What lies ahead.

Think about how many of these young men and women will never get over this war.

Roughly one in five U.S. troops is suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an equal number have suffered brain injuries, a new study estimates.

Only about half of them have sought treatment, says the study released Thursday by the Rand Corp.

A recently completed survey showed 18.5% — or 300,000 people — said they have symptoms of depression or PTSD, the researchers said. Nineteen% — or 320,000 — suffered head injuries ranging from mild concussions to penetrating head wounds.

Those two groups may overlap, but still, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of soldiers walking around without treatment, at least one hundred big high schools full, and some percentage of them will never recover.

Now, let's talk about flag lapel pins, because that's what's important.