Apologies for going all multimedia on y'all, but these three pieces from National Public Radio are pretty compelling and worth a few Mb of your company's bandwidth.

First:

T. Christian Miller of the Los Angeles Times discusses the suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethics scholar, in Iraq. Westhusing's suicide note lashed out at officers and expressed despair over allegations of corruption and human-rights abuses against the contractors he oversaw.

Second:

Men and women are returning from Iraq with more traumatic brain injuries than in previous wars. New armor protects the body, but the head is still vulnerable, particularly from car bomb blasts. For many, recovering from a brain injury is a long process. One innovative program is working to get troops back into the work force.

Third, the sequel to #2:

Many of the men and women who returned from Iraq with traumatic brain injuries may never fully recover. As part of our Span of War series, we continue our story of one soldier's attempt to grasp his new limitations and ultimately head home to his wife and family in West Virginia.

I found #3 especially wrenching, partly because of the veteran's warbling voice but largely because his attempt to serve his country has put him in such awful circumstances.