FALLEN HERO or WAR CRIMINAL? THE GREAT AMERICAN PARADOX
©
From the desk of
Michael O'McCarthy
opolitique@aol.com
It is with great sorrow that we have come to the time talk about it:
Johnny and Joanie Got Their Guns went off to war and aren't Marching Home Again.
They're coming home without arms. Without legs, feet, fingers or toes. They are not "marchin'." They come Med-evaced from the desert theater of operations in Iraq and the military hospital in Germany. They can't march. They crutch themselves forward and roll relentlessly down and up ramps to hospitals that are ill equipped and staffed to care for them.
I have seen the Johnnies and Joanies before, but they were victims of Saigon, Mai Lai, Tet, Khe Sanh, and De Nang. Now they are coming home from Baghdad, Mosul, Kabal, Tirkut and Tikrit. The names have changed but not the travesty.
Are they coming home heroes or to be charged as War Criminals?
I knew the same old America was here again when I awoke to IMUS and Cher. She had just given $300,000.00 to the Fallen Heroes Fund.
The private fund is paying to create a private, multi-disciplinary, world-class, state-of-the-art, advanced medical rehabilitation and training skills facility at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The center will serve military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most severely injured suffer from double and triple amputations, severe head and body trauma, blindness, deafness, and partial and full paralysis.
The use of IED's, (improvised explosive devices,) in Iraq has resulted in many cases of severe burns. The care and rehabilitation of these men and women who have sacrificed so much demand that they be given the care they need and deserve.
IMUS was extolling the virtue of her generosity. Cher was acknowledging the profound pain in her experience with the Fallen. IMUS was giving great credit to Senator John McCain, Vietnam War hero, prisoner of war, victim of torture during war, presidential candidate McCain. It was just one of many mornings that IMUS's show highlighted the donors for the effort.
Yet no one was asking why private charity was necessary to care for Johnny and Joanie who had volunteered to serve their nation.
No one asked why their government was not honoring their contract with the American service personnel that included full medical insurance.
No one was asking the terrible questions:
Why wasn't the most valiant hero of all, George W. "Mission Accomplished" Bush, leading a crusade in Congress to see that the people's obligation to these "fallen heroes" was fulfilled?
No one was asking why the greatest gaggle of Chickenhawk government administrators in US history was cynically and calculatingly using them, then abandoning them?
No one was asking why Presidential Candidate John McCain, a leading spokesperson for the Fund, was not leading an assault with other veterans of neglect and negligence against the disengaged President, the merciless Congress and the wholly inadequate VA hospital system?
No one was asking why the Veteran's administration was not fulfilling its obligation.
No one but vets who are being labeled as radicals, militants.
And if no one is asking about the negligent treatment of the most apparent of victims, what of those whose invisible wounds run deep into the psyche: Those suffering with what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, (PTSD,) the post-Vietnam version of the age-old, Shell Shock, Battle Fatigue, and War Neurosis of past US wars.
What is happening is that they are coming home with more than lost limbs and broken bones. They're coming home with broken minds and lost identities.
Veterans Report Mental Distress - About a Third Returning From Iraq Seek Help -
By Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer - Wednesday, March 1, 2006
More than one in three soldiers and Marines who have served in Iraq later sought help for mental health problems, according to a comprehensive snapshot by Army experts of the psyches of men and women returning from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places.
The accounts of more than 300,000 soldiers and Marines returning from several theaters paint an unusually detailed picture of the psychological impact of the various conflicts. Those returning from Iraq consistently reported more psychic distress than those returning from Afghanistan and other conflicts, such as those in Bosnia or Kosovo.
Iraq veterans are far more likely to have witnessed people getting wounded or killed, to have experienced combat, and to have had aggressive or suicidal thoughts, the Army report said. Nearly twice as many of those returning from Iraq reported having a mental health problem -- or were hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder -- compared with troops returning from Afghanistan.
In questionnaires filled out after their deployment, more than half of all soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq reported that they had "felt in great danger of being killed" there, and 2,411 reported having thoughts of killing themselves, the report said.
