LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
HUFFINGTON
10.07.12
AWartime
Epidemic
S HUFFPOST’S senior
military correspondent, David Wood
(who won a Pulitzer in
the spring for his Beyond the Battlefield series) has relentlessly put
the spotlight on the sacrifices and
struggles of America’s veterans.
His story in this week’s issue of
Huffington puts a spotlight on the
true cost of the wars. “Among the
grim repercussions of a decade of
fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan—
the dead, the battle-injured, the
wreckage, the wasted billions—is
this: while most soldiers return
from war and resume a somewhat
normal life, many do not,” he
writes. Many return to face other
ART STREIBER
A
demons: drug addiction, alcohol
abuse or reckless behavior that
can lead to fractured families or
trouble with the law. The result
is what one expert calls “an epidemic”: the estimated 223,000
veterans who are in prison—most
of them veterans of Vietnam, but
increasingly from Iraq and Afghanistan. David introduces us to
32-year-old Jamie Beavers, who
has served two Iraq tours and suffered from PTSD and pill addiction. In February, when he was
arrested and spent time in jail,
his wife and daughters fled, leav-
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