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Best Medicine for Veterans: Prevention
What veterans need most from us is a commitment to keep them from going to war in the first place
Veterans Day, and once again I'm shouting in my head: You people want to honor veterans? How about we dump the patriotic tinsel and give them something they can use — like all the effort it's going to take to heal their wounds for years to come.
I'm working on the anger. I've been reading Paul K. Chappell's "The End of War," a shining little book that gives me hope. Mr. Chappell is a young West Point graduate who served in Iraq and now goes about the country making the argument — kindly, intelligently, unflinchingly — that peace is something we can actually achieve.
Veterans Day, and here comes a friend with news of the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization that advocates for injured service members in order to foster "the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded warriors in this nation's history." How can I tell my good friend that even though I applaud these efforts, it seems to me the very need for such an organization is proof that our nation allows its enormous military machine to bear down on its most precious components — real men and women — and then to drop them carelessly back into our communities all busted up, depressed and increasingly suicidal. Meanwhile, billions upon billions of our taxpayer dollars are quietly funneled into the pockets of war profiteers, who are all too happy to go about their business of oiling the other components of the machine.
Veterans Day, and another friend forwards a mass email: "Please pray for and honor our military." I scroll through photos of soldiers holding up under awful burdens — separation from loved ones, violence, fear and physical privation. I read the captions that feed the underlying message, which is that after all the hardships these soldiers have endured, they cannot help but take offense when we whine about potholes, bad weather, and our everyday, crappy jobs. The email exhorts me to keep my life "in perspective" and to reach out to returning soldiers with tolerance and compassion. I note that an Army mental health nurse is the original sender.
I want to hit "reply all" and type furiously that even though I agree that returning soldiers need our compassion, I find the manipulative sentimentality of the photographs disturbing. Maybe this is because I once served as an Army nurse myself (not overseas but in Texas), where soldiers suffered from wounds no amount of "tolerance and compassion" could ever heal — soldiers who really needed our outrage. But I know my good friend meant well, and so I hit "delete."
Veterans Day, and a friend who is a member of Veterans for Peace suggests I take a look at another "warrior" program, the Warrior Writers Project. I take a look — a long one — and have my heart ripped up by warriors, both women and men, who express themselves with courage and honesty about their experiences. I support them by purchasing their anthology. But it doesn't feel like enough.
This time last year, I attended a conference for writers and medicine professionals who use the humanities to help combat soldiers through the "aftershock" back at home. The keynote address was delivered by Tim O'Brien, Vietnam veteran and acclaimed author of "The Things They Carried." I recall how warmly Mr. O'Brien was applauded, and how, when the applause died down, he joked grimly that he might not have any friends in the audience by the time the speech was over. He looked truly unnerved (later he confessed to being "terrified"), but he waded right in, admonishing us not to turn veterans into victims. You could have heard a pin drop.
There can be no healing, Mr. O'Brien argued, if healing just means forgetting. A soldier needs not only to remember, but also to accept responsibility for the matter-of-fact "nastiness" of war. He then told us how he once stood by and watched a fellow soldier, just a fresh-faced kid from Minnesota, do something unspeakably cruel to an old, blind man in Vietnam. He didn't spare us the appalling details. He said that, to this day, the face of that old man returns to him in his dreams.
A combat veteran is entitled to the depression and anxiety and sleepless nights, Mr. O'Brien said, and we ought not dole out coping mechanisms that deny them their humanity with the old excuse, "That's war for you." He added that he didn't mean to denigrate either those who serve their country in the military or those who care for them. He kept a grip on his own guilt for the "bad stuff" he did in Vietnam, refusing to allow his own humanity to be whisked away by any falsehood or shallow coping mechanism.
In the end, Mr. O'Brien had some "layman's advice" for medical professionals dealing with PTSD: You want to ameliorate post-war suffering? Practice preventative medicine. If you can tell people to stop smoking, you can tell them to stop making war.
Veterans Day, and I will tell my beloved nation: Stop making war.
24 Comments so far
Show All"Veterans Day, and I will tell my beloved nation: Stop making war."
I agree with you.
"...THE RIGHT TO KILL WITHOUT GUILT."
