Saddle up, soldier.

In a piece for The Guardian, Suzanne Goldenberg profiles SP4 Jason Gunn, who was med-evaced from Iraq, only to find himself returned while still being treated for PTSD, although his outfit is scheduled to rotate in only seven weeks.

When his mother, a Navy vet herself, made inquiries, she was told that "After discussion of his case it was determined ... this may be in his best interest mentally to overcome his fear by facing it. Therefore, he has been cleared for redeployment."

Fear? Since the Army acknowledges that Gunn is, indeed, suffering from PTSD, that response seems to indicate that the malady has now been reclassified as a manifestation of cowardice. They know better. Or perhaps they're operating on the theory that if your horse throws you, the only thing to do is climb back on. Of course, that theory fails if you broke a leg in the fall, I believe. And I think they know that, too.

What they don't know, though, is how to maintain the force levels they need in Iraq without throwing disabled troops back into the fray prematurely.

Gunn is hardly unique. Goldenberg points to other, in some case more extreme, cases.

"One sergeant major," she writes "was shipped out two months after neck surgery, despite orders from his military doctor for six months' rest. 'The nurse told me to put my hands above my head and said you are good to go,' he told the Guardian. A female supply sergeant said she was sent to Kuwait under medical advice not to walk more than half a mile at a time, or carry more than 50lb. Both had to be medically evacuated within weeks; the sergeant major required surgery on his return."

In another example, she describes "A mechanic, who suffered brain damage last June when his vehicle was hit by a suicide bus, was sent back to Iraq in October despite reported blurred vision and memory loss. He returned with his unit last month, and medical evaluations showed he had continued bleeding from the original head injury."

Goldenberg also points to an impending crisis that has received far too little attention from the US media and, one suspects, from the war planners and defense budgeters.

"15,000 soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have filed for disability claims." she reports. "Some 12,000 have sought medical treatment from facilities run by the department of veterans affairs. About 4,600 have sought psychological counselling. That demand threatens to overwhelm a veterans' healthcare system that has received no new funding since the Iraq war began."

Of course, veterans of previous conflicts know that the veteran's healthcare system was overwhelmed long before Bushco went into business creating new clients. In spite of the growing roster of patients for an already inadequate system, in fact, they are scheduling closures of VA medical facilities.

Apparently they think the best cure for say, an amputation, is a tax cut...