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TechnoratiThe War Comes Home: PTSD; Addiction; Homelessness and Suicide All Coming to a Neighborhood Near You!
There have been many stories about the vast majority of Americans being insulated from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that only a small percentage of Americans-the families of those fighting overseas-are shouldering the brunt of these wars. We predict that In the next couple of years this will all change as the war comes marching into US communities from coast to coast. How? If history is indeed the great predictor, then we will soon find that the nightmare of war will show up at our doorsteps, not in the form of Al Queda, but in us dealing with the demons of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters who have spent multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
CBS News dropped a bombshell last week when they reported on a 5 month investigation that found more veterans have killed themselves in one year than have been killed in battle in Iraq. 100 returning soldiers a week, 5,000 a year are committing suicide, that is more soldiers that have died in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
Let that sink in.
All the car bombings, shootings and violence in Iraq and Afghanistan added up, have killed fewer Americans than have veterans that have killed themselves. Suicide is the most extreme form of collateral consequences from our war in Iraq, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
What is it like to be shot at during war and know that any day may be your last? How do you deal with the pain of having friends killed in your arms? What does killing other human beings do to your emotional stability? It's not hard to imagine how such experiences could lead to post-traumatic stress syndrome, which in turn often leads to self-medication, drug addiction, homelessness and even suicide.
Consider how many of us, the weight of our lives upon us, turn to and become dependant on cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol. Millions of Americans struggle with dependency on prescription drugs alone! And many of our issues may be pretty marginal when compared with those of people coming back after 15 months away from their families - people who have experienced the horrors and uncertainties of war and who may be emotionally or physically impaired. Earlier this month, The New York Times ran a story headlined "Surge Seen in Number of Homeless Veterans." The same day, the Los Angeles Times published a story about a new report by the Alliance to End Homelessness that says one of four homeless are veterans. And these aren't the only pieces of troubling news items we're hearing.
The stories of substance abuse are also coming in. The military publication "Stars and Stripes" has reported that alcohol and other drug-use problems are common throughout the forces in Iraq. "Some of the young soldiers just can't handle the stress and turn to alcohol or drugs to self-medicate," said military defense lawyer Capt. Chris Krafchek. The Army's surgeon general was quoted in an Associated Press story that a survey of troops returning from Iraq found that 30 percent had developed mental health problems three to four months after coming home.
What's going to happen to all of these people who are suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts? Many will end up using drugs, just as many civilians do. So on top of all their other problems, many of the vets will have to worry about getting caught with drugs, being arrested or ending up homeless. U.S. prisons are already filled with nonviolent drug offenders, many serving mandatory sentences of 15 years to life for the possession of small amounts of drugs. Service members incarcerated and separated from their families because of drug addictions resulting from their service in Iraq or Afghanistan will be tragic. Veterans ending up homeless is shameful. And suicides the most extreme collateral damage of these wars.
It's easy to buy a bumper sticker and demand that everybody "Support Our Troops." But if we're going to walk the talk, we better be ready to offer compassion and treatment - not just a jail cell, the street or a morgue when it comes to helping our brothers and sisters heal from the damages of war.
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance. asha bandele is an author and journalist, and is a consultant with Drug Policy Alliance.
37 Comments so far
Show AllPlease read and consider sining the on-line petition to Congress for hearings.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/watada
Great comments PROALTENERGY.
Dog Bless America program and Veterans Village wants to help these wounded vets. Prison dog programs such as Pathways to Hope has trained dogs to assist prisoners, disabled and others … Please help these fine organizations to Support Our Troops, welcoming them home and giving them the assistance they need.
http://www.veteransvillage.org/People_Helping_Veterans.html
http://www.pathwaystohope.org/prison.htm
Dogs Trained to Aid Wounded
Sgt. Shaft | June 25, 2007
Dear Sgt. Shaft:
If you or your readers know of any wounded soldier who could benefit by having a dog — trained by prisoners at the California Institution for Women in Southern
California as well as other "prison-dog programs" across the country — to assist them, please let me know.
