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TechnoratiThe Forever War of the Mind
"EVERY day I was in Vietnam, I thought about home. And, every day I've been home, I've thought about Vietnam." So said one of the millions of soldiers who fought there as I did. Change the name of the battlefield and it could have been said by one of the American servicemen coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan today. Wars are not over when the shooting stops. They live on in the lives of those who fight them. That is the curse of the soldier. He never forgets.
While the authorities say they cannot yet tell us why an Army psychiatrist would go on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, we do know the sorts of stories he had been dealing with as he tried to help those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan readjust to life outside the war zone. A soldier's mind can be just as dangerous to himself, and to those around him, as wars fought on traditional battlefields.
War is haunting. Death. Pain. Blood. Dismemberment. A buddy dying in your arms. Imagine trying to get over the memory of a bomb splitting a Humvee apart beneath your feet and taking your leg with it. The first time I saw the stilled bodies of American soldiers dead on the battlefield is as stark and brutal a memory as the one of the grenade that ripped off my right arm and both legs.
No, the soldier never forgets. But neither should the rest of us.
Veterans returning today represent the first real influx of combat-wounded soldiers in a generation. They are returning to a nation unprepared for what war does to the soul. Those new veterans will need all of our help. After America's wars, the used-up fighters are too often left to fend for themselves. Many of the hoboes in the Depression were veterans of World War I. When they came home, they were labeled shell-shocked and discharged from the Army too broken to make it during the economic cataclysm.
So it is again, with too many stories about veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan ending up unemployed and homeless. Figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs show that 131,000 of the nation's 24 million veterans are homeless each night, and about twice that many will spend part of this year homeless.
We know of the recent failures at Walter Reed Medical Center, where soldiers were stranded in substandard barracks infested with rats while awaiting treatment. I was in Walter Reed myself at that time seeking counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder, which, ignited by a barrage of Iraq headlines and the loss of my United States Senate seat, had simply consumed me.
I never saw it coming. Forty years after I had left the battlefield, my memories of death and wounding were suddenly as fresh and present as they had been in 1968. I thought I was past that. I learned that none of us are ever past it. Were it not for the surgeons and nurses at Walter Reed, I never would have survived those first months back from Vietnam. Were it not for the counselors there today, I do not think I would have survived what I've come to call my second Vietnam, the one that played out entirely in my mind.
When I was wounded, post-traumatic stress disorder did not officially exist. It was recognized as a legitimate illness only in 1978, during my tenure as head of the Veterans Administration under President Jimmy Carter. Today, it is not only recognized, but the Army and the V.A. know how to treat it. I can offer no better testament than my own recovery.
Weeks before the troubles at Walter Reed became public in 2007, my counselor put it to me simply. "We are drowning in war," she said. The problems at Walter Reed had nothing to do with the dedicated doctors and nurses there. The problems had to do with the White House and Congress and the Department of Defense. The problems had to do with money.
When we are at war, America spends billions on missiles, tanks, attack helicopters and such. But the wounded warriors who will never fight again tend to be put on the back burner.
This is inexcusable, and it comes with frightening moral costs. There are estimates that 35 percent of the soldiers who fought in Iraq will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm sure the numbers for Afghanistan are similar. Researchers have found that nearly half of those returning with the disorder have suicidal thoughts. Suicide among active-duty soldiers is on pace to hit a record total this year. More than 1.7 million soldiers have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Imagine that some 600,000 of them will have crippling memories, trapped in a vivid and horrible past from which they can't seem to escape.
We have a family Army today, unlike the Army seen in any generation before. We have fought these wars with the Reserves and the National Guard. Fathers, mothers, soccer coaches and teachers are the soldiers coming home. Whether they like it or not, they will bring their war experiences home to their families and communities.
In his poem "The Dead Young Soldiers," Archibald MacLeish, whose younger brother died in World War I, has the soldiers in the poem tell us: "We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning." Until we help our returning soldiers get their lives back when they come home, the promise of restoring that meaning will go unfulfilled.
