"PTSD's real but invisible scars can mark clerks and cooks just as easily as they can infantrymen fighting a faceless enemy in these wars without front lines."

I thought I was seeing a higher incidence of persons collecting disability because of PTSD. Many were never "In harms way". They held lower staff positions far away from any more danger than you or I face every day.

Tide of new PTSD cases raises fears of fraud

Moved by a huge tide of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress, Congress has pressured the Department of Veterans Affairs to settle their disability claims — quickly, humanely, and mostly in the vets' favor.

The problem: The system is dysfunctional, an open invitation to fraud. And the VA has proposed changes that could make deception even easier.

PTSD's real but invisible scars can mark clerks and cooks just as easily as they can infantrymen fighting a faceless enemy in these wars without front lines. The VA is seeking to ease the burden of proof to ensure that their claims are processed swiftly.

But at the same time, some undeserving vets have learned how to game the system, profitably working the levers of sympathy for the wounded and obligation to the troops, and exploiting the sheer difficulty of nailing a surefire diagnosis of a condition that is notoriously hard to define.

"The threshold has been lowered. The question is how many people will take advantage of that," said Dr. Dan G. Blazer, a Duke University psychiatrist who has worked with the military on PTSD issues. PTSD, he adds, is "among the easiest (psychiatric) conditions to feign."

Mark Rogers, a longtime claims specialist with the Veterans Benefits Administration, agrees. "I could get 100 percent disability compensation for PTSD for any (honorably discharged) veteran who's willing to lie," said Rogers, a Vietnam-era vet who is now retired.

For more ...

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36852985/ns/health-mental_health/t/tide-new-ptsd-cases-raises-fears-fraud/#.UVyRshjdIWQ

And therein lies the problem with all of big government.

The title suggests that infantrymen face dangers that clerks and cooks do not.



• Odd, that in WWII, infantrymen suffered a ratio of many fewer casualties than our civilian- and military- seafarers, and far less than airmen—pilots and aircrews.

• The US has thousands of contractors in Middle Eastern regions who face (and have faced) similar PTSD-inducing events; however, they are not covered by such Government charity.

• Thinking about this some more, this kind of VA fraud is unlikely to lead to the riots that are expected when the US dollar inevitably crumbles for "The Takers".

Socialism works fine until you run out of Other People's Money.