Wow, this is simply an outrage:
Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq -- by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.
In each case, the Pentagon ruled that their disabilities were not combat-related.
Here's more:
In a little-noticed regulation change in March, the military's definition of combat-related disabilities was narrowed, costing some injured veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits -- and triggering outrage from veterans' advocacy groups.
The Pentagon said the change was consistent with Congress' intent when it passed a "wounded warrior" law in January. Narrowing the combat-related definition was necessary to preserve the "special distinction for those who incur disabilities while participating in the risk of combat, in contrast with those injured otherwise," William J. Carr, deputy undersecretary of Defense, wrote in a letter to the 1.3-million-member Disabled American Veterans.
I am speechless.
How much did we just hand over to Citigroup so that it could spend $400 million dollars naming a stadium after itself?
Yet Sgt. Lori Meshell's just Shit Out Of Luck seeing as how she's not a rich banker, but instead was a soldier, getting the bones of her body crushed fighting George W. Bush's dirty illegal war.
Wow. I can't even keep writing this. I've gotta go find my bottle of TUMS.
UPDATED to fix anger-induced typos.
And thanks to ThinkProgress.org for bringing this to my attention. They're the best.