeld's inadequately manned regular forces have yet to return to civilian life. When that flood hits America's hometowns, watch out.

Of course, the story raises other question, like whether it's appropriate for the federal government to be contracting out security services in a time of heightened security concerns, and whether it's ever appropriate for the feds to contract out to a foreign-owned company, but first things first.

Give Dana Beaudine his damn job back!