Denial and the Real Cost of War

Bob Herbert had a heartbreaking Op-Ed piece in the NYT this morning. He wrote of the incredible and overwhelming number of young men and women who are suffering serious mental and psychological problems due to repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just last week John Russell, a 44-year old Army sergeant who had been recognized as deeply troubled and was on his third tour in Iraq, went into the counseling center on the afternoon of May 11 and opened fire -- killing an Army officer, a Navy officer and three enlisted soldiers. The three enlistees were 19, 20 and 25 years old.

As Herbert says, this is what happens in wars. Wars are about killing and once the killing is unleashed it takes many, many forms. Which is why it's so sick to fight unnecessary wars and so immoral to send other people's children off to wars -- psychic as well as physical -- from which one's own children are carefully protected.

The destructive effects of war in Iraq and Afghanistan should not have surprised anyone. Speaking of Iraq back in 2004, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, who had been an assistant secretary of defense during the Clinton administration, said, "I have a very strong sense that the mental health consequences are going to be the medical story of the war."

Because we have chosen not to share the sacrifices of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrible burden of these conflicts is being shouldered by an obscenely small portion of the population. Since this warrior class is so small, the same troops have to be sent into the war zones for tour after harrowing tour.

As the tours mount up, so do the mental health problems. Combat is crazy-making to start with. Multiple tours are recipes for complete meltdowns, Herbert writes and I couldn't agree more.

The RAND Corporation reported in a study released last year, that not only is a higher proportion of the armed forces being deployed, but deployments have been longer, redeployment to combat has been common, and breaks between deployments have been infrequent. Recent attempts by the military to deal with aspects of deployment policies have amounted to much too little, much too late. The same Rand study found that approximately 300,000 men and women who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan were already suffering from P.T.S.D. or major depression. That's nearly one in every five returning veterans. Many of these stories of violence, drunkenness, broken homes and suicides never make there way into print. The public that professes such admiration and support for our fighting men and women really aren't that interested in the dirty details.

We are brutally and cold-bloodedly sacrificing the psychological well-being of these men and women, which should be a scandal. If these wars are so important to our national security, we should all be engaging in some form of serious sacrifice and many more of us should be serving.

But as Herbert says, the country soothes its conscience and tamps down it's guilt with the cowardly invocation: "Oh, they're volunteers. They knew what they were getting into."

Rescuing Our Country

In January we will see a new day dawn not only in Washington but throughout this country and beyond and I’m looking forward to experiencing that “new day”. I know Obama will have so many tugging on his sleeves and coat tails, and he’s not going to be able to satisfy them all – certainly not in his first year in office. I do hope, however, that he will find a way to bring a sense of fairness – we’ve bailed out the pompous fat cats in this country who have wrecked their companies and the economy. We’ve spent trillions of dollars on a war that never should have been. Isn’t it time to start thinking about the working poor and the young people? They have been hurt to the point they’re almost destitute, it seems it’s time to help them now.

With so many brokerage houses and banks, a multinational insurance company all depending on the Treasury for resuscitation, companies like General Motors facing bankruptcy it’s beginning to feel like a supersized recession. This kind of downturn buries the people at the bottom of the economic ladder and we have an obligation to look after them as well as the big cats – after all they are America, too, and make up a much larger portion of the population.

I want to believe that Obama knows what is needed at this point and it’s JOBS! Jobs for those who depend on a weekly or monthly paycheck. Credit cards are maxed, family savings are depleted, home equity is evaporating.

As many of those who are far wiser than I am have said, we can find an answer, but our leaders will have to think big. We’re talking about a program to rebuild the infrastructure of America – and believe me, it does need it! We can help our people and our country at the same time by rebuilding and repairing roads and bridges, decrepit schools and aged sewer systems. And don’t forget more “green” thinking and planning.

Next is universal health insurance – isn’t it time we caught up with the rest of the world by providing all of our people with proper health care?

Let’s stop spending trillions on a useless war that has not only drained us of incredible amounts of money, but has seriously damaged our country in the eyes of the rest of the world. Let’s stop funneling enormous amounts of money with little oversight to banks and Wall Street. Isn’t it time that we not only repair our school systems and provide health care for all, but how about if we stop throwing this country’s resources into the black hole? How about we invest in our country’s future, in our children’s future instead?