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The End of War for Whom?
On the day I heard that President Obama had officially declared the Iraq war over, I was at the Danville Veterans’ Administration hospital (VA) with my partner S, an Iraq War veteran. S is six months into a disability application, a request for benefits and compensation for disabilities sustained during military service, which will likely take another year to process.
Eric Ruin (justseeds.org)
We found ourselves navigating through a maze of yellowed walkways and drab interiors, shuttled from admissions offices to mental health clinics. While we were not the only ones moving through that system, we were perhaps moving faster than the others. Many veterans of previous wars—the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, World War II—lined the route, being pushed in wheelchairs, walking on canes, some perhaps visiting for the day with their families, some completely alone. S was one of the only young people I saw in this wing of the VA, and based on the way people looked at us, they clearly knew that he was a “hero” of the war that President Obama had just declared “completed.”
It took S five years to work up the guts to apply for disability status after getting home, and now I understand why. Anyone who has ever spent time in the military knows that there is a stigma against saying you are hurt, especially if those wounds are not visible. And then to go back to the institution that hurt you, with no record of the injuries you have sustained, to ask for help, to say you are not OK, runs the risk of adding insult to injury.
But being there with S, I realized there is another dimension to VA visits enough to keep you away for a lifetime: the proof that war is a lifetime for those who survive, that it traps you in its drab hallways, in its medical appointments and slow-moving applications and appeals, in its memory and worldview, in its wounds. Long after the war is declared over and the country stops paying attention to their suffering, veterans still walk those hallways, go to those appointments, and take those pills.
President's speech
Even though Obama ran on the anti-war ticket, he ended up declaring the war a success. All day, I turned over in my head the President’s speech from that morning: “We knew this day would come. We’ve known it for some time. But still there is something profound about the end of a war that has lasted so long. It’s harder to end a war than begin one. Everything that American troops have done in Iraq—all the fighting, all the dying, the bleeding and the building and the training and the partnering, all of it has landed to this moment of success.”
I wondered what it would have sounded like for Obama to speak those words at the Danville VA. Would “the end” sound as profound to “the dying and the bleeding” within these walls?
When VA mental health care professionals evaluate veterans for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), they ask them to identify traumatizing incidents, the moments that ruptured their internal wellness. For some people it is an explosion, a rape, a body blown to bits. For others, simply being over there is enough to transform their perception that the world is a decent place or can ever be a decent place.
I was invited to join S in his mental health evaluation to corroborate his story. When he shared his traumatizing moments, my eyes began to burn, something inside me began to shake and scream. I’ve seen the haunting, detachment, and fear alongside the tenderness, love, and hope that’s in him. I’ve wrestled with the events that have dug deep holes of anxiety and despair in him, holes that you can lose yourself in.
There is nothing profound about the end of this war. It is pain and wreckage. It is symptoms on a PTSD checklist. It is trauma that goes unrecognized, here and in Iraqi communities. It is loss that is mourned, and loss that there is no one left to mourn. It is another night that S can’t sleep, just like every other night, tossing and turning. It is something that can never be undone.
The movement won
This is not meant to be a hopeless article. The “end” of the Iraq War is significant. It means troops will be leaving, and thus some lives will be spared trauma and loss. We all know that this is a direct result of the anti-war movement—its impact on public opinion made the war no longer politically viable. And in that sense, we have won.
Throughout this war, I have learned that traumatized communities have profound strength when they collectively organize; that soldiers and veterans have been organizing the whole time to bring their brothers and sisters home; and that Iraqis have been not only struggling to survive but also courageously organizing against occupation.
As a member of the Civilian Soldier Alliance and an ally to Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), I know firsthand that transformation is possible, collective healing is real and has happened throughout these wars, and those who are organizing will not stop or ever give up. I have worked with courageous veterans and service members in IVAW’s Operation Recovery, a campaign that takes on the rampant problems of military rape and sexual assault, PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other injuries that plague military service members by organizing around their right to heal and exit traumatic situations. I have seen the strength and courage of World War II, Vietnam, and Gulf War veterans organizing demonstrations, marching in the streets, and helping each other survive. And I have also seen the day-to-day brave acts of S and the kindness that radiates from him.
But the “end” of the Iraq war does not signal an end to US foreign policy based on brute self-interest, geopolitical control, and military empire. There was no apology, no talk of reparations, and no stated intention to shift direction. The “security” contractors and private companies will not leave anytime soon, and many soldiers will simply be transferred to “the good war” in Afghanistan or sent to one of 800 US bases around the world.
