After the battle mission accomplished but a new battle begins for the soldiers who have seen action in Iraq. This time the battle is more difficult than fighting the enemies on air and land. Soldiers are faced with horrific brain and mental injuries aside from healing from gunshot and shrapnel wounds. Worst they have to face the fact that one or two of their limbs are gone. The hardest part after the battle is battling with one self which creates devastating and permanent effects not only physically but emotionally as well.
Just like the soldiers from Vietnam, Iraq soldiers suffer from unusual high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that becomes their life – long battle. TBI symptoms include loss of memory, difficulty with attention and reasoning, headaches, anxiety, irritability, confusion and depression.
In spite of the decreased death rate in war brain injuries had shoot real high among soldiers coming in from Iraq. Most of the symptoms are not detected until the soldier goes home and his family starts noticing that something is wrong. The battle becomes a nerve wracking battle not only for the soldier but for his whole family. Counseling and rehabilitation takes time to bring back the soldiers to their usual self.
Post – traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also very high among returning troops. Most of the symptoms are similar to brain injury. Other symptoms include feelings of detachment and isolation as well as poor concentration and memory, depression, insomnia, flashbacks including headaches, gastrointestinal complaints and problems with their immune system. Soldiers who suffer from psychological disorders have high rates of alcohol and drug abuse and some even end up committing suicide.
Yes, the soldiers are very well screened when they come in and they are screened well when they leave but when they come back from the war you’d be surprised why they end up taking their own lives when they are not supposed to do so. Most suicide and psychological disorders are partly because of the brutality of the US – led occupation. Most soldiers who have enlisted themselves in the army comes from the working class and poor families who looks at the army as way of getting themselves educated and a job.
The hard truth is that most of the young people who are deployed to the war are given a series of outrageous lies which have violated several international law fundamentals. These young people are ordered to intimidate and terrorized Iraqi people and also to crash any kind of resistance in relation to the occupation. Killing and brutalizing Iraqi people had stimulated guilt, shame and serious psychological issues among many of the soldiers.
Most of the soldiers upon returning home carry all these and end up taking their own lives and most cases have risen from the guilt they carry within them after the war.
The government have not shown enough support to these soldiers after they have shown the support they were ask of to give their country. Treatment from military establishments had proven to be inadequate. The people in the higher echelons should know that these types of psychological trauma frequently needs months of expensive, extensive and intensive rehabilitation, long – term drug therapy including psychological counseling. Facilities available for returning soldiers are not well funded and are overstretched to their own breaking point. Awards and citations will not cure these soldiers.
Worst, army psychologist are pressured to place back their patients out in the field at the soonest possible time while less than half of the soldiers do not seek treatment and are in denial because of fear in damaging their careers.
Another issue is that most officials leave many of the families unaware and unprepared in dealing with the PSTD condition of their husbands, sons and daughters.
Tens of thousands of young people are being used as cannon meals in Iraq and no one is taking responsibility for their sufferings including the criminals at the White House who have caused all the aggressions of war and maintaining an indefinite occupation of Iraq.
The government should be more appreciative of these soldiers and give them the support they need in return for the support they have given in the service of their country. If they don’t they well deserve to be called criminals much worse than the war they have gotten themselves into because of their own political interests.
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