And characteristic of this hypocritical, duplicitous regime, they are not getting the help they need --- worse, nor does the "patriotic" regime of George W. Bush plan to give it to them:
According to the Government Accountability Office the VA is not only not prepared to treat vets, it is refusing to do so:
"The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on February 14, 2005 stating in short - that at least 15% of the servicemen returning from warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan will develop PTSD." <Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.>
" That PTSD can be debilitating and, if left untreated, can lead to substance abuse, severe depression and suicide! While there is NO cure for PTSD, early identification and treatment is critical in improving the quality of life! The GAO has determined that the VA has failed to meet ANY of the 24 Special Committee recommendations, 10 of which were established in 1985 - 20 years ago! In addition, the VA does not intend to do so until 2007 or later! Finally, The GAO has determined that the VA is incapable of handling the new influx of veterans while still maintaining care for those of past wars."
Report Abstract - VA Health Care: VA Should Expedite the Implementation of Recommendations Needed to Improve Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Services, GAO-05-287, February 14, 2005 PDF. (emphasis added.)
Out of this morass comes Laura Berg, a Veterans Affairs nurse in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is the one brave soul to scream out the pain and suffering visited upon our returning vets. Within days she is investigated by the FBI and labeled as "seditious."
The following is from an interview by Amy Goodman - Democracy Now - A Nurse's Courage, with the VA nurse posted March 4, 2006:
Berg: "I have been a nurse for 15 years ... I work in behavioral health at the local V.A. in out-patient area.
Goodman: And what's your specialty?
Berg: My specialty right now is working on-call for emergencies, mental health emergencies. In the past, I have worked as doing mental health assessment for new patients. And, of course, that would be many returning vets from the Persian Gulf or from the current conflict. ... We've worked with, you know, veterans from Vietnam, veterans from Korea, veterans from World War II. We were seeing more and more World War II veterans, you know, triggered for the first time by Iraq and actually, you know, having memories and nightmares coming out.
Goodman: You are saying now that they are triggered?
Berg: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Goodman: So, World War II vets are coming in.
Berg: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, so we are seeing --
Goodman: What are the complaints?
Berg: Just nightmares, not able to sleep. More tension, anxiety, irritability, aggressiveness. Some detachment, you know, from reality at the present time.
So, Laura Berg wrote a letter to the Alibi, an Alternative monthly Albuquere, NM newspaper, criticizing the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war.
"As a VA nurse working with returning... vets, I know the public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder."
She urged readers to, "act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit."
Berg wrote the letter on her home computer. Within days she was investigated for possible sedition by FBI under the Patriot Act.
To compound the wounds of war these heroes and heroines of Iraq suffer there is the looming taint of having fought in yet another losing US war; an unnecessary war: a war of atrocity, which the pious George W. Bush might caption, "doing their duty to God and Country."
They are coming home to be haunted by the knowledge of the senseless deaths of so many Iraqi men woman and children civilians:
"Insurgency-related violence last year killed more than twice as many Iraqi civilians -- 4,024 people -- as Iraqi soldiers and police, according to government figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press." March 04, 2006.
And contrary to White House lies about the popularity of their mission in Iraq military personnel are denouncing the war:
The Zogby Poll Released February 28, 2006 is the first ever poll of military personnel in combat:
U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006
Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay "as long as they are needed."
While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is hazy
Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly homegrown
Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam's role in 9/11, most don't blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks
Majority of troops oppose use of harsh prisoner interrogation.
Haunted by a failed mission built on duplicity, greed, and the cold, calculated insensitivity of the corporate mind-set and the devious and cowardly machinations of their petty servants, US politicians, the question begs: will the vets return home to face the same issues as faced those of the War in Southeast Asia?
During the return of Vietnam (Southeast Asian War) veterans there were components to the PTSD they suffered:
1- The universal trauma of combat, previously called "shell shock, battle fatigue, war neurosis.
2- The trauma of witnessing death by friendly fire and massive deaths of civilians and destruction of civilian communities.
3- The trauma of "survivor's" guilt.
4- The trauma of being criticized and ostracized by a civilian world and domestic population opposed to their combat
5- The trauma of participating in or passively condoning atrocities.