23 Comments so far
Show AllLast Friday Bill Moyers Journal on PBS featured "The Good Soldier", a documentary of American soldiers war experiences from WWII through the current wars. Most tell of their own battlefield atrocities. Anyone who thinks American soldiers are immune to war crimes is blind to the truth.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11062009/profile.html
Web Posted: 11/08/2009 12:00 CST
Soldiers not surprised by Fort Hood massacreREADcomments (23) EDWARD A. ORNELAS/eaornelas@express-news.netFBI agents and a Texas Ranger question a neighbor of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at the Casa Del Norte apartments in Killeen.
FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS
0 By Sig Christenson - Express-News FORT HOOD — When a lone gunman armed with two handguns fired into scores of soldiers last week at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding more than 30, the nation reacted in shock.
Many veterans of the Iraq war, however, did not.
“It’s sad to say, but basically it doesn’t surprise us. In a way, it was like it’s waiting to happen. I guess that’s the biggest thing,” Spc. Travis McRae said Saturday.
“It’s basically that the Army has an awesome way of getting you ready for war,” he continued. “It gets you in that mindset to go over there and fight, but whenever you come back, they don’t have a way of turning that switch off.”
A two-tour veteran of Iraq, McRae, 24 of Fort Hood, said soldiers often won’t talk with the media or civilians about the stresses of war out of fear of embarrassment or possible retribution from their supervisors.
But McRae and other soldiers said Saturday — and in many other prior interviews with the San Antonio Express-News — that revolving-door deployments have robbed GIs of years with their families, and train-ups and new rotations to the war zone squeezed them for time with their wives and children.
“Without a doubt, I’d say repeated deployments back-to-back definitely have a lot of stress on every individual unless you want to deploy and you don’t have a family,” said Sgt. David Shores, 29, of Frederick, Md., a two-tour veteran of Taji, at one time one of Iraq’s most violent areas.
McRae is leaving the Army, he said.
“If I were going to stay, I would know I was fixing to deploy again, so you’re looking at 4 1/2 years and I would be going on my third deployment,” he said. “I guess hopeless is the best way to put it, because no matter what you do, you go back and you get ready to go back again.”
As the weekend got into full swing Saturday, Army officials, the FBI and the Texas Rangers continued an intensive search for answers into the deadliest massacre on a U.S. military installation.
Authorities also continued to comb the grounds of Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center, where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is alleged to have opened fire into a large lunchtime crowd.
Soldiers toting carbines Saturday kept visitors from strolling near the knoll where investigators believe the Virginia native fired into hundreds of unarmed soldiers.
article continued
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The military post has assumed the appearance of an armed camp: A soldier with an M-4 rifle stood guard outside the visitor center, where a large media contingent has assembled. Others stood sentinel at other sensitive locations on the post, where they were deployed in the wake of the shooting.
Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said authorities did not believe that any of those killed or wounded were shot by anyone other than the suspect, CNN reported.
Furthermore, Grey reiterated that all evidence indicates that the suspect “acted alone.” Grey said there was “no evidence to contradict that finding.”
Hasan remained hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center in stable condition. He was taken off a ventilator late Saturday, authorities said.
BAMC spokesman Dewey Mitchell said the nursing staff had reported that Hasan — who was shot multiple times after a brief but furious gunfight with police officers — was conscious and talking.
“I don’t know who he’s talking to,” Mitchell said, after being asked if investigators were interrogating him. “You need to talk with the law enforcement people to find anything about that.”
Authorities weren’t revealing details of what they have learned about the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan for the first time in late November.
But many others surmised the Virginia native who counseled soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder might have internalized his patients’ issues.
Those who know him have said Hasan was opposed to the wars and was stressed about being stationed overseas. A faithful Muslim, he reportedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic before the gunshots rang out.
