The Barn Door

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Here we are seven years into the Phony War on Terror (PWOT©) and the Department of Defense is giving $300 million to study Traumatic Brain Injury, the signature wound of this war. A RAND Corp. study released in April estimates "300,000 current or former combat troops have PTSD or depression, and up to 320,000 may have suffered a brain injury (Troops' Stress, Trauma Studied.)"

This outlay is being hailed as a magnanimous gesture. "Gregory O'Shanick, national medical director for the Brain Injury Association of America, says the funding initiative is 'without a doubt … an all-time high' for spending by the government on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)."

My -- $300 Million. The amount spent to run about 18 hours of the Iraq war; less than a day. A grandiloquent gesture, indeed.

The results of these tests may be available in five years. This is called operating behind the power curve. No wonder we can't find Osama bin Laden. We always close the barn door after the horse is out.

A day late and a dollar short.