War and occupation in Afghanistan continue, as well as military campaigns against Pakistan, Yemen, and other countries the US public is not informed about, and the possibility of a war against Iran grows. The US continues funding and arming Israel’s apartheid policies towards Palestinians, as well as supporting dictators and monarchs in the Middle East and North Africa, helping put down any popular protests that challenge US strategic interests.
This is not to mention that at this moment of Occupy uprisings domestically, with Occupy Wall Street pushing the parameters of what we thought was possible, the US government is expanding its abilities to employ militarism against its own people with the latest “anti-terror” bill and shooting protesters with the same tear gas canisters it exports to Israel.
My generation
I saw my generation sent off to war. I watched as they were marched onto the tarmac and disappeared into airplanes. I watched the bombs explode in shock and awe attacks, followed the counter-insurgency, and then the surges. I marched with veterans when they returned home, wounded and determined that the only way to heal was to stop these wars. I watched people in the US mobilize against the wars, and I watched people give up, stop caring. I watched the wars become normal, invisible.
And now I am terrified that I will see my generation disappeared into VA clinics, onto the streets (veterans today comprise a quarter of all homeless people), or lost to suicide.
I can’t imagine what it is like for the people in Iraq who have lived under war and occupation for almost nine years and who will now live under the hand of security contractors, such as Blackwater, and US-installed politicians for years to come. Many estimate that the Iraq war has killed over one million Iraqis and displaced over 10 million, with countless others traumatized, wounded, and disabled. Iraqis are now left with a society torn, traumatized, and impoverished by over nine years of war. Bombs ripped through Baghdad last week, killing five and wounding 39, just as the Obama Administration was ringing the bells of “victory.”
To call this success, to call this profound, is a dishonor to my generation’s loss. It is justification for events that have no justification. It is ideological footing for future wars, future trauma, future loss.
The day the Iraq War “ended,” the VA was the same as ever. People shuffled to appointments, waited in waiting rooms, and filled out more paperwork. The wounds, both physical and mental, did not heal, the homeless were not housed, and the dead were not resuscitated.
S was evaluated for disability eligibility. This evaluation will be added to a pile of papers which will eventually be mailed and added to another pile, and then more waiting and more appointments.
When we got into the car to drive home, the radio blared the news that the Iraq war is “over” and played a clip of Obama’s “success” speech to Ft. Bragg soldiers. I quickly reached over to turn off the radio, and I gripped my partner’s hand as we drove away in silence, the VA disappearing behind us...until the next appointment.
This piece first appeared at Left Turn
18 Comments so far
Show AllThe end of war for whom? Enough said !
"I can't imagine what it is like for the people in Iraq..."
Why not?
What is there about the collective imperialist U.S. imagination that limits our ability as a people to recognize the consequences of our actions and the actions committed in our names?
I fear this: Ms. Lazare, clearly a deeply empathetic and humane person, cannot allow herself to admit to the enormity of the crimes against humanity undertaken by the U.S. empire around the globe.
To fully admit to the truths of the horrors becomes too much to bear.
" I watched the wars become normal, invisible."
One reason for this, though I can't fully explain it, is because it was refered to as a "war". War means good against evil, heroes, sacrifice, god bless america. America is all about war, battle, etc. so Iraq fit right in (just watch any Sunday Night football broadcast, or wrestling).
Now if it was refered to correctly, as an invasion, maybe things would be different. Invasion is bads guys robbing, killing, etc. You can imagine how the commentary would run if two football teams were playing against each other, and a third team stormed the field, stole the equipment, knocked down the goalposts, and killed half the other two teams. When they left no one would say, whew the games over.
"Many veterans of previous wars—the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, World War I"
Typo. There is only one living WWI veteran, Florence Green, and she lives in England.
The language of strategy and politics is designed, so far as it is possible, to conceal this fact, to make it appear as though wars were not fought by individuals drilled to murder one another in cold blood and without provocation, but either by impersonal and therefore wholly non-moral and impassible forces, or else by personified abstractions." - Aldous Huxley - From Words and Behavior (1936)
Posted by lumpendimwit
Jan 3 2012 - 3:11pm
"Oboma is a lying cynical bastard--for whom most of you voted, and for whom many of you will vote again."
"Who is the problem here?"
