The invisible wounds of war and hacks who deny them

The following is a great editorial on veterans suffering from what they have suffered from since the beginning of time, dealing with the horrors of war. It's well worth reading and I suggest you go to the link and finish reading it.

GUEST COLUMN: The invisible wounds of war
By Greg Dobbs, Special to the Rocky
Saturday, May 10, 2008
It is a crude way to put it, but "they are dropping like flies." That's how one soldier I spoke with characterized the spike in suicides among servicemen coming home these days from war. With bodies intact, but minds wounded - sometimes mortally.

It's not a new phenomenon - mental trauma is a normal reaction to the abnormal horror of war. Back in the Civil War it was called "soldier's heart." In World War I, it was known as shell shock. In World War II, battle fatigue. After Vietnam, it was called Post Vietnam Syndrome. Nowadays it has a formal name: post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

But it is an invisible wound, and soldiers with injured minds often haven't gotten the treatment they needed. Some have been discouraged from even seeking treatment because of the ghost called "stigma." Some have only been told to "suck it up," get back out there and fight! Which has cost our armed forces dearly.

go here for more of this

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/10/guest-column-the-invisible-wounds-of-war/

The problem is the comments this article received. While some were very sympathetic to the plight of our veterans, others were not and their attitude needs to be spotlighted. It is perplexing where this attitude comes from. It is also what has to be overcome if we are every going to live up to what we claim when it comes to the men and women we send into combat. If we are ever going to really be a grateful nation, these kinds of idiotic statements need to be addressed for what they are, uneducated, opinionated hacks who would rather get in the way of taking care of our wounded warriors than taking care of them.

Posted by Mike_In_Hartsel on May 10, 2008 at 6:27 a.m.
Bull hockey. Has anyone noticed that the increase in post-battlefield mental trauma has increased in proportion to the increase in the number of psychiatrists and psychologists who are telling the public that soldiers can't cope? The number of mental disorders has grown so much over the years that it is a wonder how the human race ever survived without these mental experts to tell us how sick we really are and how we cannot cope with the realities of life and death.

Get rid of the psychiatrists and psychologists, who have all the answers but have never solved a single problem, and watch the general mental health of the world improve dramatically and quickly. They are Charlatans dancing in the misty smoke of deceit.

FYI - before you accuse me of being insensitive to the plight of combat soldiers, I have two purple hearts, both receieved in 1967. Been there, done that.

Mike must be one of the ones who does not think PTSD is a wound. He must think that only comes when blood is shed but then he also must not know how many have in fact shed blood and also were wounded by PTSD. Guess there is only one type of wounded worthy to him. I wonder what other Vietnam Vets think of him after this considering how many of them were wounded by PTSD. 1978 500,000 diagnosed cases by the DAV. By 1986 117,000 committed suicide. Last year a report came out that 148,000 Vietnam veterans sought help for PTSD during 18 months between 2006 and 2007. How about some Vietnam Vets give this man a little education? In his own mind, none of you were worthy of his concern. Then the Iraq and Afghanistan and Gulf War veterans along with the Korean and WWII veterans could provide him with a bit more.

Posted by arby on May 10, 2008 at 6:57 a.m.
While I wouldn't put it quite as roughly as Mike. These people know what their primary function is. No matter what their secondary job may be. They have all volunteered and gone through training. The primary job of any soldier, sailor, marine or airman is to protect our country and kill the enemy. That is what they are being paid for. They should all understand that by the time they get out of basic training. Unfortunatly in Vietnam and now in Afghanistan and Iraq sometimes it's hard to tell the enemy from a civilian. Well that's the fault of the locals and not the fault of our troops. I for one would side on saving my unit and my life rather than worrying about a possible enemy/victim. They are the ones making these rules not us.
To sum it up these guys and girls knew what they were in for before they hit the ground. Suck it up and do the job you're being paid to do.

Looks like Arby would blame the wounded for driving into an IED as well. Maybe if they got hit by a bullet, it was their fault too? Heck they are provided with body armor aren't they? Maybe Arby thinks they gave up being human when they joined?

Posted by mikeyg on May 10, 2008 at 8:48 a.m.
This article lacks perspective and the selective omission of relevant information by Dobbs actually does harm to veterans. It does not mention general population suicide rates by age and gender ranges as a comparison - there is no appreciable difference:

"The overall U.S. suicide rate among men is four times higher than in women at about 23 per 100,000 versus about 6 per 100,000 in women, according to the most recent government data." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/a...

compared to:

"Last year, the Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops, the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23132421/...

When you account for the gender composition of our military these numbers are nearly identical.

Vets are no more or less prone to mental illness that results in suicides than non-vets, and are nervous about being stigmatized, creating difficulties in their reintegration to civilian life. Dobbs does them no favors by omitting information that gives this important perspective. Shame on you, Mr. Dobbs.

Yet another Mike ignoring the other reports that have come out over the last 30 years addressing the fact that many more we send into combat, to serve the nation's needs, killed themselves than we lost during the time they were risking their lives and doing their duty. Pretty appalling when you get right down to it. They commit suicide after the risk to their lives ended and their duty ended. This one can't face the fact we have a duty to them when they come home! No,,,shame on you Mikeyg!

But he wasn't done

Posted by mikeyg on May 10, 2008 at 8:57 a.m. Looks to me like Greg Dobbs took his marching orders from MSNBC, home of uber-liberal, anti-military and anti-national defense freaks like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann on this Speakout, given that MSNBC just put this story out there earlier this week.

Nice originality, Greg, just couldn't help yourself from participating in the liberal/progressive echo chamber that constantly tries to denegrate our military and make them out to be poor victims of "The Republican War Machine", could you?

Ok! How about some of my Republican veterans email this one or post a comment right back at him? Let him know you did not surrender your human mind and body when you joined the Republican party. He seems to think it's now a Democratic/Liberal thing that only the other people claim. Looks like he doesn't know the bulk of the troops are in the Republican party, or at least they were but then with this kind of attitude it's a wonder why any would want to be part of this group.

This is a great reply! Click above to read some more of what people are posting on this.

Posted by davis_x_machina on May 10, 2008 at 10:07 a.m.
Mikey- does the person or agency reporting the fact of these deaths make them any less dead, or their deaths less devastating to their families?I love the obvious keyboard commando earlier who's advice is just suck it up,and it's their job- which is true, but it doesn't make it any easier obviously the keyboard commando thinks killing another human being or seeing the result of high explosives on the human body is just as natural as breathing. That alone lets me know the commando has never been to a combat zone, or if it has it's one of those twisted individuals for whom death has no meaning, some sort of incipient Jeffrey Dahmer.
Before you ask KC mikey- 2nd Bn., 12th Inf. Reg.,25th Inf. Div. RVN 1965-1966 MOS 11B30 been there done that.