The Struggle to Gauge a War's Psychological Cost (NYT)

[Up2Late]

(Long article with a lot of very worrying news, to paraphrase a line from "Full Metal Jacket," these kids are going to be "...in a world of sh*t..." when they get back home.)

The Struggle to Gauge a War's Psychological Cost

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: November 26, 2005

It was hardly a traditional therapist's office. The mortar fire was relentless, head-splitting, so close that it raised layers of rubble high off the floor of the bombed-out room. Capt. William Nash, a Navy psychiatrist, sat on an overturned box of ready-made meals for the troops. He was in Iraq to try to short-circuit combat stress on the spot, before it became disabling, as part of the military's most determined effort yet to bring therapy to the front lines....

(clip)

...This war in particular presents profound mental stresses: unknown and often unseen enemies, suicide bombers, a hostile land with virtually no safe zone, no real front or rear. A 360-degree war, some call it, an asymmetrical battle space that threatens to injure troops' minds as well as their bodies....

(clip)

...The numbers so far tell a mixed story. The suicide rate among soldiers was high in 2003 but fell significantly in 2004, according to two Army surveys among more than 2,000 soldiers and mental health support providers in Iraq. Morale rose in the same period, but 54 percent of the troops say morale is low or very low, the report found.

A continuing study of combat units that served in Iraq has found that about 17 percent of the personnel have shown serious symptoms of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder - characterized by intrusive thoughts, sleep loss and hyper-alertness, among other symptoms - in the first few months after returning from Iraq, a higher rate than in Afghanistan but thought to be lower than after Vietnam....

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/health/26psych.html?ex=1290661200&en=5d4419bd2c3932c8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
(more at link above)

[EFerrari]

1. Going off to war is a lot like a 12 year old girl's dream of marriage.

The thinking stops right at the altar.

These guys are coming home to a broken mental health care system. It won't be pretty.

[Up2Late]

2. Did you see this at the end of the artical?

...Finally, she said, she has been searching her memory and conscience for reasons to justify the pain of her experience: no one, Specialist Pickett said, looks harder for justification than a soldier.

Dr. Marlowe, the former chief of psychiatry at Walter Reed, knows from studying other wars that this is so.

"The great change among American troops in Germany during the Second World War was when they discovered the concentration camps," Dr. Marlowe said. "That immediately and forever changed the moral appreciation for why we were there."

As soldiers return from Iraq, he said, "it will be enormously important for those who feel psychologically disaffected to find something which justifies the killing, and the death of their friends." :(

[EFerrari]

3. God help me. And that's THE DOCTOR. n/t

[arewenotdemo]

9. Yes

And I think the answer by now is obvious...they won't find it.

What they CAN do and what CAN make a differenece for themselves and for others is to speak out against the war. If a veteran feels that he/she is helping to stop the senseless killing, that could start the healing process.

[IndyOp]

19. Remember This: "War Gives Meaning To Life"

We love what we have suffered and sacrificed for, we find meaning in our lives by suffering and sacrificing for an education, for our children, for our friends, for our causes.

We go to war generation after generation after generation because each generation, returned from war, must justify what it did and we feel obliged to thank them for what they did. (We can't flat out say that their 'service' furthered only the goals of corporations and actually put us in greater danger because it might cause them pain.)

The young ones watch this - they learn that war gave meaning to the lives of their grandparents and parents, they see that the troops are honored by society, and they decide to 'give their all' in a quest for immortality.

We must change these beleifs, confront them and change them. Honoring military service helps continue the myth that being a soldier will earn you respect, that it will give meaning to your life.

I honor all human life - and that includes the lives of those who have chosen to be soldiers - but I do not honor their actions as soldiers. There is no honor in killing for oil. There is no honor in killing to control foreign markets and populations. There is no honor in torture. There is no honor in following orders to complete any job that supports those who do these things.

[ashling]

4. Not to disparage the message

about how this war is affecting and will affect our troops, but the psychological effect of this war on the Iraqis has got to be unthinkably horrible.

[EFerrari]

5. No kidding. We went in to take out a criminal we installed in the first

place. AND have indiscriminately been slaughtering civilians, it seems.

We will all have a lot to answer for. :(

[ashling]

7. The irony is

that the results of these evil policies bear most weightily upon the conscience of those of us who were not only not responsible for them, but have done all within our power to end them.

Another psychological effect, I am afraid.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. NO, NO, NO!! That was NOT the primary reason we invaded Iraq!!....

...Remember the alleged WMDs and the alleged connection to Al Qaeda? Remember all of the lies told to the American people about the alleged WMDs and Saddam's alleged intent to use them on his neighbors?

I continue to believe that the NeoCon Junta could NOT have gained the necessary support, even among Republicans, for invading Iraq just to remove Saddam from power.

[EFerrari]

15. Okay, okay! Lol! What do you mean? I thought the public

was told al Qaeda was sleeping with Saddam and that we were about to be nuked?