(Ha'aretz: Supplement, May 10, 1996 and The New York Times---"adapted"---
May, 27, 1996. by Ha'aretz columnist Ari Shavit)
"..we believe with absolute certainty that now, with the White House and Senate
in our hands along with the Pentagon and the 'New York Times', the lives
[of Arabs] do not count so much as our own. Their blood does not count as
much as our blood. We believe with absolute certitude that now when we have
AIPAC [American Israeli lobby]...and the Anti-Defamation League, when we have Dimona [the nuclear weapons institution] and...the Holocaust Museum, we have truly the right to tell 400,000 people that in eight hours they must flee from their
homes [which we will then] treat as pure military targets...That we have the right to
kill without any guilt."
This belief is not unique to Zionist Israelis, nor to their patrons (the US). Many
similar attitudes have been expressed from the genocide and extermination
of Native Americans, to racist white-only "manifest destiny" to empires
built around the globe (of which the US is the most powerful today).
Beyond the facts of the US-Israeli-Palestinian conflict over many years which
the US and Israel now have renamed (borrowing from PM Neville Chamberlain
of the UK about his meeting with Hitler) a search "for peace in our time",
it is attitudes such as these described by the Baltimore Sun ---and supported by all political parties--- which becomes deafening. Congratulations
to the Sun!
The statement that you quote sounds like an invention, just as the Protocols of Zion which is the most popular book in the Muslim world . The antisemites invent their delusions, and then attribute them to the Jews in order to justify their hate. Jews and Israel value LIFE of EVERYBODY, unlike Arabs whose Koran extols death and disses Jews for liking life!
There were many more Jewish refugees from Arab countries than Arab refugees from Israel in 1948 and while Jewish refugees were re-settled in Israel and now form over 50% of the Jewish population of Israel (in addition to 20% Arabs who live good lives as Israelis), the Arab refugees from Israel were not allowed to settled in lands vacated by the Jews from Arab countries. UN keeps them on dole for 5 generations and the amount of payment depends on number of children. Considering that polygamy is sanctioned by Islam and having many babies is a sign of virility of an Arab man the population increases in Gaza and West Bank are among the highest in the world.
After WWII there were many large transfers and exchanges of populations and temporary refugees who were settled and integrated in societies around the world. take example of India/Pakistan partition in 1947 and exchange of some 4 millions, or Poland/Germany and Russia/Poland where large chunks of Germany were given to Poland and large chinks of Poland to Russia. Only Palestinian Arabs are still held in refugees camps on the dole from UN. Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al Husseyni is the high-ranking Nazi war criminal who spent WWII with Hitler in Berlin egging him on to hurry up extermination of Jews. This evil Jew-hating delusional man was let go by the Brits and French in 1946 to Cairo because they needed Arab oil. The Nazi ideology of Jew hate and apartheid (Dhimmitude) had found a fertile ground in Muslim countries where SUBMISSION is a demand rather then respect for the Universal Delcaration of Human Rights. Sharia based on Koran and Hadith is not compatible with thie UN Universal Declartaion of Human Rights and that is why many Muslim counties had refused to sign it.
Peace in the Middle East will come when delusional Jew-hatred promoted in Koran and Hadith is cured. When 70% of Palestinian children dream of becoming "martyrs" when they grow up, i.e. dying while murdering Jews and Americans, how can one expect them to run a functional country?!
By the logic of America's "Veteran's Day," we should honor all veterans of all wars today--from the German wehrmacht to the Khmer Rouge to Timothy McVeigh and Lindy England.
We've killed over 1 million other human beings in the past 8 years or so, and our only remorse as a nation seems to be for the minority of military personnel who come back with physical or emotional trauma. Meanwhile, nearly a million of their fellow soldiers, sailors, and pilots continue to voluntarily and enthusiastically carry out the global agenda of the 1%, regardless of the trauma and catastrophes they are inflicting.
The author leaves out an important piece of information by omitting the fact that militarist flag hags like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are two of the founders of the Wounded Warrior Project. Kind of like the Aryan Nation sponsoring a support group for victims of racism.
I called WWP and asked them how much their administrative costs were and how much of my money actually go to the WW? No answer.
Then I asked them if they would consider a Wounded Iraqi, or Afghanistan, or any other country, project since we have wounded so many.
They hung up.
I got a kick out of seeing that informercial the first time. I thought, isn't that what the VA is supposed to be doing.
And again, for those that volunteer to go out and murder and pilage for the corporations, and either get wounded or killed, I have no sympathy.
Now, if they were fighting an armed invasion here in the US, I would support them.
Yes, the guilt of standing by and doing nothing to prevent it, can be unbearable. But at least he claims it. I respect him for that.
Take it upon yourself to find out who recruits at your local schools and go deal with that. There are several other ways for young people to serve and protect and it does NOT have to be in the military...a scam at best. Whorporate slavery.
