G.I.'s Battered by the Trauma of Iraq

( Published as a letter to the Editor in the New York Times, December 17, 2004)

To the Editor:

Re ''A Deluge of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict'' (front page, Dec. 16):

As President Bush cavalierly hands out Medals of Freedom to three people who were central figures in the war in Iraq, it might behoove him to observe what his policies have wrought: tens of thousands of soldiers with psychiatric problems who, you report, ''are going to need help for the next 35 years.''

The president is trying to write the history of the Iraq war as a success despite its uncertain outcome.

Expert predictions of the emotional devastation befalling another generation of young Americans sent to war is one of many reasons Mr. Bush sounds more like a salesman than a statesman.

The psychiatric impact of this war on our troops was as predictable as night following day by those of us who work in the field.

Hugh R. Winig, M.D.

(The writer is a psychiatrist.)