There are prison-dog programs in all parts of the country. After the start of the first school and others after, the idea caught on. The dogs are given to the wounded
veteran free of charge. They will be taught how to handle the dog, care for him or her and find new independence partnered with their canine friends, who can go in
all public places.
One of the programs is known as Dog Bless America. This program is expanding the vision to include America's current veteran heroes. By combining their
efforts with Pathways to Hope, the prison-dog program and many of the Veterans Affairs organizations across the country have created a win/win/win situation.
In 1981, Sister Pauline Quinn started the prison-dog program in Washington state, rescuing shelter dogs and bringing them into the prison, where inmates trained
them to assist the handicapped. The inmates learned responsibility through the care and training of these special dogs.
Sister Pauline has started Pathways to Hope, a nonprofit organization that helps other prisons and service-dog groups start prison-dog programs.
Pathways to Hope identifies the programs and dogs to be matched with the veterans. Pathways receives funds from Dog Bless America , money that is then given
to a particular prison program that can match and place a service dog to help a wounded soldier.
I am asking you and your readers to help us communicate this program to the people in need of these services.
We will attempt to match them with a special service dog.
Sister Pauline and Pathways will handle the initial contact, and each prison program has its own screening process.
In order to do something about this, I've founded the website: http://soldierreturn.org to collect leads and make a map of the organizations I know in various areas that are doing this sort of work.
I've found leads from flyfishing trips, Native American sweat lodges, farming and mentoring work.
If you know of any, please let me know by going to the following:
Soldier's Return.org
Thank you!
~Rich
We now have thousands of innocent children suffering with the symptoms of PTSD and that includes thousands with autism. Both of which, may also be symptoms of radiation poisoning.
Was this a medical problem approaching epidemic proportions 30 years ago? __ Nope.
You heard TITTY TATTI, you replsive Democratic voters. Your other thread should have been in your personal shit can. What is repulsive, is your continual, asinine, demeaning and obnoxious posts.
I meant the above for another thread but it's not entirely out of place here.
Yet another impeachable offense by the Bush criminal enterprise starring Democraps in the face and, yet again, they choose to look the other way. Is there anything more repulsive and disgusting than Democrats in Congress? Yes, Democratic voters.
And by the way, when are Democraps apologizing to Ralph Nader?
SIOUXROSE----Good point as always. I don't have a TV but my daughter, age 29, who does, watches little but always hated to miss Law and Order, and ER. I believe they have been well-known for tackling larger questions in ways that contribute to a mass consciousness shift.
PSTD is just one manifestation of the distortions plaguing the collective human heart chakra energy. If it cannot function effectively, the entire body suffers. If it has been damaged, and we can see clear and compelling evidence in an individual that is is when thrust in and out of the hideous nightmare of war, the effects are felt in all of us.
Healing can take place, but the condition seems so prevalent at various levels of intensity that it sometimes feels as if Gaia will shift on her axis to enable the necessary restoration of balance and harmony.
The effects of this condition do not stay isolated, and its ability to infect all that it touches to one degree or other shows us just how closely connected we all are. PSTD is everyone's problem, my dears.
PTSD: The War at Home
http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/11/111107_1.html
The article is about PTSD in the military but the comments are from Child abuse survivors, refugees and Police Officers.
KEM PATRICK says: Sort of hate to harp on it again, but inhaling Depleted Uranium, will often seriously effect normal thought process after some time.
That is true and the symptoms can mimic PTSD. The difference seems to be increased sensitivity to various chemicals when one gets home and increased risk of birth defects in offspring of soldiers coming home. The old Thom Hartmann threads are gone but Trisha there had a bunch of stuff on the birth defects a few years back. And some of those with Vietnam syndrome got it through exposure to agent orange.
I can sympathize with them - I am very allergic to air freshioner and certain disinfectants and it seems that every time I had a hangover lasting more than two days it took less to get me wasted next time. You try avoiding this stuff completely! It is impossible.
That said, some people may get damaged more easily from exposure to DU than others - just like most people don't get wasted breathing the air at work.
BTW - how much of the Uranium the US uses in bombs comes from Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada? Our hands aren't clean on that one.
fedayeen says: The US didn't do anything to educate these soldiers before they enlisted did they? Why think that they will do anything for them now? They didn't help any of the Viet Nam Vets when they returned, so why think they will now?
