Wounds That Don't Bleed

This article in the Nov. 29 Time magazine describes the stress our servicemen in Iraq are under and how they cope. Read it.

How severe stress is taking a toll on U.S. troops in Iraq — and what Washington is doing about it

Following deployment to Iraq, 17% of Army respondents and 19% of Marines reported a "perceived moderate or severe problem," according to a psychiatric study released last July by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The study termed those estimates "conservative," and most cases, says Nash, will not be apparent until the troops are back home. The Marine who served in al-Anbar for seven months says that when he drives past potholes in his hometown, he wonders if they will explode. If the refrigerator door closes, he says, "I ask myself if that was incoming fire. A bomb?" And he's older than most grunts. "The younger guys--18, 19 years old — they're definitely going to have some challenges ahead," he adds. "God help somebody who pushes the wrong button on a kid who's been through these things."

Troops who don't use official services must find their own coping mechanisms, often within their unit. Leaders try to find downtime for their men, and memorial services for the fallen can help with grieving. But clinically speaking, Nash says, most soldiers and Marines engage in denial and dissociation to get through (my emphasis). "Everybody out here is putting all this stuff in a closet and storing it up," he says, "because you just can't deal with it right now."

Perhaps if we learned anything from Vietnam, it is that we can't pretend any longer that PTSD doesn't exist. There are very old men who still have bad dreams about WWI but they thought it it was their own problem, some kind of character flaw, and didn't know to seek help or thought that would show some kind of 'weakness'. Men who served in WWII, Korea, or any war, are also troubled. It took years for the government to acknowledge that PTSD is very real and to do something about it. Probably not enough.

Our troops in Iraq were sent to fight in a war that didn't have to happen. Whatever baggage these guys bring home with them, it will be with our society for sixty or seventy years and we owe them whatever help they need. Thanks, Georgie.