[Up2Late]

6. Yes, of course, but it's even worst than you describe...

...remember, Iraq has only had about 2 years of Peace since 1980. The Iraq/Iran War ended in a stalemate in 1988, then in 1990 Iraq entered Kuwait, 1991 the U.S. bombs and invades Iraq, then put Iraq under UN starvation level sanctions, with a low level conflict in the south "No Fly Zone." 1998, five more days of bombing (Operation Desert Fox), and then almost straight into this stupid War.

Why is this War so difficult? Because their is a whole generation of Iraqis now, who know nothing but war.

Even if we started doing everything right tomorrow, it would probably take 5-10 years for Iraq to settle down again. Very sad.:cry:

[ashling]

8. Actually, I

didn't describe anything for the very reason - as you suggest - that the problem is so enormous, so all pervasive. It will take more than 5 - 10 years to put back together the lives these evil policies have rent asunder - it will take a lifetime.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. Exactly what we ran into in Vietnam. Those folks had been hardened....

...by decades of war with the Japanese and the French before LBJ escalated our commitment to that war in 1964-1965.

[Up2Late]

13. Exactly, you know, I'm really beginning to think that this is NOT about...

...oil, but about some arrogant civilian leaders who were still trying to prove that they were right about Vietnam, and that we shouldn't have let it end the way it did.

I'm really beginning to think this is the result of a small group of people who didn't learn the lessons of the Vietnam conflict and are too arrogant and stubborn to admit that they (the civilian "leaders") were wrong.

Maybe these fools will learn this time.

Thank you for your service MLD, and Welcome Home. :patriot:

[Lisa]

16. alas, I fear that they have already decided that they are right ...

That's the way this gang operates. They do not bother to have meetings or consultations (beyond the obligatory "rubber stamp" photo-op) because they have already made up their minds.

And when it becomes evident that things aren't going their way, their response is to get angry and attack everyone who disagrees with them, even decorated war veterans like Max Cleland and John Kerry. (This may also explain why they will even slam former supporters who have changed their minds -- to them this is even worse than those like Michael Moore or Paul Wellstone who were always opposed. They see it as a personal betrayal, if someone once close to them is now speaking out.)

I am worried that after all this, they will turn around and blame everyone in sight. Decades from now, I won't be surprised if some aging Bushie yells at me because Canada "didn't help us in our time of need". These folks can really hold a grudge, and heaven help anyone who crosses them ... they will be saving up payback for later! As you pointed out, they might try somewhere else (third time lucky?).

Unless they are open to learning, they won't take any lessons from this, aside from the ones they have already decided on. Like the armchair warriors who sit and grumble that if it weren't for the peace movement, Congress, and even the troops themselves, the US would have trounced North Vietnam by just pouring in more soldiers and money.

Apologies for bringing out yet another WWII analogy here, but at the end of the war, the hard-core Nazis also blamed everybody but themselves. They even wanted to punish the German people for not fighting hard enough ... but the soldiers drew the line at destroying their own country just to make a point.

[IndyOp]

20. It will take a generation or more for Iraq to settle down -

Everything you said is on target, but add the realization that families have been destroyed, relationships among neighbors and coworkers destroyed, and don't forget all of the chemical gifts that will keep on giving disease and death and birth defects for generations to come - depleted uranium chief on the list.

War Crimes Trials - I want War Crimes Trials and I want people from the last several administrations held accountable at these trials.

We must lay bare the entire, long genocidal nightmare - it is the only way we will have a chance to change.

[leftchick]

10. kick

:cry:

[twaddler01]

14. It is getting worse...

Kicked :kick:

[Gregorian]

17. Life is hard enough without war.

But war is for corporation and kings. And they don't care. There's a disconnect. Like the animals looking in the windows of the farmhouse. Two ace of spades being played simultaneously. We pay, while they play. Ultimately we all lose.
Everything seems Orwellian to me, as I put this day to bed. Good night world. Don't believe the hype. Put a rose in the end of your gun.

[NMDemDist2]

18. and what Doctors are working with the guys from Aegis, Blackwater

DynaCorp and all the other tens of thousands of mercenaries working Iraq?

are we building a army of roque torturers and strong arms?

this war is so f%cked up on so many levels

[Up2Late]

21. Very moving story today re: soldiers returning with Brain Injuries on NPR

(I grew up with this type of brain injury, having almost died in an accident as an infant, so this problem hits very close to home with me. I spent 35 years learning to cope, before finally finding the right type of meds to help make my life almost normal.)

The Span of War

Helping Troops Recover from Brain Injuries

Listen to this story...(at link above)
by Joseph Shapiro


John DaVanzo
Steve Cobb volunteers at the Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Va.

As part of Steve Cobb's rehabilitation program for his brain injury, he spent a week volunteering at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Va.

Morning Edition, November 28, 2005 · Men and women are returning from Iraq with more traumatic brain injuries than in previous wars. New armor protects the body, but the head is still vulnerable, particularly from car bomb blasts. For many, recovering from a brain injury is a long process. One innovative program is working to get troops back into the work force.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5028952>