6- The trauma of feeling guilt at participating in this war.
Such was the vortex of psychological effects impacting the returning Vietnam Vet.
Yet it seems only one group learned and addressed the lessons of Vietnam: The ruling class of the United States.
Putting what they called the "Vietnam Syndrome" behind America became their obsession; their mantra. To do this meant erasing the history of the war, distancing itself from any cooperative - or empathetic relationships with the international body and boycotting every international legal body that might call its military interventions into question before a bench of judgment. There is no clearer action than that of George W. Bush's constant and irrevocable refusal to sign any treaty that might hold the United States or its military personnel accountable for its actions.
Questions arise then in terms of the "heroes" of Vietnam, especially those so often taking to the floor of Congress and lauding the "heroism" of the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq:
If the Johnny and Jonnies of Southeast Asia are heroes, what were those who dodged the draft - fled the country and refused to fight during the illegal wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia?
Thus what of the war against and occupation of Iraq?
The coincidental "gift" given George Bush by one time CIA sponsored Osama Bin Laden was the attack on the World Trade Center buildings and on Washington on 9/11. George W. Bush and his pre-9/11 war cabinet used the event to unleash their plans for a US Neo-Con military strategy to control the "developing world," and to target Iraq as their base of operations in the much needed, oil rich Middle East.
The "mass media" which had played such a pivotal role in revealing the horrors of the war in Southeast Asia to the American public cowed in the face of terror and Bush's, threatening declaration: "you are either with me or against me."
They became "embedded" in the combat zone in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the domestic political theater within the US. In other words, co-opted at home and abroad.
Thus, began the war against, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
No one was or is asking: if the war against Iraq is illegal, a crime against humanity, what happens to Johnny and Joanie who too are being regarded as criminals throughout the world, rather than heroes? In the Nuremberg trials and the Kosovo War Crimes Tribunal the excuse, "just following orders" was rejected. Will Johnny and Joanie be left with nothing more than "just following orders" to assuage their damaged self-image and psyches?
This question floats just beneath the surface like an ulcer. It's there but never mentioned in public. Worse it is a gaping, bleeding wound the abdomen of the American Left. And the egregious neglect of it is causing it to turn gangrenous.
While the victim of this neglect are the men and women veterans most of all, the American Left's refusal to face this question leaves the American body politic the victim of the Bush regime's massage lie machine
This quagmire of ignorance and distortion obscuring the true nature of the war and the actual status of America's veterans is aggravated by the constant platitudes given in every speech, by every politician positing an approximate critique of the war. That is as nauseating as Bush posing as the Military Veteran, or On Duty Service Personnel on the aircraft carrier. It is an act as reflective of the cowardly Congress' refusal to fulfill its obligations to those who have served ... as it has been in every war since Lincoln's creation of a Veteran's Bureau.
It is seen by the corporate ruling class as "the price of doing business" when business must profit on the expropriation of the wealth of other nations, (i.e., oil,) create a work force of unorganized, low paid wage slaves, and a market for its goods. That is, that the workingmen and woman, the poor, the semi-educated, the people of color, must pay that "price of doing business," not the chickenhawks and their class.
I saw it up close and personal when I was the national spokesperson and chief negotiator for the Vietnam Combat Veteran's Hunger Strike in 1982. As exemplified by Ron Kovic's BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY and its predecessor, COMING HOME Vietnam vets had been driven to despair because of a compendium of grievances:
When in 1981 President Reagan named the released Iranian hostages as "heroes," Vietnam vets took to the streets in outrage. This was 7 years after they had made the final sacrifices, the same sacrifices now being made by soldiers in Iraq and being not only being ignored by the government, but watching Reagan's attempt to cut funding for their vet centers, research and treatment of PTSD and the affects of Agent Orange poisoning.
The ill treatment given them by VA - their public vilification upon returning home - the combination of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and untreated Agent Orange related illnesses - survivor's guilt - the guilt of crimes committed against civilians - participation in military atrocities - and the popular image of them portrayed in mass media, led a number of decorated, combat veterans to begin a 63-day hunger strike at the VA hospital in LA.
