In every election cycle for the past 10 years, it seems I’ve
heard newscasters say the war isn’t a big issue with voters. What? Something seems wrong
with that. Yes, the economy is a huge issue and people vote with their
pocketbooks. But to relegate two wars in which fellow Americans – acting in our
name -- are fighting, dying and losing limbs to an issue of picayune
importance?
It’s not right.
To be fair, most Americans are supportive of our nation’s
military. In a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, nine out of 10 Americans are
proud of our troops and many have personally thanked someone who is or
previously has served. http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/war-attitudes/index.html
Still, there’s a disconnect between America’s civilians and its
military personnel. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/11/09/veterans-day-charlie-rangel-miltary-suicides/1692757/
It’s not like during the Vietnam War when Americans watched the atrocities on
the nightly news every night. Not like World Wars I and II when folks on the
homefront were buying war bonds, rationing goods and planting victory gardens. That
cohesiveness has long since disipitated. We’re disparate parts, unfamiliar with
each other.
It’s ironic. Today’s super-media world in which we can speak
to each other over time and distance hasn’t erased the loneliness and isolation
our military men and women feel. We can consume all the news we want anytime we
want, yet our infinite choices leave us more fragmented than connected. There
are intelligent news stories from reputable news sources, but overall –and it’s
probably all our faults – they’re given short-shrift in the public landscape.
Yet, we all get the gist; something is wrong here. Most of us
don’t understand the unique pressures our service
men and women are enduring, but we know it’s nothing good and it leaves this
uneasy feeling in the air. We’ve caught enough of the news to know that veterans
are exhausted from multiple tours of duty. (Some have been deployed 10 times.)
It’s taxing on a
person on a person to make the transition from a war to peace time environment.
In a war zone, a soldier witnesses horrific violence, sees friends killed. The soldier constantly has to be on guard to
save his or her own life. Making the transition from life in an unfamiliar,
inhospitable country back the United States where life goes on as it always has
would be tough for anyone. For servicemen and women, dealing with the anxiety
of not knowing if they will be called back for deployment, it has to be all the more worse. There
would be no time to readjust to life at home.
Not surprisingly, PTSD rates have been staggering. All the
problems that go with it have affected veterans and their families at high and
disproportionate rates: divorce, spousal abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse,
unemployment, child abuse, homelessness and most alarmingly suicide. http://costsofwar.org/article/us-veterans-and-military-families
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/for-veterans-a-surge-of-new-treatments-for-trauma/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/number-of-homeless-veterans-dropping-notably-but-major-hurdles-remain-in-solving-the-problem/2012/11/11/1d536564-2be8-11e2-b631-2aad9d9c73ac_story_2.html
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/25/151387001/report-va-mental-health-treatment-stats-misleading
We’ve lost more of our active duty and veteran service men
and women to suicide than we have to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
While active military in these wars comprised less than one percent of the
population, veterans make up 20 percent of the nation’s suicides. The Dept. of
Defense reports that veterans take their lives at the rate of one every 80
minutes. A veteran’s likelihood of committing suicide is double that of the
civilian population. For a person between ages 17 and 24, that number is
quadrupled. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-veterans-death-the-nations-shame.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
That is unacceptable. We can never do enough to thank our
veterans. This small, brave group of people has put their education, family,
careers…their lives on hold to defend America, and if they are unable to access
adequate mental health care, it is a shame we all share as a nation. They
should never be left behind, never forgotten.
Of course, all veterans are aware of the U.S. Dept. of
Veteran Affairs http://www.va.gov/ and the
American Legion http://www.legion.org/veteransbenefits/99627/va-revamping-suicide-prevention-campaign.
Here are some organizations designed to help empower
veterans and their families.
http://veteranscrisisline.net/
The number is 1-800-273-8255. Press 1 or
text 838255. Help is available 24 hours a day.
This site, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has links
to several sites sponsored by community organizations and all branches of the
service designed to prevent veteran suicides. http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Find_Support/Veterans_Resources/Veterans_and_Suicide/Veterans_and_Suicide.htm
This is a program started by the Dept. of Defense to provide
resources and encourage active service members and veterans to seek help as
needed. http://www.realwarriors.net/
Here is a link from the Obama Whitehouse about laws signed
in the past year to assist veterans in such things as tax credits, continuing
education and finding employment. http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/veterans
Here is an excellent list of things ordinary people can do
to honor veterans: http://militaryblog.militaryavenue.com/2009/11/101-ways-to-thank-veteran.html
Despite our apathy toward the wars, I sincerely believe that
the vast majority of Americans --
Democrats, Republicans, white, African-American, Christian, Atheist, Jewish,
people who believe in the wars, people who have protested – want the best for
our veterans and active service members. Perhaps all of us --- from a public
sidetracked by entertainment to politicians not making it a big enough
campaign issue to a government telling
us to shop and go to Disneyland – are at fault.
It’s no use, casting
blame though. Let’s work on doing better. Check out the above listed websites
and look for more. Seek out ways you can improve the lives of service personnel
overseas whether it’s by sending books, toiletries, a Christmas tree…whatever.
If you know a veteran, talk to them and more importantly, listen. Our oldest
veterans, those who served in World War II and Korea, are sadly dying off, and
to be in their presence, to hear their stories, is a thing to be treasured.
I read that around half the Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans
think the wars were not worth it. That’s profound, especially considering the
tragedies, the loss of lives, limbs and brain functioning resulting from those
wars. I don’t know exactly what I think, but the veterans of those wars can
surely speak with more authority on the subject than I can. Their words,
experiences and lives underscore how important it is that we as a public
educate ourselves and stay informed.
I’ll never forget driving in my car on the eve of the Iraq
War and hearing people call into the radio (a classic rock station nontheless) to say, “Let’s blow em’ off the map.” Uncool. War is not some video game. Lives are
involved, human lives hanging in the balance. Having to engage and witnessing
the death and violence of war has no doubt contributed to the mental health crisis among veterans.
Cheering on war is tasteless. Being there for our military
men and women, supporting them, welcoming them home and doing right by them
will always serve the interest of righteousness.
