Friday, November 06, 2009

madness, madness, war

Coming home to a place you know well and trying to reintegrate after being deployed abroad cannot be comprehended by the average citizen, as well many civilian politicians, community leaders and even some top military brass. This is because we as a nation are insensitivity to others and do not understand what it means to go off and fight for ones life in a brazen and foreign land. Thus it doesn’t surprise me that a person, regardless of any social marker, can flip like a light switch and kill folk in their immediate environment.

For years we have been aware of cases of men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and committing violent criminal acts. Just last month a 21-year old Indiana man killed himself in a movie theater after watching Zombieland. Then there was the case of William Grant Johnson who killed a physician in New York and shot several others before he was captured. And there was Michael James in Hawaii who murdered his wife and son and also killed himself. Then there is Jacob Gregory Swanson of California who killed his girlfriend and committed suicide afterwards. The list goes on and on: William Howell, a Colorado-based Army Special Forces soldier who shot himself in the head in his front yard in March; the attempted murder-suicide at Fort Lewis this summer, and the Iraq war vet who killed himself and wife in Washington state less than a month ago.

This is not just consistent for our recent wars but even wars of past Last month in the UK and American Vietnam veteran killed his boss and tried to kill three others in a “Reservoir Dogs style attack”. We have known for years that domestic violence has been on the rise for war veterans as well as the extent to which PTSD has been occurring as well however, what do we do nothing, and act like nothing is going on or worse as if it is not a serious problem that needs to be addressed. All we do is turn our backs, watch football, and decide what clubs we going to go too while these folks come back here in states of anger and rage we will never comprehend.

Most of us know a war is going on but are with drawn and only show passion if any in the form of political discourse. The truth is that we are removed otherwise, far removed and live our lives the way we would if a war was going on or not. It is like the military is involved, engaged and fighting the war by themselves because the general public goes around as if we don’t care. We don’t even feel the impact of the war for the only ones that really do either are fighting it nor have family members fighting in it. And just imagine how that makes veterans returning home feel?

As a scientist, I know first hand that we aint doing our part. I mean there is no research available nor being conducted to discern the impact of multiple tours and their effect on behavior; or how many tours are too much before a person evinces serious problem behavioral outcomes; or how effective are the evaluation measures we use to suppurate data from veterans returning home; or how well (if at all) are the programs we use to re-integrate veterans are? Ask this as a scientist for I see the same thing in the field of my specialty which is working with infectious disease and mental health outcomes among correctional populations. The goals of my confederates and me are to re-integrate inmates successfully, reduce mental health and infectious disease outcomes as well as keep them from returning back to prison.


We have found that there are different approaches that work for different inmate/correctional populations and worse, there exist no standard protocols for program implementation for inmates and vary from state to state. We need to support research and encourage research for the purpose of dealing with the behavioral health outcomes of military populations. I say this as a scientist; for it seems we are doping nothing and worse do not know what is required or needed; what works and what doesn’t.

What ever the case we need some answers and some answers fast. These folks are used to solving problems by killing - killing is all they know. Otherwise it will only get worse and Major Malik Nadal Hasan, MD wont be the last. It all reminds me of “Five nights of bleeding” by Linton Kwesi Johnson- especially the lyrics there is “war amongs' the rebels, madness, madness, war,

38 comments:

msladyDeborah said...

Last Sunday, I spent time watching interviews with female soldiers who were working through their post traumatic stress syndrome issues. It was definitely an education for me. They also talked about how difficult it was for women in the Armed Forces. They had been through hell during their tours of duty. Their adjustment back into society was still a work in progress. I have had family members fight on behalf of this nation since WWI and currently have family serving in the Armed Forces. Some of my peeps were definitely mentally traumatized upon their return and adjustment took years.

The soldier who decided to take up arms at Fort Hood was inwardly conflicted. It is really sad that the victims had to return here to loose their lives. Maybe this tragedy will help bring more attention to what is going on inside of the Armed Forces.

nicki nicki tembo said...

Sadly, war enobles those who have a predilection for violence and gives them access to weapons so it seems incongruent to expect that these individuals will always integrate seamlessly back into society.

Today's soliders are killing and being killed in senseless wars and you gotta know that they understand that. At least the military men and women in my family do. That has got to jack with a person's psyche moreso than fighting a war perceived as just, moral and life saving. And then to have to do this in heavy rotation. Yeah, maddening.

As for the public it's obvious that to a large degree most people's priorities are aligned with whatever the major networks select and propagate as important. It doesn't even register for most people the degree that their lives are directed and controlled by the information that is put into their brains, or for that matter what's not put into it. Things that have no real relevance is seen as breaking news and things that are significant are rarely mentioned and when they are it's sanitized or slanted. And unlike generations before us that were asked to make sacrifices to support war efforts our gov't now just taxes the hell outta people then designates...well you get it! This all would be funny were it not so painfully pathetic.