This seems to way over simplify. What politician doesn't lie? Actually we all lie, so says several studies, to the tune of on average of three times for every ten minutes of conversation. The greater dishonesty for most of us, though, is that we want to blame one person. This President did not start this particular war, but by the same token he did not end it immediately upon entering office. But the reality is bringing the troops home will not end this war, nor will it prevent the United States from entering the next war--and the next--and the next--and the next. Since WWII we have almost always been at war, regardless of what party has been in office. Blaming Obama, while convenient, is to lose sight of the bigger problem--our "peace-loving" nation is not, and has not been for decades. As citizens it is a monumental challenge for any of us to find the real truth about anything. Most media engages in spin,indeed the media is more into party politics than they are into investigative reporting. Both political parties are beholden to big money and corporate interests because that is where the millions of dollars comes from that it takes to finance increasingly expensive campaigns. (And what are campaign contributions but bribe money?) Obama is no more the problem than are the 400 plus Representatives and the 100 Senators--from BOTH parties. No politician who's sole interests is getting elected is going to be honest with the American people. Honesty does not win elections. Telling people what they want to hear wins elections. But it is not just telling us what we want to hear, it goes far beyond that. The first step is "educating" us which is a euphemism for brainwashing us, thus setting the stage for gaining our support (even when it means going against our own best interests) for a course of action that generally is designed to best serve huge corporate interests. In other words the payback for the campaign contributions. And corporations tend to multiply their power by combining their efforts through organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce to name but one. As citizens we do not have the remotest hope of competing with mega-billion dollar corporations when it comes to influencing politicians and when it comes to buying lobbying power. Half of us don't even vote anymore, which to me signals a sign of despair--giving up because they feel that it is hopeless. Unfortunately we,the vast majority, like to be told what makes us most comfortable or what feeds and supports our prejudices,our religious views, our world views, our political views etc. etc. Politicians will stop lying when stop being so shallow and so easily "educated" and when we stop trashing one another and start having deeper more meaningful discussions about the real issues and problems that face each of us on "main street."
So who is the problem here?--We all are!--and that is the real problem.
I feel for your partner having to be at the mercy of the VA health care system. I just had a harrowing,i should be dead, experience at the Ashville, N.C. hospital which was a bad choice on my part to go for emergency help.I went there for acute respiratory distress and ended up with a catheter. I was misdiagnosed for pneumonia when i had blood clots in my lungs. I was mistreated for 2 weeks when my brother called until he reached someone in the ICU and told that person why wasn't I checked for blood clots. I was almost dead at this point. Anyway I eventually got out the hospital after 2 months and went to an appointment with my private physician. The first things he said, having reviewed the VA hospitalization records, was; "they tried to ,kill you at the VA. How in the hell are you still alive".The fact is that I was lucky because no blood clots went from my lungs to my heart or brain. Vegetable and bullet time. It was a nightmare, i was placed in a room without any nursing care. Be careful, your partner's life is in jeopardy.
BOGI: I'm glad you're back!
Maybe if more soldiers who sign up read up on the Vet "benefits" and hospital experience (or watched the film, "Born on the Fourth of July") they will lose the glamour and gain a clearer sense of what they will likely find themselves up against. The karma of war follows soldiers home. One cannot kill with impunity, nor steal another peoples' resources and expect a clean slate. Even if the greater responsibility rests on superior officers, without grunts, the war machine could not run roughshod over other regions and decimate their populations.
Once the first foreign drones show up over our skies, there will be a very different perception of militarism here in the Homeland Security States.
Without the grunts war would not be possible. Violent video games, paid for by the Pentagon,is free pre-grunt training, training of children soldiers to be grunts on the ground in the future. In Africa, the children soldiers training is paid for by the Pentagon and employed immediately. The army salaries, $100,000,000 million per year, of South Sudan is paid by the USG. Meanwhile Medicare wants to reduce doctors reimbursement by 25%.Paying The grunts in Africa, which includes children soldiers, are more important to the USG while doctors are more important to the USAn people. The USG strategy to get rid of Medicare is to starve it while continuing the payroll tax which is siphoned off to the Military.Also, by reducing doctor reimbursement it will reduce the amount of taxes doctors pay thereby increasing the deficit.
"The 'end' of the Iraq war is significant. It means the troops will be leaving and thus some lives will be spared trauma and loss. We all know this is a direct result of the anti-war movement - its impact on public opinion made the war no longer politically viable. And in that sense, we have won."
Speaking as a veteran of the antiwar movement and GI resistance during the Vietnam era, and one who protested in the streets against the invasion of first Afghanistan, then against the invasion and occupation of Iraq (with many more companions), I respectfully question the accuracy of Sarah Lazare's last two assertions, as much as I do fervently wish they were true.
In a very real sense, the peace and civil rights movement of the 60's and early 70's did, ultimately and painfully, make continuation of the Vietnam War no longer politically viable. Hawk incumbents in both major political parties found themselves targeted in contested primaries and in general election campaigns by antiwar opponents, and a good number of politicians who had supported Johnson and Nixon's war efforts eventually came to publicly recant their formerly held views.
