[Vision2020] vets and PTSD

Tue Jan 24 09:45:29 PST 2006

James

I am sorry, but this is really way out to lunch.  The bulk of those 
undergoing infantry training do not turn into mindless killing drones and 
value human life as much as any person living on this planet.  The bulk of 
front line troops do not become victims to PTSD and are not homeless street 
people.  The majority of combat vets are upstanding members of the 
community, work hard, raise their families and look like every other person 
on your block.

Combat effectiveness is not benefited by having any troop convinced that he 
is worthless or that his life is forfeit to the whims of the system.  Any 
command that had such a philosophy would be loaded with troops unable to 
fulfill its mission.  Soldiers do not sacrifice their lives or their well 
being for some higher cause, they do so for their buddies and their unit and 
they have to know that they are valued in order to have the esprit to win.

Roughly one in eight persons who engage in combat will suffer from some form 
of PTSD.  Of those who do, only half will require extensive medical 
services.  Since 4% of the general population of the USA also has similar 
conditions, the rate in combat vets is about three times as high as the 
general population, but nearly 90% of combat Vets, those on the receiving 
end of hostile fire, display no such symptoms.

Yes, there will be about 6,000 troops who serve in Iraq who will require 
special care and we need to make provisions for them.  They will have as 
tough if not a tougher time adapting to their mental wounds as those who 
have been wounded physically.  Some of those young folks will indeed be 
crippled for a lifetime and all of us as Americans need to be willing to see 
them cared for for as long as they need.

But the biggest handicap they and every Vet face is the notion that somehow 
we are all just a flashback away from taking out every person in the local 
Jack in the Box.  The bulk of Veterans do not suffer from PTSD and those 
that do are not dangerous crazies.  In medical studies the Prognosis for 
PTSD shows that after 6 months 70% of those who suffer from the disease will 
be cured and 30% will suffer from some chronic form.  The numbers are the 
same for troops who fought in all of our wars and are similar to those found 
in survivors of other extreme stress actions like the lose of ones family in 
an auto accident or a mass shooting event.  The tens of thousands of PTSD 
victims who have this ailment from events not related to combat are not 
stigmatized as potential bums and gun welding madmen and the same should be 
true for Vets with PTSD.

Phil Nisbet

>From: "James Reynolds" <chapandmaize at hotmail.com>
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] vets and PTSD
>Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:01:57 -0800
>
>The article Mr. Hansen posted this morning concerning Post Traumatic Stress 
>Disorder should open our eyes to the full impact of what military actions 
>entail. A front line soldier coming back to try and fit into society gets 
>the headlines but he is only a small part of the entire tragedy. There are 
>no clear cut fixes for PTSD because there has been a fundamental shift in 
>how that soldier fits into society. He has undergone training and 
>situations that have reduced the fundamental sacred nature of life to its 
>biological simplicity and the soldier's own life as worthless.
>
>If a child goes through infantry training it is taught that it is no better 
>than a bug and that its life is forfeit to the country. Our own boys and 
>girls become expendable objects for our Commander-in-Chief to do with as he 
>pleases. This training and the final mindset is mandatory for a good army.
>
>If we add the fact that the current war (as Vietnam) has no clear 
>justification, no clear enemy, and no clear victories what we end up 
>bringing home are many, many, many messed up young people.
>
>We have to put ourselves in the boots of our young soldiers. We need to 
>think about ourselves being trained to understand our lives are nothing; 
>put ourselves into a foreign land surrounded by our potential killer every 
>minute. We have to make the greatest effort to give these young people 
>their humanity back.
>
>A non-justified war means nothing more than a sentence of death or the loss 
>of humanity to our children without any benefit to the Nation. How can 
>anyone support such a war? What is our nation becoming? We allow our 
>children to be sent to death or destruction on the words of liars and by 
>the deceptions of war profiteers and then allow these same maggots to take 
>our money from the treasury to line their pockets while declining to allow 
>the best care for our young soldiers when they come back to us.
>
>As was said...The drum beat goes on...
>
>James Reynolds
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
>http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
>
>_____________________________________________________
>List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the 
>communities of the Palouse since 1994.                 http://www.fsr.net   
>                              mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/