Unknown said...

WAR IS HELL, has a meaning that is tangible. Why are people amazed at what the human mind endures.
We are know people have breaking points. Unfortunately, some lethal.
Terrence you are so correct, when is enough is enough. How many war situation does one be involved in before it become potentially lethal.

Actually, I venture to say, without sciencetific evidence,
ONE!
War places people in situation never considered.

How does one deal with the unknown? How does one process "foreign input?"

yes, war is hell!

RiPPa said...

Damn good post kinfolk!

You already know how I feel.

Interesting to note, is that there is a significant percentage of "poor people" who enlist. They do so with the intentions of making things better for themselves. Sadly, they're being pimped by the very same system that controls life as we know it in the real world.

A.u.n.t. Jackie said...

it will take generations to uncover what's really happening in this war and to undo what's been done and seen by these soliders.

further more since recruitment is down unfortunately allot these soldiers are not reflective of our best and brightest, they are just the ones who showed up, which is to say that their mental capacity might be less than normal.

Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

Excellent post and well-supported by your links to so many other news stories, and your background.

As long as mental health continues to be treated like an unwanted stepchild by the people designing the budgets for it and making the policies, it's a no brainer that these events will continue.

Can't seem to talk sense into them either; tried myself on one job but they love to wait until blood flows and bad PR and lawsuits come before they cough up more funding.

Sista GP said...

Out of sight; out of mind.
That is until there's bloodbath on TV.

Mizrepresent said...

Great post. You would have thought that they would have learned from other wars, Vietnam, that simply ignoring them would only lead to more devastation, but this has can continues to be the practice of our government.

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rainywalker said...

Raw Dawg,
I will not address Texas at this time. Your article is on point. However there have been many studies that have been completed by both the Solivets and Americans after WWII and Vietnam. But it seens after every war it was forgotten except those that had a problem.
Vietnam vets brought it to the for front however it is looked upon as something to be put away in the closet and hope it goes away. The governments from study know what the problm is they just aren't willing to face the truth.
A couple of books I would recommend are No More Heroes and Soviet Military Psychiatry both by Richard Gabriel. They are a few years old but are on the mark about battle stress.
He will show you that this problem is not something new. It goes back to at least Thermopylae in 480 BC. The PTSD of today is not the same as after the Vietnam war. Many of my blogs have touched on this subject and it will only get worse as time advances.
rainy

Anonymous said...

Why can't I find a job after serving my FUCKING COUNTRY? It's sick sick sick sick sick and how would you feel if people said, "When are you gonna go back to work and why can't you sleep more than three hours a night and (this is the best one) Did you kill people over there?" Ridiculous level of insensitivity. When our mental health personnel start to snap as the Ft. Hood suspect did, it indicates that our Army is stretched super thin and a soldier returning from a third or fourth deployment can should and MUST be monitored and assisted as far as achieving a healthy integration back into society. When you come back to the soil you spilled blood for and people ignore you and ask you stupid ass questions and you can't even make a living, something is terribly WRONG.

Jay Midnyte said...

You would think its all good idk thats just how the republican conservatives make it seem. Like everything that can be done is being done.

APPOLLUM: im seeing all my fam joining the military. Soon the only jobs will be provided by the government. Not a good trend for our generation...

Anonymous said...

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foyer chandelier said...

so freakin sad

neshia said...

VERY SAD

Alyssa Jacob said...

Great post; mental health issues not only take a back door, but typically reside in the outhouse in the hierarchy of health and wellness. This is particularly so in communities of color. There is some reason for optimism as policy is leading to the expansion of coverage to make it equal to that of physical health care--being led by FMLA expansions which allow for extended leave for caring for a returned soldier suffering from PTSD. Keep up the talk, as a fellow public health professional, student, and advocate, I'm with you.

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newbrunswicksteakco said...

so freakin sad

Unknown said...

bottom line is:
people need to be either f^*ked up mentally to enlist, or f^*cked up economically and forced into the need to enlist. then they are given training how to be more emotionally numb, pharmaceutically lobotomized, given guns and told to 'kill or be killed'.

no-one expects them to come back normal, armed occupation and wars are not 'therapy' for the damaged of society, they are meant to be on a one-way mission -- just look at the good wages the military earn in service, (for the ultimate 'all-expenses-paid overseas game hunt vacation'), then return if not in a box, to being unemployable and with a lowly pension -- there's a simple but potent lesson in that, clearly.

you need look no further than WWI or WWII for examples of exactly what is happening in todays' conflicts, these people are mere gun-fodder.

the only moral thing to do, rather than recruit the impoverished and mentally ill, would be to take the idea from the early French Foreign Legion, and enlist hardened criminals with an offer of reprieve if they survive several years of front-line fighting.

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