“If it should be otherwise, if we should leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!”
- Marcus Flavinus
The above quote is a favorite of author Jerry Pournelle, and I think wholly appropriate to today’s post. This post is not about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and whether or not I (or you) believe it is just or winnable in the traditional (or even nontraditional) sense. It’s about how we treat our veterans when they are return home.
They used to call it being “shell shocked”, but today we call it post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short. Back in earlier wars (WWI, II, and to an extent Korea), it might have taken some of our guys six months to travel by slow boat from the battle front back home. Today they climb on a jet parked in the dessert and 24-36 hours later they’re processed out and and–if they’re lucky–back in the arms of waiting loved ones. I suspect our veterans have lost something important in our modern world. They no longer have the time to decompress on the way home. Those six months on a ship (or whatever) allowed them to slowly unwind with their friends and help one another deal with the shared horrors they’d experienced. Even then, many veterans experienced problems after returning to civilian life. Today, I think we’re facing a serious, mostly unreported, crisis with the mental and physical health of our veterans.
Read the The Fight at Home, one of the better written and researched feature articles to come from my local newspaper. Not only should we feel shame at the way the VA has handled this war veteran and city police officer’s case, but hopefully we can learn from his experience with PTSD. If you have a family member, friend, or co-worker who is a veteran, the above article might help you understand his or her change in behavior and the uphill battle in getting help.
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