At nightfall Saturday, 17 victims remained hospitalized.
Of the 10 victims originally admitted to Scott & White Memorial Hospital, four had been released and another was hoping to be discharged before the end of the day, said W. Roy Smythe, chief of surgery for the Temple hospital.
Four of six patients left the intensive care unit after improving, he said, and the two remaining were off their ventilators.
“There is a possibility that some of these patients have been physically impaired for the rest of their lives, and there is certainly no doubt that many of them will be psychologically impaired for the rest of their lives,” Smythe said.
More than 170 witnesses had been interviewed through Saturday, with almost that many more to go, said Chris Grey of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. Officials hope to establish a clearer timeline leading to the killings.
The first 911 call reporting the shootout at the readiness center was received by dispatchers at 1:23 p.m. Thursday.
Near the scene, after being shot and handcuffed by civilian officers, authorities recovered two handguns believed to have been carried by Hasan during the assault, a 5.7 mm pistol and a .357 magnum. Both were sent to a federal crime lab in Atlanta, but one Fort Hood official said it appears only one weapon actually was fired. Witnesses have said they believed both were used.
A civilian officer praised by the Texas governor and other officials as a hero for challenging Hasan in an exchange of gunfire that resembled a duel, Sgt. Kimberly Munley underwent a second surgery Saturday and reportedly was doing well. She was shot in one wrist and her left leg and knee.
To bolster counseling services, the Veterans Affairs Department sent four Mobile Vet Centers to the Fort Hood area. And as Sunday services neared, Col. Frank Jackson said his talk at the 73rd Street Chapel would be about communities of faith and how hope, encouragement and healing can help overcome the tragedy.
“This is a painful time,” said Jackson, a 58-year-old Southern Baptist who acts as the post’s garrison chaplain. “It’s painful, but it’s powerful.”
President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, will attend a memorial service in Fort Hood on Tuesday for the victims.
Tens of millions have experienced the ongoing wars and have no safe home to go to.
MAX CLELAND SAID IN THE END:
'....when they come home'////
has he or other americans, soldiers and otherwise - ever thought about NOT HAVING to come home - from having to go abroad to build an Empire?
who asked the americans to use the world and treat it like its oyster?
"..when they come home?"
from VIETNAM? Afghanistan? Colombia, Iraq, Pakistan, Georgia, Okinawa, philippines, indonesia, panama, and so many more countries, at least 70 of them - for what?
AMERICAN EMPIRE?
"...when they come home?"
they should NEVER have LEFT home to make this nonsense of an Empire.
america should stop MEDDLING IN THE AFFAIRS OF OTHER NATIONS and REGIONS for its "national interests".
keep the american-centric mentality where it belongs:
AT HOME and no further!
I had a relatively easy time during my 1967-68 Southeast Asian Tour. Although a draftee, I was spared the worst, but came under fire and returned it on several occasions. Like Max Cleland, there is not a day that passes without thinking about my time in the army, especially about friends who died there and some who still suffer its physical and emotional wounds. We fought and died for at best a mistaken lie while those in Iraq and Afghanistan carry their weapons and wounds as the result of intentional lies. As a two year draftee I served one year and a day in country, counting down the days kowing that if I survived I wouldn't be going back. To this day I remember my anger at being held-over that one extra day, handed an M-14, a helmet, flak jacket and pancho and told get up in a tower to pull guard duty.
Had it been possible for the army to order me to return to Vietnam for any length of time, I have no idea what I would have done, but I wouldn't have gone back to that cruel absurdity. That soldiers are now being ordered to the criminal enterprises in Iraq or Afghanistan for the fourth or fifth time is an outrage and for that we must all share the blame and shame. The continuation of these wars is beyond understanding and beneath contempt.
The best way to honor the dead, wounded and walking wounded is to send no more, to end the madness.
