An ugly situation, getting uglier almost by the godsdamned minute.
I had entertained the hope that the government would have learned (after the Bonus Army, the GI Bill and of course Vietnam) that they owe a debt to our veterans. The Government sent civilized men and women off to kill and destroy, then allows them no ability to transition back into civilization.
It is interesting that during WWII, as many as 1/3 of all US riflemen never pulled the trigger. I believe the Korea and VN had similar figures. They weren't "Volunteers" but true "Citizen Soldiers" drafted into the killing machine. They also did not spend a full year, 24/7, in a war zone, but actually got sent back to the rear for R&R or for relief and replacements. WWII had a clear mission. VN and Korea had missions that could be completed and then you returned to base camp.
Operation Iraqi FUBAR has none of that with multiple tours compounding the stress.
Millions served in WWII, Korea and VN and when they came back there were veterans organizations receiving them with comrades who KNEW what they had been through. Or in the case of VN vets there was also an underground system of support. An interesting side note; The VFW in some places refused VN vets membership because we "weren't in a real war." The myth of the protester spitting and all the other crap did not happen although many vets will tell the story that it did. I have two friends who tell me it happened to them ( both VN vets), but I never saw it or know anyone else who did. Thank you Rambo.
I need more coffee and this is just the kind of story that makes me either want to hit the streets and howl or just go back to bed and dream of a better place.
I find it interesting that the phrase "Soldier's Heart" was used in the NYT's piece. A friend of mine has used that for years, even has a web site Soldier's Heart.
Today, we call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Before that, troops came home with Vietnam Syndrome.
Three wars earlier, we had Battle Fatigue or Shell Shock.
But in more poetic times, there was Soldier’s Heart.
Rudyard Kipling had it right in "Tommy."
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's ``Thank you, Mister Atkins,'' when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's ``Thank you, Mr. Atkins,'' when the band begins to play.
You were doing just fine until...
"After ruining our military, the Bush Administration has yet again failed to take care of our troops."Everything goes better with BDS, huh, pardner?
Don't forget that the majority of Congress, and the majority of Americans, supported this war. Your hate is directed at the President, and you evidence your hate in every breath you take. You are sad that way.
I suppose if we hadn't a volunteer force, your tears could be a bit more believable.
Usually I don't respond to trolls because arguing on the Intertubes is..., well you get the picture. That being said, just because the majority believes a lie doesn't mean it is true.
I don't hate because hate is an emotion with no return. I do however despise the Bush administration, the majority of Congress and the stupidity of the American people who let their lust for vengeance cloud their judgment as they were lead into this debacle.
I wrote this a while back.
The lies put out by “think tanks”, corporate propaganda organs and Madison Avenue ad agencies whose sole purpose is to steer you away from the truth and lead you through the looking glass into a wonderland, where if you drink the right beer you get the girl of your dreams. A wonderland where a pill solves every problem or a new car puts you on the road of happiness. A wonderland of facades and shallowness built on the premise that money can buy you love. That is their promise. It is a false one.
It is as false as the glorious worship of war that permeates our society. War is a false god worshipped by warmongers and poll watchers; a false god worshipped by the media whores who wish to be bathed in its reflected glow; a false god worshipped by those who have never seen, heard, smelled or touched the obscenity of the violence they glorify. War is the promise breaker.
As James Madison wrote in 1795, "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive [Branch of Government] is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war...and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
The flag is used by the war worshippers to incite and arouse the masses to their cause. They want mandatory pledges of allegiance in schools. They display it everywhere and anywhere. If you don’t have at least one article of clothing with a flag theme you must be unpatriotic. Put one on your car if you want to be a “real American”.
Congress is back again with a flag desecration amendment, never mind that the President himself has desecrated the flag by signing one at the Republican Nation Convention. Or that the US Flag Code is violated every day by the thousands of tattered flags flying from the gutter mounts of cars of “real Americans”. Never mind that those who wave the flag the hardest are the ones who had “other priorities” when it was their time to serve.