Despite the reelection landslide victory of Richard Nixon (who sometimes billed himself the "responsible peace candidate") over George McGovern in 1972, the movement in the streets and the civil unrest continued to grow. Even the most militarist flag wavers came to see the handwriting on the wall. Nobody needed a weatherman to know which way the wind was blowing, particularly after the exposures of the Watergate scandal drove Nixon from the White House a half step ahead of impeachment.
In contrast, I sense the Iraq War was brought to an end less by a groundswell of outside popular pressure than by internal tensions that emerged inside the pro-war camp. The neocon true believers who confidently bellowed for a grand march under the banner of American style democracy from Baghdad on to Tehran were exposed as reckless fools, armchair generals blinded by their own hubris. The realpolitk school of thought within the Washington DC military/industrial/national security complex elites - such as the bipartisan Iraq Study Group - finally prevailed behind closed doors.
It was George W. Bush who signed off on a date to end US combat operations in Iraq, in negotiations with the post-Saddam regime. No way in hell did Nixon and Kissinger extend a similar offer of a fixed American withdrawal deadline to either the North or the South Vietnamese. The Bushies reluctantly scaled back their ambitions because they lost the less stridently ideological portion of their own base, not because they feared backlash at the polls or funding cut offs in the Congress fomented by the largely marginalized stateside peace movement.
To my recollection, the size of the antiwar protest demonstrations were tapering off by 2008, not increasing. I don't remember many major political figures who supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq jumping ship to confess the error of their ways. John McCain persistently campaigned on a platform that clearly evoked the image of a continued US military presence inside Iraq as something that was very politically viable.
McCain's opponent, Barack Obama, never budged beyond his brief, earlier muted reference to the Iraq War as "dumb." By November of 2008 the Democratic candidate joined the "success of the surge" bandwagon in his Fox News interview, setting the stage for a later, "smarter" escalated troop presence focusing on Afghanistan. If this is what qualifies as "the anti-war ticket" in that historic election cycle, it seems to me scant evidence that the anti-war movement had made continuation of the Iraq debacle somehow "no longer politically viable."
Just because Secretary of Defense Panetta congratulated the departing American troops on their successful mission and assured them they were marching home from Iraq with pride intact should not lull us who took part in the antiwar movement into following suit, pulling a shoulder muscle while prematurely patting ourselves on the back. We ain't won nothing yet this time around, any more than they did.
Bill from Saginaw
I
I would not want to be the one to try telling the people of Iraq that the war is over. The devastation we have brought to that country will be felt for decades. I certainly empathize with the wounded soldiers and the traumas suffered by those who so naively thought they were fighting to protect America, but they do get to come home to some semblance of normalcy......not the case for hundreds of thousands of displaced and traumatized Iraqis who must now deal with ongoing sectarian violence.
Yeah, it's all about the USAn's and those whom were murdered the societies destroyed, are relegated to insignificance, invisible. You are just towing the Pentagon line of MeriKan being more significant than the victims. Just as Sioux Rose exclaimed, without grunts their would be no wars. It's time that the Pentagon created violent video game brainwashed MeriKan youth, take responsibility for being killers, murderers, rapists with sadistic behavior and the blow back they foisted on themselves even though completely disproportionate to the carnage they did/do/will do to others.
Many families ever have any semblance of normalcy once the loved ones are gone. The end of war never comes to many of us. Normalcy is not an option nor a reality. War hurts everyone, everywhere and always will.
Oh its not that hard to imagine the suffering of the Iraqi people at all! Since the writer is familiar with the suffering of the returning soldier, the families now without spouses, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters we can multiply those losses, mental and physical suffering, by factors of hundreds of thousands and we arrive at the plight of the Iraqis...now we SUBTRACT any semblance of organised medical care, facilites care givers etc and their plight intensifies. Those who went over to fight were volunteers, by 2004 they knew exactly what was going on in terms of risk to life or limb. Iraqis didn't volunteer, this invasion was imposed upon them, caught between the combatants they couldn't 'win'. What absolutely miserable lives they must have had to live...but why use the past tense, the only difference now is uniformed US tropps aren't there anymore. Non of us really know by what or whom those troops have been replaced.
You should have done your partner "S" a favor and stopped them from going off to war in the first place. How do you wrap your head around marching off to kill people that have done you no harm and have no grievance against? Just more revolting, disgusting "patriotism."
"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service." - Albert Einstein
I’ve always found a terrible irony in the fact that Uncle Sam is quite eager to go to war and to spend trillions on weapons of death, but is unwilling to spend more than a pittance to alleviate the suffering his wars cause, not only among the ‘enemy,’ but even among his own.
Still, I imagine there is much more profit to be made from killing people than from curing them.