Editorial: The war within

Friday, March 2, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

Mental health experts say that the U.S. military is not adequately addressing the psychological needs of troops and family members who have been traumatized by war.

A task force created by the American Psychological Association, the nation's largest organization of mental health professionals, issued a report Sunday that says the 700,000 American children who have at least one parent deployed overseas are especially at risk of not receiving the mental health care they need. More than 2,700 children have had a parent killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The report also says that the military hasn't hired enough psychologists and has experienced a 40 percent vacancy rate among licensed clinical psychologist positions in the Army and Navy. The programs that are in place vary in effectiveness and scope, the report says, and the experts said few were of high quality. There also is a lack of research on how the war affects troops' spouses and children.

This report comes on the heels of an announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week that he has assembled an independent panel to investigate dilapidated conditions and care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center's outpatient program, which serves a large number of returning soldiers suffering psychological problems related to traumatic stress. A series of stories by The Washington Post revealed that at least one of the buildings used to house soldiers is falling apart and is vermin-infested, while record keeping is so poor that files - and even patients - get lost.

All are evidence of a military system that was ill-prepared to take care of the more than 23,000 wounded troops that have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. It is apparent that the Bush administration not only has failed to craft a cohesive war strategy, but it also has failed to figure out how it is going to take care of the troops who have sacrificed their bodies and mental well-being.

This situation is a disgrace. And Bush, having never actually fought a war himself, seems unaware that for thousands of soldiers and their families, the war's battles also are being waged at home.