In the wake of the Fort Hood killings,I suggest reading the November 12, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone magazine for its examination of three Fort Carson, Colorado-based Iraq veterans' killing spree.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Am I reading this right but is this guy Cleland saying that the answer is the draught, so that servicemen don't have to go on more than one tour?
How about NO WAR.
Cleland knows what war is really like. He gives a gut-wrenching account. Those like Cheney and Bush knew how to get out of war time action but sent the sons and daughters of others into battles based on phony information. SHAME!
Tough story Max. you're a good man and a good rep.
but we can never "give meaning" to the deaths of all those people in world war I. It was a stupid pointless war.
And now. these people returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Pitiful cases they are. But what they have been doing is killing people who never harmed this country, people who do not even have armed forces of their own to oppose them. Innocent people. And for what reason? To cover the lies of bush and now obomber? shall we tell them that?
i'm sure most of them had no idea how they got there, or what was the stated purpose of the murders they were told to commit.
But we must not pretend there was meaning or purpose in what they did. if we try to pretend they were serving their country, we will never end the wars. there is no honor in this military activity. It is all lies.
by all means we should do what we can to bring them back and heal their wounds. but without the glory. what happened to them is like getting hit by a drunk driver.
"...we can never "give meaning" to the deaths of all those people in world war I. It was a stupid pointless war."
Certainly it was a stupid, pointless war. But it hardly follows that we cannot give meaning to the deaths. The meaning we could have given might have been our commitment that WWI would be the last war in human history. That would certainly have given meaning to the deaths (I suspect this is the kind of meaning that MacLeish'poem envisions). That we failed to live up to this commitment is our fault, not theirs.
Senator Cleland, I honor your service in Vietnam and I'm sorry you went through all that in Vietnam and lost some limbs. I'm still wondering why you voted yes on the Iraq war resolution in October 2002. How many anti-war voters in GA stayed home because of it? Otherwise, I'm glad you could share with us the invaluable lessons of what wars can do to people's minds. Do us a favor Senator Cleland, and I still call you senator for a reason. You have more money, clout, and connections to influence Washington. The least you could do is lobby against military spending and convince the skeptics that you mean what you say and try to make up for that vote.
Let's help returning soldiers get their lives back, and then let's all join together and take the country back from AIPAC.
Why is it so hard to tell the whole truth about war experiences? Its not just seeing dead buddies, and dealing with what has been done to the soldier himself, but what terrible things that this same soldier has done to the "enemy", and civilians. I think that the main reason why the "greatest generation" didn't talk about war experiences, was because they couldn't bear to admit what they had done. This silence only perpetuates war, and until veterans decide to speak out, it will continue.
As some one whose father drove an ambulance in North Africa, who grew up surrounded by WW11 veterans, who was educated by WW11 veterans, I can say this: there seemed to be two kinds-those who never said a word about their war experiences, and those who wouldn't shut up.The ones I knew, obviously, had worked out a way of being in the world, but they had their problems-a couple of ex-bomber pilots I knew were serious drunks, while still managing to hold down jobs and raise families.My elementary school English teacher-an excellent teacher, by the way-would entertain us with tales of the Battle of the Bulge, sparing no grizly details.And the principal collected Nazi war regalia and weapons.His last name began with a 'von',and he was a Nazi sympathizer.He would take groups of kids out to a place called the Pump House Field, and blow holes in rotten logs with Mauser machine pistols and lugers.The Greatest Generation? You bet!
Most often, those who would not talk about the war were those who participated in the blood-and-guts parts; those who bragged about war service avoided that part. However, there are exceptions, but in my experience they tend to come across as psychopaths unconcerned about the cost of war as a whole.
Fighting fascism.....then becoming the masters and slaves of fascism......the "Greatest Generation" is yet to be had.
Your comment is exactly right, but that issue never gets talked about. It is not just the horrendous things soldiers see that effect them, but the HORRENDOUS things that the solder does.
