Thousands of Iraq Veterans Cope With Brain Damage

This will part of the Bush legacy. He has sentenced thousands of brave young Americans to a lifetime of suffering, along with their families. That is the greatest crime of all. Between the thousands dead, maimed, or brain damaged, it is a crime that even Bin Laden couldn't match:

The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers.

Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.

"I've been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they're saying to me, 'We're seeing things we've never seen before,'" said Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury rehabilitation program.

Adding insult to injury, because of the cost of the quagmire in Iraq, there might not be enough resources to provide the adequate care needed by those who suffer brain injuries:

Though the full number of those suffering from TBI is still unknown, the problem is straining the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Until now, "they were dealing with a cohort of aging veterans with diabetes, heart disease, lung disease," said Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and a VA adviser.

Now, these young, brain-injured troops need highly specialized care, and how much it will help long-term is unknown, he said.