"What veterans need most from us is a commitment to keep them from going to war in the first place"
God bless Madeleine Mysko and all like her. The very last resort any nation should have is resorting to war. Sending her young men out to fight other young men because some yahoo that never smelled the absolute stench of war wants to appear tough or win an election or retain power.
That a military force is needed is beyond question, that it should only be used as a last resort and never as Clauswitz suggested " an extension of diplomacy" is more than beyond question.
If those that favored war had to fight them, there would only be war's "of last resort"
Mr. O'Brian is my hero.
War is a primitive behavior..... please stop it!!
The schools are training grounds for the military. Anyone who knew the true history of the USA would never join the military. Today, especially, classrooms are filled with troops in uniform. The propagandizing of youthful minds in government schools is a big problem. It is much worse than FOX news. In school students are a captive audience. This is why I no longer support the public/govenment school system. There can be a better alternative... small, anti-war schools that use Zinn's People's History of the US. Why is it that so many who criticize FOX, will never criticize the school syystem? (I just left a meeting with a school board member. He agrees. But change will not happen until this topic is in the public arena. Schools should not be given a free pass. It is intellectually dishonest to criticize FOX but then accept the lies that schools teach our children.)
I agree with you. But as Bruce E. Levine, who advocates liberation psychology and works with adolescents, says, most progressives just don't want to go there. Our public schools are sacred cows. Bash FOX, bash the MSM, bash video games, bash anything but that ultimate propaganda machine, the public schools. My views on this, sadly, were called "fundamentalist" on this site the other day.
Of course, what state would support a school such as you describe?
Elizabeth...Thanks for the comment. There is an automatic incorrect assumption that anyone who criticizes the public school system is a 'fundamentalist' who hates teachers and unions... I doubt that there are many to the'left' of me. I am to the far left of the Socialist Party. Yes, you are right about the silencing of this view. Progressive and liberal sites reject articles that don't support the 'system'. Amazing the censorship that goes on. The two topics that are taboo on left leaning sites are support for 'life' at conception, and support for a school system that does not propagandize students. My main focus is freedom of political speech and the 1st Amendment. Many so-called progressive sites censor as much as the extreme right does.
No State will support accurate historical information in the class room. It will have to come from a grass roots movement. Till that happens, schools will brain wash kids and wars will go on.
Rosemarie & Elizabeth: You both confuse the MIC's incursion into the public school system with the intent and ideal of public education IN THE FIRST PLACE. When large segments opt out of public school, it's left defunded. Is that your idea of an egalitarian society? That there's NO decent education left in place once the Middle Class (or what's left of it), or the Fundamentalists (since the textbooks I know of, the ones designed for home schooling are INORDINATELY Christian fundamentalist in their orientation) abandon it. Certainly most wealthy families have seen that their children would be educated from costly private sources for some time.
Is THAT what you're arguing for? It sure sounds libertarian to me. Its rationale is "I want MY kid out of there!" Elizabeth, for sure, and possibly you, Rosemarie, confuse the way public education has become another arm of the corporate state with what public education exists FOR. It's like arguing that there should be no government, because segments of it have become corrupt. And then what's left? For citizens to be left at the absolute mercy of the corporate powers? As it is, the merger of both of these, otherwise known as fascism, has been the chief influence that's corrupted our land, stolen the commons and now aims at privatizing education.
Strange that your arguments against public ed line up with the mission of The Right.
You say "the textbooks I know of, the ones designed for home schooling are INORDINATELY Christian fundamentalist in their orientation." Oh bullshit. You think that if a person homeschools, s/he has to have a homeschool-approved textbook, and all are fundamentalist. Obviously you are arguing out of ignorance. The stereotype that homeschoolers are a bunch of fundamentalists is false. Do you really think learning has to come from textbooks in the first place? Is there no other way to learn? Textbooks are political tools.
You think our schools are egalitarian? Go to some ghetto schools, then go to the schools in the wealthy suburbs, and report back to me about the egalitarian nature of our schools.
You think you know the "ideal of public education IN THE FIRST PLACE." First of all, quit shouting all the time. It's rude. Second of all, if you want to know the true ideals that public schools were founded on, not the ones the teaching colleges espouse, then educate yourself. The founders of our school system believed fervently in eugenics, and were funded by the robber barons to make incurious, dumbed down wage slaves.