US soldiers kill and maim and intimidate a lot of innocent civilians. And even though the propaganda that they are fed rationalizes their actions at the time they are doing it, in their hearts of hearts they know they are violating basic tenets of justice and humanity.
Our soldiers aren't defending this country, they are attacking another country.
Fighting against other soldiers is one thing, but killing and maiming civilians is another. Many will come to realize their mistake and find out that it is too much to cope with.
Are we doing enough to stop the unjust wars? No.
Can enough be done to stop it? I don't know, but we haven't gotten to the point where we are doing everything we feasibly can to stop it. Voting for Obama clearly wasn't the answer, but some of us knew that before the election.
So. Not only is Obama a war criminal, but so are many of our soldiers, regardless of their intent when they joined the military.
Patriotism stops being a justification for military action as soon as the start committing war crimes.
I support peace, justice, and protections of basic human rights for all. I don't support our troops that are engaged in the current wars/occupation. That would be a contradiction. But I also don't condemn outright their actions, but it is unfortunate that they are being fed a diet of lies by the military, the media, the conservatives, and themselves.
so it goes
The other front that soldiers like Cleland MUST fight is the use of war itself. To say no to what will only perpetuate precisely what will never be taken care of, granted on the scale demanded and needed by the war wounded.
Chomsky is right.
War is a racket.
War is not the answer
apanese FM Rules Out Base Deal During Obama Visit
Massive Protests Against US Base on Okinawa
by Jason Ditz, November 08, 2009
Email This | Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum
Though the rising dispute over US military bases in Okinawa has been a hot subject for Japanese foreign policy, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada says that his government will not finalize any deals during President Obama’s visit later this week.
US bases (red) on OkinawaTensions have been rising between Japan and the United States since Japan’s Democratic Party (DPJ) took power in August, the first major regime change the nation has seen since World War 2. The DPJ ran on the basis of ending US dictation of Japanese foreign policy, and called for a renegotiation of the Okinawa base deal.
But the US has absolutely ruled out any renegotiations, and has demanded the new government accept the deals the previous government signed, even though the unpopularity of those deals was in no small way responsible for the DPJ’s election. The US has grown impatient with the delay, and Japan has threatened to oust them entirely from Okinawa.
Which it seems may suit the Okinawans just fine, as an estimated 21,000 organized a massive protest along the beach calling for the removal of the US Marine base. Okinawans have complained that since the US occupation, they have been asked to bear an inordinate amount of responsibility for housing American forces, and the crime and pollution they bring with them.
http://news.antiwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/okinawa.jpg
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"THE TRUE PURPOSE OF OUR US ARMED FORCES IS TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR OUR BIG BOSS: OUR SUPERNATIONALISTIC CAPITALISM AND OUR CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC ASSAULT"
GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER, US MARINES, 1933
Well said.
When will WE ever learn?
I read somewhere that its not power that corrupts, its autonomy (the ability to make decisions you won't be held accountable for). Hate it all you want, but when the American people took a good look at what they were funding in Vietnam, what THEY had decided to do, they couldn't go on. Those images made them responsible for the war: it belatedly held them to account.
What account have ordinary Americans had to make for Iraq? None at all. They haven't even been asked to pay for it yet. Most of them have NO IDEA how many Iraqi's died there, in their own homes. And 'how many' is just a number, a statistic. They have no idea HOW they died, or how our soldiers died or were wounded. We just don't want to know and no one is making us know.
And that guarantees it'll happen again. We will never learn. Powerful forces have given us autonomy in Iraq and Afghanistan. To take action and never be asked to evaluate the consequences of the actions taken, is to be condemned to make the same mistake, again and again.
There are always consequences for actions taken. The trick in modern governance, modern business, and modern warfare, is to not be there when they show up. Books on canny management actually instruct people how to play this game. Which partially explains why the ranks of the powerful are filled with people playing the 'revolving door', it grows their autonomy. And guarantees that the same mistakes will be made again, and again, and again...