I've finally managed to read the entire article. Get a load of this paragraph:
Decades of studies on the problems of Vietnam veterans have established links between combat trauma and higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, gun ownership, child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse — and criminality. On a less scientific level, such links have long been known.
Good grief! These reporters equate gun ownership with crimes and other social ills. I'm almost afraid to think of the mindset they must've brought to this article.
As to the rest of it, it is worth reading, but not because it makes its point. Rather, if you read it with a focus on intellectual content, you find that their "case studies" don't even support both their stated and implied theses.
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A note to my friends: we all know those who have struggled mightily with the transition back to peace. I in no way deny their existence, the severity of the problems they face, or the shameful inadequacies of the bureaucracies created to help them. But this article is a distortion of the problem. And even worse, it is a distortion driven by and for a political outlook that views their service itself as a tragedy. And that disgusts and angers me beyond words.