First of all, many of these soldiers were not alive during Vietnam. And, among those who were, few can remember having their Saturday Morning cartoons interrupted by Nixon, let alone that there was a war at the time.
Secondly, why should things stay constant? Should not society evolve for the better?
And with heros such as Romeo Dallaire admitting to suffering from PTSD, shouldn't that make it more acceptable for the rest of the solders? This guy personally tried to stop a genocide by himself. There are many many people alive today, but all he can think of is all the people whose lives he could not save.
And sometimes you don't know that the person is innocent until it is too late. And if they are not you could be dead or you can be listening to the pregnant fiancee of your fallen buddy screaming at you and asking why you did not shoot when you had the chance. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't.
And then there are stories of soldiers who are led by the unscrupulous who order bad things to be done. Future whistle-blowers who can't live with what they witnessed, and those silenced by shame who can't live with what they were forced to participate in. And then one comes home and it doesn't go away.
Sometimes I wonder whether being a racist or a bigot is a protective factor against PTSD. If you don't seem the innocent as human or mattering, then their deaths would not bother you.
PTSD strikes me a bit like the Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail - that even those who suffer from it think that they are whole or that it is not affecting them that much for the first while.
I often wonder about the effects of this war on US civilians; those related as well as those unrelated to military personnel. What happens to them? Are they all oblivious to the trauma of war? I doubt it. I expect a great many are having nightmares of their own and disruptive symptoms expressed physiologically and socially.
Anybody have any information?
Thanks KEM PATRICK for calling my attention to the PTSD link!
I'm not surprised they're killing themselves, after all the torture, butchering, burning and raping they have inflicted on innocent Iraqi. Iraqis are the ones we should really feel sorry for, not their torturers, killers or rapists.
The predicament these veterans find themselves in upon their return is the legacy of Bush and his Democrat coconspirators of course, but I have no sympathy for individuals who volunteer to become contract killers. Everyone who joins the military should know what they're getting into. The only veteran I have respect for is Watada, why aren't there more courageous men like him?
VOXCLAMANTIS & O'ROE: you both raise excellent points.
Violence begets violence is the Law. "Whatsoever you do unto the least of these is done unto me." Let's take that me for "the spirit of humanity." And of course, there is the fact of karma figured into this equation of war/madness.
I remember a "Law & Order" episode that began with the key attorneys observing the execution of a man found guilty of murder. The brilliant scriptwriters evidenced THEIR understanding of karma by using fiction to demonstrate a string of related events. After watching this legal form of MURDER, every one who bore witness came face to face with his or her own demons. I believe that was the day that Lenny got drunk, the female assistant died in a car crash, and McCoy showed his vulnerability in a bar, drinking too much. I've always felt this TV drama introduces key topics in the news, and uses its platform to raise awareness. It's covered a Pinochet-like dictator, the spirit of the rebellion to authority in the 60's, the nut jobs who bomb abortion clinics, the underground militias and their racist agendas, etc.
"Soldiers are stupid animals, pawns to be used in time of war".
.................................~Henry Kissinger~
The US didn't do anything to educate these soldiers before they enlisted did they? Why think that they will do anything for them now? They didn't help any of the Viet Nam Vets when they returned, so why think they will now? Cull the herd, that is what they think, not help anyone other than the elites. Wait until these vets don't commit suicide, but commit homicide then you might start to get some reaction to this problem, that is what it took for them to help the VN vets. Too many of them turned the guns on others before themselves finally, then it got their attention. Besides, this might improve the gene pool but doubtful.
Unfortunately many healthy young men and women's lives will be tragically ruined for years to come after this debacle. We can hope that more politically active vets will help to change the national consciousness so that wars of agression like this one won't happen again.
He Ping
These soldiers put their lives at risk, their emotinal stability, they are put into the most brutal and callous environment on the planet, which any war is, and then expected to return as a healthy, caring person. They have blocked so much feeling and normal emotions to carry out their duties, how can they come back as emotionally healthy people? The leaders who started this war are to blame for getting involved in Iraq when they did not have too. It was for oil, and to shred to tatters anyone's life over a lie and a sham is disgusting, just as Bush, and his toadies are disgusting.
