The other night my partner brought this to my attention in our local weekly paper in the town of about 30,000 we're living in for a few months. This piece was in the police blotter. The only word for it? Sad. Achingly sad.
It is titled "The sad reality of war"
There's lots more below:
A United States Marine, 21, was arrested for public intoxication, August 28, after residents reported the unclothed man banging on doors. The man was outside shivering in the cold when deputies arrived on the scene at 6:30 a.m.
The subject, whose demeanor oscillated between a stony stare and delusional ranting about Iraq, showed deputies multiple pink scars on his inner wrist. The young man told deputies he cut himself in Iraq every time a friend died or he had to kill someone.
Friends of the Marine who arrived during the arrest said the soldier has been having a difficult time adjusting to life since his return from war.
Deputies requested a mental health evaluation be conducted before the man was transported to jail.
Sweet lord. Not only are we failing the poor in this country, but we're still, lo these many years after Vietnam, failing some of our veterans.
Here are some links and summaries to help us answer this question and to serve as a jumping off point. As the son of a Vietnam Veteran, I recognize the emotional toll on some veterans. But reading these were shocking. The last one was something I hadn't even thought of. I can remember reading The Giving Tree and Goodnight Moon before bed. I can't imagine having to read Why is Mommy Like She Is.
As progressives are looking around and cursing the state of our nation and working for positive change, I think it's imperative that we include how this administration has failed all of us. They haven't failed just the poor or minorities or people on welfare. They've failed our troops, our middle class, our kids, our elders, our working class. How American is this?
Here are some links and summaries with statistics about veterans returning from war and PTSD.
From Salon.com:
The U.S. government is reviewing 72,000 cases in which veterans have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, claiming that misdiagnosis and fraud have inflated the numbers. Outraged vets say the plan is a callous attempt to cut the costs of an increasingly expensive war.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/08/09/vets/index_np.html
From the American Psychological Association:
"...in a report appearing last July in the New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 351, No. 1, pages 13-22), "Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, and Barriers to Care," 19 percent of Marine respondents and 17 percent of Army respondents in four infantry units in Iraq and Afghanistan reported major depression, general anxiety or PTSD. Rates were much higher in Iraq than in Afghanistan."
http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr05/war.html
From veteransforcommonsense.org:
"This type of war - insurgency warfare - where you don't know whether you're going to be the next victim of a car bomb or roadside bomb or (rocket-propelled grenade). It's like fighting in Vietnam when I was in the Mekong Delta," Principi said. "You don't know whether you're getting into an ambush with guerrillas."
Of 168,000 service members who had served in Iraq and been discharged as of July 22, 28,000 had sought medical care from the VA, according to the department's most recent statistics. Of those, about 5,400 had mental health issues and nearly one in three of those suffered from PTSD, which results from a serious traumatic event and can cause debilitating flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety and uncontrollable anger. The disorder may not show itself for years.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?Page=Article&ID=2114
Finally, another from veteransforcommonsense.org:
Thousands of women, like the male veterans of so many wars before, are returning home emotionally damaged by what they have seen and done. These female troops appear more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, than their male counterparts.
And studies indicate that many of these women suffer from more pronounced and debilitating forms of PTSD than men, a worrisome finding in a nation that remembers how many traumatized troops got back from Vietnam and turned to drugs and violence, alcohol and suicide.
One children's book increasingly popular among military families illustrates what the effects of this most recent war might mean for society in the years and even decades to come: "Why Is Mommy Like She Is? A Book for Kids About PTSD."
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?Page=Article&ID=3034
How can we help? Volunteering to help our veterans is a good start. I know my brother is going to be helping the veterans that have been moved from Gulfport to DC after Katrina wiped out the government's housing for them in MS. We can contact our elected officials. We can write letters to the editor.
But this gets to the larger issue: we must elect people who honestly care for other Americans. We need to take care of the American community.