I have had many discussion with my fellow veterans on the flag. What it means to them and how it is used to sway public opinion. Many of them refuse to respect or honor it because it has flown over the scenes of horrible atrocities, because it has been used to advance a political agenda of war over peace. I understand their feelings completely. Yet I am one of those who still wants to believe that it represents more than that. Just because the flag is hijacked by corrupt politicians and fear mongers, doesn’t mean we should let them get away with it. If we do, we will have allowed them to steal the promise of America as surely as if we had left our doors unlocked with a flashing neon sign on our porch saying “the good silver is in here”.
Remember, as my good friend Mike Hastie, a medic who served in VN said;
"The reason people don't learn from the past, is because the past was a repetitious lie to begin with."
You are right on. This war will cripple an entire generation of young men and women. The whole shooting-match will leave scars forever and it will eventually not just be those involved but everyone.
And talk about the hate directed at George W. He is arrogant and unforgiving and as to the old saying: the buck stops here.
The fault for the horror is his and his alone, remember, he's the Decider.
And he's made some of the worst decisions in history, not only in Iraq, but in New Orleans, in California and many other pkaces in between.
last summer I heard a horrible story about a vet who killed his wife, son and then himself in Hilo, and the first thing I thought of was ptsd, no resources and so little help and support for these guys was going to cause countless tragedies.
heartbreaking indeed...
good post jesse
the trolls are really getting much stupider
BOHICA, thanks for what you posted up to.
fucking crazy, how many wars? how many warriors?
If you want to have access to a timeline documenting PTSD-related incidents involving our military returnees, go here:
/index.php&mjre=PTSD&table_name=tl_ptsd&
function=search&order=date&order_type=DESC
As for feeding the "trolls" BOHICA, both Stormfront & I can reassure you that this assclown visitor doesn't even qualify for the label. I visited his regurgitant, stomach roiling blog site once and came away with the impression that it was run by someone who never got even a whiff of the labial lubricants of love. A return visit and perusal of his first post there today simply reinforces that impression.
UPDATE:
http://
timelines.epluribusmedia....order_type=DESC
This is the full site address for the PTSD timeline. Sorry for the error.
HubrisSonic, you are welcome. The full piece I wrote is here if anyone is interested.
"The promise."
drbopperthp, you have a stronger stomach than I.
Thanks for writing this, Jesse. I have written about some of the failures in military healthcare and also about the lack of resources for military and retired military personnel who have symptoms of acute or chronic mental illness.
You wrote about tactics of adaptation in a combat setting, and this flicked the lightbulb on!
The idea of reviewing, rehearsing and preparing for missions could be used for training AWAY from troubling symptoms of PTSD. In other words, use the principles of educating and training for emergency preparedness and combat missions, but instead, teach the appropriate behaviors and responses for adapting to civilian life.
Combine that with a model that pairs returnees/ affected people so that they always have someone to contact to validate feelings, behaviors, tactics, etc.
I think I'll contact Paul Rieckoff and Ilona Meagher and see if anyone is using this model or if there is a venue for support services which features buddies and behavioral re-training.
Thanks so much for this post!
yes, jesse, it is a hard scenario. i was, while recovering from the wounds that got me out of the service, studied by psychologists who were interested in the physical changes that people undergo when they've been exposed to long term stress from combat. my three combat tours in vietnam made me a prime candidate. they were also interested in finding out what the differences between many of us were. one shrink told me that to his understanding most of the troops never really aimed their weapons, it was a case of point and spray most of the time. i was an aiming motherfucker. part of that was having grown up on a reservation where hunting was done for the table and ammo was expensive and scarce. part of it was that i came from a culture that honored warriors. i used to tell people that one of the hardest lessons i had to learn fast when i got out of the service was that when people pissed me off i couldn't just kill them. there were many, many lessons that had to be unlearned. behaviors that have saved your life are hard to drop. many of them never completely go away.
i also had the resource of a long, intricate ceremony called "the enemy way" which is used by the apache when warriors return from battle. it provided me with a delination between my life as a fighter and my life back here in the world. things like that became ancient wisdom because it works. it provided me with a "that was then, this is now" point of reference.
