McCain wants the US to stay in Iraq for 100 years. We all know the price of this war is driving down social services for everyone, but the US citizens who pay the biggest price are the soldiers and their families.
According to House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs chairman Bob Filner (D-CA), “The rate of veteran suicide has reached epidemic proportions.”
Already the US has 25 million veterans. Of just the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, there will be an estimated 300,000 thousands cases of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The cost of treatment could be as much as $600 billion, and law makers are excited about new research that shows great potential in treating PTSD: ecstasy (MDMA).
PTSD occurs in:
- 30% of Vietnam veterans
- 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans
- 6% to 11% of veterans of the Afghanistan war (Enduring Freedom)
- 12% to 20% of veterans of the Iraq war (Iraqi Freedom)
Another cause of PTSD is sexual harassment:
- 23% of women reported sexual assault when in the military
- 55% of women have experienced sexual harassment when in the military
- 38% of men have experienced sexual harassment when in the military
PTSD remains significant for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and Bush is not going to take care of the soldiers and their families. He sent them to war on false pretenses which upon being uncovered led to the degradation of morale and sense of purpose; this loss of meaning contributes to PTSD.
In his 2009 fiscal budget proposal, Bush cut almost 40% ($156 million) from the Family Advocacy Program, which addresses violence in military families—one way PTSD could manifest.
As the US is spending $343 million every 24 hours on the Iraq war, eleven hours in Iraq “could restore $156 million cut by the president’s Defense Department budget for the Family Advocacy Program,” said Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense.
By the way, Murtha was one of two congress members who voted to reinstate the draft. Although that would have been horrific, I don’t think we’d still be in Iraq had that happened and the wealthy had to send their kids to fight in a pointless war that is killing 100,000s of Iraqi civilians.
1 response so far ↓
Dennis // February 11, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Conversations about War and Peace:
There is an evil in my head that I can’t get rid of, inside are my private battles with hell,in this body without a soul,Shared by only a few of my comrades in arms.It all started in a room filled with people who were united in their deep concern for the welfare of returning veterans. Many people spoke. Veterans spoke. Stories were told. Hearts were poured out.
But suddenly, amidst all this good will, a rift spread across the room. A difference of opinion emerged. How to best serve a returning veteran? It was not so easy a question as we might have guessed.
The cause of the rift?
Peace!Imagine that. Peace!, as the catalyst of confrontation. But it was,A crowd of very decent, well-meaning people sat in the middle and said, We want to care for our veterans. We also want to talk about peace.Battle lines were hastily drawn. On one side, were people affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs. On the other side, the veterans.
Oh no, the VA men said. You cannot speak of peace. If you ever want to build rapport with veterans, you cannot utter a word about peace! They went on to explain that veterans view peace-activists as the enemy. If they so much as hear that word—peace!—they will turn tail and run the other way. And you’ll have lost them forever. These are views of VA armchair warriors. These were the VA experts. They knew everything about the veterans. They carried that weight with them or so they thought. Then the veterans in the room responded. They said, Um ! yes but…we’re not all opposed to talking about peace. In fact, given our troubles with war, we rather enjoy the discussion.Now there is truth, of course, in the suggestion that many veterans do feel a certain hostility from the peace movement—even those veterans who have been disquieted by their own experiences in war. But my feeling, as an Iraq War veteran, is that they tend to be threatened mostly by the rhetoric that is leveled directly against the actions they took in war. Veterans are not inherently opposed to peaceful days, and most, I think would be perfectly receptive to a discussion of diplomacy vs. Military action in future situations.
And so the debate went back and forth, the moral divide opened, and the well-meaning people in the middle began to slip down into it. They looked to the left at the few passionate veterans in the room, and then they looked to the right at the men from the VA who said they’d worked with and heard the stories from thousands of veterans. Trust us,they said. We know what we’re talking about.Almost like they cough think for us.
You could see the struggle ensue before your eyes. You could feel it. In the end, the well-meaning people in the middle grabbed hold of a rope called neutrality.
And there they hung, murmuring, We do not want to upset our veterans, so we will not talk about peace or anything else of importance. We will not talk about politics,or about stopping the war in Iraq,or preventing a war in Iran,or about depleted uranium,or about the 120 War Vets Commit Suicide Each Week,no lets keep it simple lets talk about nothing.The cause for war had won!
I was disturbed by what I’d heard those VA men didn’t say.That veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care. The information is coming from documents related to a civil lawsuit filed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war who claim the government is illegally denying mental health treatment to some troops.Army officials in upstate New York instructed representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military disability paperwork last year.
But I was not entirely surprised. One man was a psychiatrist. He explained the psychological dimensions of PTSD. Another was a chaplain. He explained the spiritual dimensions of PTSD. But by virtue of their jobs and the hands that fed them, they could not delve too deeply into the moral questions of policy.
This is where I became most incensed.
Because war with Iran is not yet a policy, I said to my friend who was also at the meeting. There are no troops on the ground to support or not to support. There are no units in contact. There is no mission to believe in or to doubt. This is a great burden off our shoulders and clears the table for the possibility of diplomacy. This is the time to talk about it. This is the time to talk about non-violence, before the violence begins, before the troops are sent, and before we have another polarizing war which we cannot speak of critically without offending somebody.
But I was not entirely surprised. One man was a psychiatrist. He explained the psychological dimensions of PTSD. Another was a chaplain. He explained the spiritual dimensions of PTSD. But by virtue of their jobs and the hands that fed them, they could not delve too deeply into the moral questions of policy.
This is where I became most incensed.
Because war with Iran is not yet a policy, I said to my friend who was also at the meeting. There are no troops on the ground to support or not to support. There are no units in contact. There is no mission to believe in or to doubt. This is a great burden off our shoulders and clears the table for the possibility of diplomacy. This is the time to talk about it. This is the time to talk about non-violence, before the violence begins, before the troops are sent, and before we have another polarizing war which we cannot speak of critically without offending somebody.
What was so extraordinary about this particular episode was that the painstaking neutrality embraced by all these well-meaning people to spare the feelings of the veterans had effectively trumped their own instincts to speak for peace. They were silenced. They silenced themselves, not only about the present war, but about future ones as well.
My friend and I both vets agreed, we’d witnessed a surprising phenomenon. And we realized that the effort to prevent future wars might be effectively impeded through its manipulation.
If, for example, Iran was pressed upon the American people not as a war of its own, but merely as an extension of the same war on terror already taking place in Iraq, then so much the more difficult it would be to oppose for those people desperately wishing to show support for the troops.
It was a noble thing to do, and I’m pleased that it we veterans who have done it. God bless you all
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