There is a good link there on my 10:02 pm post, for vets suffering from PTSD PODHERTZ. Maybe you are already aware of it? It damn sure isn't funny for any who do have it and thousands of the Gulf Wars vets do. It is far far worse than that of us Vietnam and Korean war vets.
Any of you readers suffer PTSD yourselves?
What has your treatment been?
How successful was it?
Mine has continued 40 years
and is still ongoing as are
the recurrent nightmares, anxiety
attacks, anger and depression.
Let us all hope treatment will be
more successful for others!
I'm sorry, havin trouble with thinking. That link is for depression of Gulf War vets. This is the one which explains what DU is doing to them. There is another link on the first screen also. It only takes about three minutes to read it all. PTSD is just a medical term the government is now usng for radiation poisoning.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_howkilling.htm
Sort of hate to harp on it again, but inhaling Depleted Uranium, will often seriously effect normal thought process after some time. A DU nano-particle will radiate brain cells with over 10,000 times the amount of radiation allowed by a single chest x-ray, and will constantly radiate forever, until the body dies. Then it will continue to radiate in a casket or a urn of ashes for more than four billion years, ___ or might as well say,__ forever.
"ALL" of the troops who served in Iraq or Afganastan, will be suffering from radiation poisoning. The DU reading in Baghdad are 2,000 times normal background readings. There is a lot of DU in the air over there. Nothng like this has ever happend to our military, ___ never. (It is the ground troops,) not the Navy or Air Force personnel who also serve exrended and repeat tours over there.
The number of ground troops who have served for any length of time in Iraq and who are now PERMANENTLY disabled, or already dead, is mind boggling. These are still young people! __Hell, we have thousands of WW 2 and Korean War vets still hangin in there. ___ I'm one of em.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/duhowkilling.htm
"CBS news dropped a bombshell last week, when they reported that 5,000 troops are committing suicide every year".
Bombshell? Personally, I think it was a very little bomb, nust not have had any DU in it, because I have heard little of it since. Heard quite a bit about Paris Hilton and doper Bonds.
Not crititizing the authors, it should be a bombshell story. ___ It isn't.
ALL SOULS
Are not souls the very essence, the part, the only part of the Creator of all? The universe or more, if that is the case, and all the rest is but a creation of his mind.
How many souls are there? Can anyone put a limit on what the creator would do or tell him that what he has done is enough?
What brings this to mind is my seeing a man on his hands and knees at 5:30 in the morning in the street with just a t-shirt on and it is 48 degrees outside. I did not stop for this hurt soul but I did mention him to his Creator. Is that enough?
Is there such a thing as just a drunk or is there always a story to go along with the soul? Vets have been in the news; was this one who has seen or done something his soul will not accept?
War has mangled every part of the human body from the physical to the mental and can anyone doubt that the soul would be affected? How can any other soul not be affected when it is known that all souls belong to the same Creator?
War is not the all, as we know that there are a multitude of causes that can afflict the body and some will set a soul free afore times are finished as surely as a war. What does the soul think of this type of situation?
What of the poor, the homeless, that because of a circumstance, have naught? What of the souls that have; should they share; is there limited space in the Creators abode and so we keep the souls who fall from a chance to share?
Sharing some thoughts. Tony 11/18/07
Mind Battle - Susan Ormiston investigates the challenge and response in the Canadian Forces to a growing number of cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/militaryafghanistan/mind_battle.html
Broadband Battleground - Security risk, or just bad public relations? What's behind the Pentagon's decision to ban American soldiers from sharing battlefield video on the internet
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/internationalus/broadband_battleground_1.html
voxclamantis, do you know where the majority of recruitment offices are located? Do you know what a military 'incentive' is?
They are located in the most impoverished parts of anytown, usa. They tell these kids , legal for the military at age 17, they will give them from $10K to $30K if they join. Living in hell, that is mad money, so they join. They are not told, "Oh, by the way we are also shipping your ghetto ass to the war, after Basic." They are not told if they are sent home with loss of limbs, blind, scarred beyond recognition, the Dept. of Defense will require partial repayment of those incentives, because your contract was not fulfilled. They do not volunteer to go back, we are so short of ground troops, they serve 18 months, which is 6 months longer than the requirement for Vietnam, they come home 2 or 3 weeks and are ordered back.