even with doing three tours, in a unit known for loving combat action, i did not have to deal with the relentless, and never ending stress that the kids in iraq and afghanistan have to face. during ww2 the shrinks figured that 280 days of front line action was about the limit of a man. since there are no markers for front and rear in iraq especially, it's a place where the most dangerous job is a supply truck driver, these kids pass the understood limit in their first tour. then they are faced with second, third, fourth, and more tours ahead if they ship over. no wonder retention of mid-grade non-coms and officers is such a problem.
the main thing i learned from all of it is that one of the physical changes that was made deep in my brain triggers more adrenelin faster, which is then picked up more slowly. i can go from rest to action in less than the blink of an eye. because of training and experience if i allow that change and reaction to happen i can be finished with the whole thing before a conscious thought is allowed to barge into my head. just like that young man in vegas.
the only difference between me and him is a couple of decades and a lot of dumb, blind, screaming luck.
Brilliant, Jesse. Just...wow.
The experience you cite there about constantly running those scenarios is something I've heard many times from people I've come across that I've suspected of suffering from extreme cases of PTSD.
They've told me chapter and verse about scenarios at the mall when their adrenaline spiked over a potential incident, or a tense moment in a bodega with characters who didn't do anything but somehow set off “their alarm”.
Time bombs. Human-fucking-time bombs—with timers started in Ramadi, Tikrit and Fallujah—ticking from then.
And shipped home here to detonate. God almighty.
The "shipments" haven't even begun to arrive yet LoLo. Just starting...
the only difference between me and him is a couple of decades and a lot of dumb, blind, screaming luck.
While I'm glad you enjoyed such dumb, blind, screaming luck because we'd rather have you here (even if it's just a virtual "here") educating us with your experience than dead or in jail.
Thanks for the post, JW (and the troll-handling, BOHICA).
One can only wonder, as I do fewer than two blocks from the OKC bombing memorial: how many Tim McVeighs are returning home?
Let's not forget the looming drug thing : how many guys will we have on heroin, on downers, who drink, on tranx? Some will do it to dull the physical pain of injuries: others emotional pain. We will lock them up in prison for seeking to find solace in medication and create further trauma on top of their trauma. And then let them out as felons, unable to get a good job or even subsidized housing. Will our self-righteousness over drugs blind us to their suffering? Will it take an Iraqi vet fed up with it all before we try to help them?
I really want to thank everyone by name, but just don't have it in me today to go through and do so. Please each of you consider yourself thanked.
Even the Troll, whom I thank for taking time from his service in Iraq with a combat division as an 11B to post his upset with us. ...oh, wait... he's not a member of this "volunter force" he speaks of? Gee Gidge. I was. Two of the masthead bloggers on this board are vets, and a significant plurality of GNB readers are vets as well. Until you too are a veteran, either give your name to a recruiter at Army Recruiting, STFU, or at least, be amusing. So far, you're nothing, you hypocritical punk-ass coward.
Annie and minstrel, especially, I single out your comments for special attention, with my gratitude.
Everyone else, again, thank you.
OK think about it.
The soldiers in Iraq are on 12-18 month tour of duty (Correct? Someone correct me if I am wrong). When they come back to USA to see their families, they are pulled back in a few weeks for another, same length tour.
And another one.
And this ain't WW2, with breaks in combat. No, you buddy will drive that Humvee until you get killed. For 3 years straight.
I am surprised more of them don't snap.
Wow.. I had it easy... but it wasn't until talking to hubris that I realized that not everyone gets a sudden urge to kill someone.
I knew I was a little wound up after I got out when some local HS kids tried to pull some shit on me. I was almost as surprised as they were with the way I snapped at them.
Sometimes it is easier to sleep with a few beers in me.
We really have to do more for these people than just out-process and push them out the gate.
A lot of this has to do with the "I'm a tough guy, I can deal with this!" brand of pop-psychology. No, not many of us can. Asking for help is NOT a sign of weakness.
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