Could the schools be fixed? Only with a huge rethinking of how children learn, something our system deliberately ignores. No, worse than ignores: they destroy children's nature desire to learn. The curriculum in terms of content is all but incidental, except for the usual propaganda. The schools are training grounds for obedience, and convince students that they can be scientifically rated and sorted. I'd give you some links, but why bother.
If you think it "strange" that progressive teachers are speaking out against our school system, maybe it's because you don't know what we're talking about, and have no desire to learn. So you just cry "right wing!" and "fundamentalist!" in your ignorance.
Siouxrose...Sorry, but you misinterpret what I said. MIC's incursion is not the issue. The issue is the basic philosophy of a government controlled school system that deprives all - except the wealthy - of choice. The children in poor families should be allowed the same choice in education as those in wealthy families. Why do you opppose choice?
Why do you evaluate ideas in terms of left/right, libertarianism? Labels chill the debate, but worse than that they are a prime example of the ad hominem falacy. An idea is either good or bad - and should not be judged in terms of labels.
Not every public school is bad. Not every teacher is bad. BUT, the bottom line is that the public government controlled school system teaches a false sence of patriotism, distorts history, and glorifies war. The purpose of the system is to produce workers for the corporations and killers for the military.
If you read BANNED IN VERMONT you would see that I do NOT argue for no government. I support the Rule of Law, good government, sometimes less government, and always fair government. I reject all labels and during a recent OWS TV interview, I stated my belief that political parties have destroyed the US, and we would be better off if we eliminated the Party System.
I had a dream last night, and what a lovely dream it was...truly, It came to me in a ream sleep mode just before waking that I had found the answer to ending war, really, I had the answer! We give tax breaks for everything these days, and mostly to those who benefit most from war in the first place. So, it came to me what we really needed to do is give complete tax breaks to veterans. No sales tax, no income tax, not estate tax, no state tax, no social security tax, forever! And you get that the minute you are released from service, if you want to keep making war you don't get it until you get out and stop making war! Now every politician would have to really search his soul to see if he really wanted to go to war because of the taxes that would be lost! In reality, the cost of those not paying taxes would probably equal what war costs us in the first place, but the veterans would now be alive and well spending their money here, buying cars and houses here, and benefiting our society here! I think it has merit!
Interesting.
Wow... I hardly ever seem to go into a ream sleep mode any more. But when I do, my dreams are way different than yours.
I guess that's why they say "different strokes for different folks!"
Mr. Obedient:
Quit messing with the somewhat confused. You well know the difference between REM and ream. Shame, shame, and thanks for the good laugh!
I always found a ream sleep mode beyond boring...
A nice idea, and apologies for joining in the fun with the typo, but wouldn't that encourage people to join the military - admittedly with the eventual intention of leaving?
That might mean that the militaries become full of people whose metaphoric eyes are on the eventual peace and not the immediate rush to glory, which wouldn't be a bad thing, but wouldn't those who had never been involved in making war feel less than gruntled by these tax breaks?
"or overthrowing dictators the US doesn't like."
Anymore. You forgot the last word of the sentence. The US installs and/or supports these dictators/despots/etc. until they are no longer useful, then the US gets rid of them and all of the other dead bodies are collateral damage.
I am happy that you and your husband have smelled the coffee and that your sons aren't going in that wrong direction,
Two documentaries that removed the stars from my eyes and patriotism from my vocabulary:
"Winter Solder" and "Ground Truth".
"While we thoroughly enjoyed our tours of duty, we no longer think that joining the service is in the best interest of folks these days. We actually have discouraged our two sons for joining and they agree, that these wars are not protecting our country, but serving the interests of corporations and building up other countries-and not ours." ~ ddills
Good to hear you found some sanity, but there is still no excusing your reprehensible behavior in ever joining the military. Ever since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 where 'any further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention'; and absolutely certainly since Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket" in 1935, [ www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf ], the US military has been first and foremost protecting national economic interests i.e., corporate interests.
Henry David Thoreau in the 1850s, Leo Tolstoy in the late 1890s, Gandhi in the 1930s and 1940s, and ML King in the 1960s all wrote or spoke eloquently about the brutality and savagery of war and the NEED FOR PEACE.
Too bad nearly a couple of centuries on we still cannot be convinced to act according to this obvious truth which, if held dear, could make this planet better for ever single inhabitant.
But there is a solution. Stop paying taxes, first and foremost. Second, stop voting federally and thus sanctioning the crimes. America has 5% of the world population but spends more on its military than the remaining 95% do collectively. War, to our collective shame, is our industry. It will be the death of us all given the opportunity.