Ron Capps, in Foreign Policy, has a heartbreaking, deeply personal story about one of the most terrible prices “we” will be paying for the AfghanIraqistan fustercluck: “The New Lost Generation: Suicide rates for troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are out of control, and post-traumatic stress disorder is reaching epidemic proportions. But is the Pentagon willing to tally the true cost of war?”
… Rand Corp. now estimates that about 20 percent of returning veterans either have or will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The suicide rate in the Army is out of control: During the first half of 2009, more American soldiers committed suicide than were killed in combat. In June, an average of one soldier a day committed suicide.
[…] __
We don’t yet know where the current balance between blood and mental wounds lies. Between 2002 and 2009, there were about 33,000 wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. During that same period, about 4,700 troops were evacuated for mental-health reasons — just over 14 percent of all troops serving in theater. But this figure only counts those cases so dramatic that the soldiers were sent home from the war. Doctors always prefer to get soldiers back to their units rather than out of theater, and not everyone who is treated appears on the record. My doctor kept my treatment quiet to keep from tarnishing my record and to protect my Top Secret security clearance. In short, that 14 percent is just a fraction of the actual number of soldiers suffering.
[…] __
At the end of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, the Army was traumatized. Rampant drug use, poor leadership, and severe racial problems threatened to overwhelm the entire military institution. Today, drug use is back, and young officers are leaving the Army at alarming rates. We haven’t descended to the dark days of the post-Vietnam era, but the stress of long, repeated deployments is dangerous — to both the military itself and families awaiting the return of loved ones. The fallout from Vietnam reverberated for decades; it was a long and hard period for the services and for the country. The coming reckoning will happen in an America where politics are blood sport, and where neither political party has recently covered itself in glory. Like war itself, it will be a grim, untidy business.
Do go read the whole article — I’m not excerpting much, because I don’t want to spoil the weight of it (or short the many included links, which are equally informative).
And if the sheer waste of human life and potential doesn’t ruin your mood, think back to the way actual combat vets like George McGovern and John Kerry who dared to run against the conventional-wisdom cheerleading were treated by the Fighting Hellmice of the 101st Chairborne. Every Af/Iraq vet who doesn’t support all wars, all the time is going to be attacked as a “head case”, a hopelessly damaged piece of human flotsam whose only utility would be as a silent icon of Our Sainted (Should’ve Been) Dead. Although I may just have a needlessly jaded opinion of Foreign Policy‘s general realpolitikal bias.
