This is the face of a young Marine who had just participated in a house-to-house sweep in an Iraqi village.
The toll of boomerang re-deployments for these depleted soldiers and marines aren't just taking their toll in physical maiming (everything to lost limbs to brain trauma caused by powerful remote controlled exploding devices--IEDs-- ), but in the loss of long-term mental stability as well. New rules that make it impossible to send soldiers back until a year's "rest" from deployment do not address the still lamentable fact that the wars, particularly in Afghanistan, appear to be nowhere near ending and this country is relying on National Guard and Reservists troops in numbers that have not been seen in the Armed Forces since World War II.
Although it has been nearly three years since the first major findings came out recording high combat stress-related disorders plaguing American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, things seem to have only got worse. Recent studies by the Department of Veterans Affairs show that of the 289,328 veterans returning from combat across the globe, 37 percent are suffering from either clinical depression or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Alcoholism, violence (including suicide and homicide) are a record levels. In just one Army unit, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, over eleven homicides have been carried out by returning soldiers who saw intense fighting in Iraq.) And yet, despite, the studies, according to Daniel Swerdling of National Public Radio, the psychiatric staff at Army Medical facilities stateside are still under-funded and under staffed.
This is a report on the Fort Carson incidents from the pro-Veteran site, VetsVoice (not affiliated with the Department of Defense):
"Soldiers from a Colorado unit accused in nearly a dozen slayings since returning home - including a couple gunned down as they put up a garage sale sign - could be showing hostility fueled by intense combat in Iraq, where the troops suffered heavy losses and told of witnessing war crimes, the military said Wednesday.
In what was billed as its most comprehensive study to date of violent crimes and combat exposure, the Army looked at soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division - nicknamed the Lethal Warriors - who were accused in a spate of five killings around Colorado Springs, home to Fort Carson, in 2007 and 2008.
Six other slayings involving unit soldiers occurred in Colorado and other states since 2005
We've been hearing about a number of incidents, that is by 'we' those who use multiple mostly online sources and either accidentally find them or use the right search words. The MSM is virtually silent except when one or two who get it are brave enough to fight to get the reports aired!!
Army investigators compared the Fort Carson unit of about 3,700 soldiers with a similarly sized unit and found it suffered more combat deaths in Iraq and was deployed there longer."This deployment experienced higher levels of combat intensity," the report said, adding that the soldiers also faced "significant disruptions in family-social support."
Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general, said Wednesday the unit's crime cluster appeared to be unique among Army bases and that its combat exposure and length of deployments are just two factor officials are looking at.
"We're starting to look into the deployments and ... how it's related with attitudes and behavior," Schoomaker said.......Rest Here
Soldiers returning need not only more down time, between deployments, they should be serving one if any at all. They need time between deployments! They need the help they seek! They need to be understood when seeking that help!"
http://vetvoice.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=5B3AB9B85FAC165E2D62DE46FD95E048?diaryId=2955
It is clear that, in the course of American military history, to paraphrase a famous statesman of the past: Never has so much been demanded of so few, over and over again. I wonder how long the Afghan War would last if the leaders in Washington came out for a draft of men to fight the war. The very unpopularity of such an idea--among rank and file members of both parties--calls into question the very need for this war. And with troops strength recently doubled to 80,000 Americans in Afghanistan, and little continued support for this war outside America, this policy seems to be designed to continue to produce violence not only abroad but pain and suffering for families and their loved ones on the home front.
Doug, there's a reason modern wars last around four years -- that's because nations can't get troops to go to war past that point.
ReplyDeleteThe look on that man's face is what you get when you send people to shoot civilians and call it 'war'.
It's what happens when we have no national mandate for a conflict - and where the war itself was started without a true casus belli.
It's what you get when things are starting to fall apart.
Surely nobody is surprised at these statistics? The shock is that it's not higher (it probably is, mental illness can hide/lie dormant for a long time).
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't have to be war without a casus belli either. I can't be the only person with memories of shell-shocked men who served in WWII can I?
The war in Afghanistan can't be won, it never will be, men are dying when they ought be be sent home. Most of our soldiers are in their early twenties, what are they giving their life for? The Russians tried and found the terrain unforgiving and simply gave it up as a lost cause. Of course, the troubles are also linked to Pakistan's and god knows it's a mess there.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why these guys go home with mental health problems, the land as well as the men are their enemy. Afghanistan's simply go to ground in the caves which are a massive network with many exits and they know their land well and how to put it to good use. They simply sit and wait, picking off the soldiers as they please. They lay roadside bombs and the army never know when they are going to drive over one. It is madness when you know you can't win...
You put it directly and well, Astra. The information I keep getting on the treatment of veterans doesn't seem to improve, and still this war drags on and the mainstream media is quite comfortable talking about other, brighter subjects. I think that young man's face is etched in my mind, as a summation of what we have done to so many on all sides in this long, long war.
ReplyDeleteThat's the scary part, Melanie: no, this "trauma in war" in not itself a surprise, nor should it be treated ass a new development from wars past. (But there is a sense that the general population have a short-term memory loss.)