Fortunately for them and countless number of other vets and their families the hunger strike culminated in victory in the halls of Congress. The Vet Centers received funding and there was program of research into PTSD and Agent Orange exposure. It was only one of two victories over the "Great Communicator's" beginning destruction of social programs for those in need.
I understood then and I understand now the feelings that will soon ease to the surface from behind the masquerade of patriotic denial: How can I be a hero when I committed acts denounced as war crimes?
If this war is illegal, am I not a criminal?
Even allowing for the inherent inhumanity of war itself, what in that context is a hero a hero?
Historically heroes rise in every military circumstance:
The Revolutionary War: John Paul Jones who proclaimed, "I have yet begun to fight," in the face of the British demand that he surrender his ship and Patrick Henry who proclaimed, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" in the face of English Colonial rule. Francis Marion - the Swamp Fox, who led America's insurgent guerrilla war against the British Royalist forces in the Southeastern states.
The American "Civil War": Abraham Lincoln who traveled to the war front to conduct the federal effort against the treasonous secessionist military forces and issued the Emancipation Proclamation while believing that he would be assassinated as a result of both.
WW I: On October 8, 1918, Corporal Alvin C. York of the 328th Infantry fought a desperate battle with a German machine gun detachment and brought into camp 132 prisoners. He was promoted to a sergeancy, awarded the D.S.C., the French Croixde de Guerre, many other decorations, and generally acclaimed the greatest individual hero of the war.
WW II: Audey Murphy: Among his thirty three awards and decorations was the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery that can be given to any individual in the United States of America, for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." Murphy received every decoration for valor that the U.S. had to offer, some of them more than once, and five decorations by France and Belgium.
John Kennedy: When his PT Boat-109 was rammed by a Japanese warship, Kennedy was injured but managed to haul an injured shipmate to where the other survivors were clinging to a piece of the boat that was still afloat. At sunrise he led his men toward a small island several miles away and. Despite his own injuries was able to tow the injured man ashore, a strap from McMahon's life jacket clenched between his teeth. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage.
Korea: Harry Truman who in the face of raging anti-Communist hysteria in the US, fired right wing, military leader, General Douglas MacArthur, preventing an all out war with China and the threat of nuclear war with the USSR.
The men and women of the MASH units that revolutionized military medical treatment in active war zones.
Vietnam: John Kerry who after valiant service in combat threw away his decorations as an act of opposing that illegal war.
Ron Kovic who brought the reality of the war and the criminal abuse of vets by the government to the attention of the American people in his book, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY and subsequently in the film of the same name.
9/11: The hundreds of New York emergency services workers at 9/11.
And in stark contrast there was nothing "heroic" about the Iranian hostages. They were CIA and state department operatives responsible for the terrorist regime of the Sha of Iran.
Afghanistan - Iraq? --- First and foremost are those who are saving the lives of their comrades.
Categorically NOT the chickenhawks in the White House or the quislings in Congress who sent them into this illegal war, and continue to clamor "support the troops" but are prolonging the treacherous strategy of keeping them in harm's way and subject to international disgrace.
What are we civilians to do? Do we continue versions of "stay the course?" watching the butchery continue? Do we allow the Neo-Con Bush cabal to continue its treasonous strategic policy of intervention and pre-emptive military control of the "developing" world?
Do we allow Democratic Party's Liberal Imperialists to wring their hands over the "dilemma" of "what to do about Iraq" while supporting the occupation, enabling the slaughter and cynically setting up their "policy" as the alternative to the Republican Party's 2008 election campaign strategy?
What do we civilians do for the nation's veterans for whom WE are responsible?
We support our troops by bringing them home now.
We take all necessary steps to force the VA to treat and heal them, and welcome them back into civilian life with a new GI Bill.
We support those members in Congress calling for the impeachment of the White House occupants and their administrators: NOW!
We take back our role as "civilian patriots" --- instead of civilian enablers of the Bush cabal. We become our own heroes.
We stand up right now and fight right now!
Dare we proclaim anything less than:
Give us liberty or give us death! --- We have just begun to fight!
Michael O'McCarthy -
Originally published: Radio Left
03-09-06