Mistreated Casualties

JEANS CRUZ, a former Army scout who helped capture Saddam Hussein, lives in a bullet-riddled Bronx housing project, addled by nightmares about Iraq, voices in his head and the smell of dried blood in his nostrils. As Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull recently described his situation, Mr. Cruz began cutting his arms and extinguishing cigarettes on his skin after returning home from Iraq. Mental health counselors characterized him as depressed and anxious, and, shortly after he reenlisted in the Army, he was discharged because of a "personality disorder." A Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.
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