ReplyDeleteThe fact that we don't get as many stories as we did in 2005-6 on the effects of the war on men and women in uniform tells me the slow economy and pedestrian celebrity coverage has taken over the focus of the media editors.
I think elements of the the media were doing a good job for awhile on covering this, but now its off the boil. "We'd" rather talk about missions to Mars??!! A hot war, covered on the fringes, with less and less interest in holding the military brass responsible.
All good points, Cassandra. The British tried to mold Afghanistan in the Raj Era, and the Russians came and went after a decade of good business for no one but coffin-makers.
ReplyDeleteThese NATO men and women are fighting in isolated, incredibly difficult terrain with an enemy that can blend into the crowds or head up into the mountains of northwest Pakistan, where there is no central control.
Not all that much much has changed in the rural northwest territories since Kipling reflected on this part of the world. If anything, the remote-control bombs have made it much easier to be a guerilla. And, yes, we can't win.
Unsurprising really. Both my mother's brothers (English) took part in WW2, and my mother has always believed they returned with major issues. Neither of them ever married, they both became loners and one was nearly a complete recluse and an alcoholic.
ReplyDeleteFollowing the death of one New Zealand businessman in the recent suicide bombings in Indonesia, our Prime Minister here (odd that our flash new government always seems to be so backward and so out of step with everyone else) has just intimated that he believes we should send more of our troops to Afghanistan. We are left to ponder on how sending New Zealanders to a stupid and pointless war in Afghanistan will save New Zealanders from terrorism?
Nope, you are not. Our leaders seem to have selective memories though, I guess the bottom line is that they just don't want to know.
ReplyDeleteYes, Iri Ani, so many of those who served in past wars have been traumatized. So many Yank troops from WWII came home and kept the horrors of what they saw inside them. This trauma has been recognized, but its still seen in the "warrior caste" as a sign of weakness in men and goes untreated very often. The mantra after WWII and Korea was to "forget about it", and only the most broken men got some treatment for their indelible pain.
ReplyDeleteThe result of inaction and inertia explodes sporadically in broken marriages, or in repeated alcoholism and job loss and domestic violence. The galling thing is that its like we have to as a society relearn these lessons. The Veterans hospitals and clinics weren't prepared to deal with the huge numbers of afflicted soldiers. I suppose all this was to be a short and glorious conflict.
Politicians do have a genius for doing the most "knee-jerk" thing in the face of a major story, don't they?
Sending NZ troops abroad to a quagmire thousands of miles from home? It will make the MP's look tough I guess.
Is there any wonder? she says rhetorically.
ReplyDeleteHave any of you ever spoken to any Afghans? They do not believe there will ever be peace in their country. I spoke to one man, who is now settled in Seattle, who said "My country has been troubled one way or another for 2000 years, we have never had a chance to become stable, and I think it could be this way for another 2000 years. Those who like to fight will continue to do so, and those who don't simply leave."
ReplyDeleteYes I met some people from Afghanistan here some time ago. They had come from Kabul. One family had left/fled when the Taliban entered Kabul because (he said) the Taliban believed all the people in Kabul to be Communists and he had been part of the governing body in Kabul. Also his wife who was a teacher could no longer teach and his children's education had stopped.
ReplyDeleteBut peace is not brought by guns.
It's so frustrating to read accounts like these. Certainly the Taliban is NOT the way forward if they drive educated people out of their homeland.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, as Iri Ani suggests, foreign troops and endless offensives, coupled with high-tech air fighters and unmanned drone planes killing people by the hundreds is not the long-term solution to curbing packs of madrassa-trained religious fascists. Probably strengthens them, really.
The only long-term solution I see is open-ended male and female education, and infastructure improvements with no political strings attached.
This is one issue that does stand and I find Doug that it's something that each and every country that sends troops over there should really have something in place. As how many are way to ashamed as that is the military way. The last time I was on here I was writing about one person that had come back and seemingly was going through some stages yet seeking help after being in Afgan for five years.
ReplyDeleteI hope your friend gets immediate help, in whatever worthwhile programs are available.
ReplyDeleteI see British victims of the the violence in Afghanistan in the course of my job, but not for very long. The Ministry of Defence have their own 'services' which are dedicated to getting 'victims' back to the front-line and to damp down criticism at home. My colleagues and I are frequently nonplussed by the lack of interest MoD mental health services show in the psychological welfare of services personnel we come into contact with, they have very little interest at all in ex-servicemen presenting with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other psychiatric disorders. They have been written off and discarded by the UK military, their purpose having been served.
ReplyDeleteThat is typical of what goes on over here, AA, at least until very recently. For many years, The Veterans Hospitals had doctors encouraged to "weed out" those with PTSD from receiving long-term benefits, though some Defense Department loophole, saying they were somehow psychologically unfit BEFORE they were deployed and had in effect a pre-existing condition of mental unsoundness. "Kicked to the curb", as they say. How ruthless.
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