Pot, small shit compared to what they become addicted to. Oxy, Benzo's, heroin, crack, meth, alcohol and all at once, PTSD is not being treated long term by the VA, treat 'em and street 'em, apathy isn't necessary with every damn soldier. Empathy will not take anything away from your anti-war sentiment. The whole damn country, at least 80%, thanks to bush/cheney have become inhumane humans. Try and take that word Peace for real, then apply it.
clarkk: What militantliberal wrote is called sarcasm.
I'm sorry you weren't able to get the belly laugh from it.
This is an extremely important story pointing to the consequences of fighting an unjust and immoral war.
The guy who labels himself "militantliberal" should attempt to clarify what he's talking about. Does he actually think that prison is desirable or is his tongue in his cheek?
The families that soldiers are returning to may be in a great deal of danger. After watching and/or particpating in the killing of children, your mind may instinctively think about your own children. But Iraqi children are killed by their hands nonetheless. They become de-sensitized, putting their own children and family in danger.
Suicide will occur, unfortunately, after homicide(s).
Our all-volunteer troops are not exactly a bunch of innocent puppies. They may be young and easily brainwashed, and they may have identity and testosterone issues, but we must assume that they sign on as consenting adults and are aware of the physical and mental risks of the jobs they have agreed to do. It is indeed a tragedy if some semi-illiterate teenager decides to get sniper training and spend three tours of duty brutalizing people he has never met to prove his patriotism and manhood, then comes home morally disoriented and socially twisted and ends up living in a cardboard box with his nightmares. Equally tragic, equally at the effect of poor decisions, are the crackheads who shoot convenience store clerks at two in the morning. Unbalanced people are a problem for any society, and the incubators that produce them, be they prisons, drugs, poverty or war, need to be identified. Colen Powell said of Iraq: If you break it you buy it. Maybe we should demand of the military, on behalf of the kids they have recruited and ushered into manhood: If you break them you keep them.
Having totally sold out their own, the last thing congresspeople want anybody talking about is Conscience.
Whay stop at Marijuana? how about some hard core smack. Seems like the right time for it.
Can the Left get together and fight to LEGALIZE Marijuana ? Despite the fact that marijuana actually cures cancer and helps students study unlike tobacco and alcohol which kill people the most, I guess the answer will still be a disappointing no !
Prison is our iron welfare state: you can get everything you need: shelter, clothing, food, medical and psychological care and maybe even a job. Officials watch your every move to keep you safe and well-behaved. To qualify you must commit a crime, preferably a serious crime, and cancel your plans for the next five to twenty years. Minor crimes may qualify only for community service. Sorry, this generous program is not available for the law-abiding.
Please join Robert Y. Watada in his Appeal to Congress for Congressional hearings, on the Constitutional questions rasied by Lt. Ehren Watada's case... namely a serviceperson's right to obey his conscience and disobey an order which he feels is illegal and his duty to protect the Constitution from domestic enemies who circumvent our Constitution and subvert our form of governement to take the nation to war, without just cause.
Congressional hearings should call expert witnesses to discuss Constitutional and Military Law and Doctors, Psyhchiatrists and Soiritual leaders to discuss the consequences of disobeying one's conscience.
Please sign our on-line petition requesting congressional hearings.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/watada
Legalize medical marijuana and let vets toke for free, that's the least we can do.
i do not believe it is possible for anyone to be an active serviceperson in Iraq and not get crazy, with or without du. you have to know you are serving a lie, serving a delusional president but certainly not serving your country. You know the tension of being there is for nothing. for many Iraq vets, the worst thing is the endless nightmares they carry home with them- the pictures they have in their heads of their victims who they know are innocent. And they knew they were innocent wheb they killed them. who can live with that?
Just the same this is shocking news. It's not the first time i heard it, but it is still intolerable. this has got to stop. how can anyone allow this to go on for another year and more? and it can only get worse.