ANTI-WAR CROWD MAY HAVE FINALLY FOUND SOMETHING TO HANG THEIR HATS ON: TINNITUS

They tried to say that the Iraq War turned vets into murderers. That failed. Then they tried to say that the Iraq War made them suicidal - that failed too.

Now... maybe they've found something: TINNITUS:

AP:

Soldiers and Marines caught in roadside bombings and firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home in epidemic numbers with permanent hearing loss and ringing in their ears, prompting the military to redouble its efforts to protect the troops from noise.

Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear.

Nearly 70,000 of the more than 1.3 million troops who have served in the two war zones are collecting disability for tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears, and more than 58,000 are on disability for hearing loss, the VA said.

"The numbers are staggering," said Theresa Schulz, a former audiologist with the Air Force, past president of the National Hearing Conservation Association and author of a 2004 report titled "Troops Return With Alarming Rates of Hearing Loss."

• I THINK THE ANTI-WAR CROWD FEELS THAT THE SOUND OF A MUEZZIN IS A LOT BETTER THAN THE SOUND OF US KILLING ISLAMO-NAZIS.

• I DON'T.

• THEY CAN STICK THEIR ANTI-WAR CRAP UP THEIR EARS.

• IF THEY REALLY SUPPORTED THE TROOPS THEN THEY'D WANT US TO WATER-BoARD DETAINEES AND INTERCEPT AS MANY ENEMY COMMUNICATIONS AS WE CAN - NOT AS MANY AS THE ACLU WOULD ALLOW!

BUT WE SHOULD DEFINITELY GET THE TROOPS MO'BETTER EARPLUGS.