Stress Hits US Forces in Iraq

[kskiska]

Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq

The war's over, but the suicide rate is high and the army is riddled with acute psychiatric problems. Peter Beaumont reports

Up to one in five of the American military personnel in Iraq will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, say senior forces' medical staff dealing with the psychiatric fallout of the war.

This revelation follows the disclosure last month that more than 600 US servicemen and women have been evacuated from the country for psychiatric reasons since the conflict started last March.

At least 22 US soldiers have killed themselves - a rate considered abnormally high - mostly since President George Bush declared an end to major combat on 1 May last year, These suicides have led to a high-level Department of Defence investigation, details of which will be disclosed in the next few weeks.

Although the overall suicide rate is running at an average of 13.5 per 100,000 troops, compared with a US army average of 10.5 to 11 per 100,000 in recent years, the incidence of the vast majority of suicides in the period after 1 May is statistically significant, accounting for about 7 per cent of all service deaths in Iraq.

The same, say experts, is true for psychiatric evacuations, the majority of which have taken place after that date, a fact confirmed in recent interviews by Colonel Theodore Nam, chief of in-patient psychiatry services at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington. He says no psychiatric cases at all were evacuated during the major combat. High levels of psychiatric casualties are expected, despite the US armed forces making an unprecedented effort to deal with stress and psychiatric disorders during service in Iraq.

At the heart of the concern is that Iraq may repeat the experience of Vietnam, which experienced low levels of psychiatric problems during service there in comparison with the two world wars, but very high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans later.

more…
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1130773,00.html

[goforit]

1. The war is over??????

Hmmmm...........think twice.

[ixion]

11. sad.. my thoughts exactly

Just 'cause Whistle Ass says the war is over (yet, we're a nation at war) doesn't mean that the people whose country we invaded believe that it's over. That's an important disconnect. :eyes:

[not systems]

2. Over? Give me a break 5 dead today.

That would stress anyone out.

I remember the Vietnam Vets homeless dying in the
streets of San Francisco in the eighties.

Tragic to see the seeds of this being planted again.

[teryang]

4. Troops are getting hit with bombs and rockets

...they are loathed as invaders by a population they cannot understand. Oh yeah, this causes stress.

[alfredo]

3. Someday they will be allowed to come home, and if bush is still emperor

little will be done to help them. It will be our problem. It will be up to us to fight for them, to comfort them and to make sure the man responsible for sending them to war is safely locked away in prison.

edited because it is Saturday night and I am nervous about the coming ice storm.

[prolesunited]

5. Interesting to note

that both McVeigh and Muhammed were products of the first Gulf war. I wonder how many homegrown terrorists we're producing.

My heart goes out to all of the men and women, and their families, who have been forced to needlessly endure this.

[DarkSim]

6. Many thousands....

[Mari333]

7. My stepsons grandfather called me the other night

I never talk to my stepsons family, my husbands exwife and her family are morans. Nonetheless, he called to ask me how my stepson was, (stepson is at Ft Dix being prepped for Iraq since Jan 1, along with hundreds of other units who are going to Iraq in 2 weeks)..
He asked me if Id heard anything new about my stepson..I said no, and was polite. Nonetheless, he then proceeded to tell me
"Well if he goes to war he will grow up"
I wanted to slam down the phone but I was polite and finished the conversation, out of respect for his concern.
I watched one of my sisters lose it totally when her Vietnam Vet husband blew his own brains out in the 80's , put a gun in his mouth and kill himself ..his kids were in the next room.
I am afraid for my stepson..he lived with us after he turned 18 for 4 years, and he is a nice kid...young, kind of teenagerish, goofy, fools around , goofs around, basically just a kid. He cried when he left, he used to play with the dogs here and the other animals, and climb trees and say "Hey take a picture!!"..I have a lot of pictures of him climbing trees..he loved having my sons as brothers..they all goofed around, like kids do, who are in their young 20s.
I dread next month, I dread him headed over there, and I dread what will happen to his mind.
I cannot imagine how he will survive the horror .
My oldest son (who was in the Guard) called me and said "Mom..its really scary for him...he has to go over there and think about home..thats gonna hurt, cause he isnt home, where he can be with us or have your chicken dinners, or hang out with us guys.."
Post Traumatic stress is a horrible thing to hand to these kids..it will affect them the rest of their lives if they dont get immediate help in recognizing the problem and coping with it..
Think the military will do that? Hell no.

[saigon68]

8. NOT ONLY WILL THE MILITARY AND VA DO NOTHING

They will actively fight these disabled Veterans for years to prevent them from receiving any benefit or treatment.

Its like Rumbdumb said "Veterans are a drag on the economy."

[Mari333]

9. Ive had many Vets come up to me in town

and thank me for my pic of my stepson on my car, along with the bumper stickers RICH MANS WAR POOR MANS BLOOD is one of them.

Oddly, the people who yell at me or key my car, or kick in the door are not Vets. They dont show themselves, and are cowards who never went to war, and who dont have kids going there.
I know. The VA and the military consider the returning vets to be nothing. Even more so now with * in office. If my stepson returns a mess, my husband and I will do everything we can to get him help and therapy. He deserves that, and he doesnt deserve to go to a war and suffer for NOTHING . Nothing, a war based on lies and greed.
In the meantime, your sig line. You were a kid when they sent you to Vietnam. Im grateful.
None of you should have been sent to that goddamn war and no child should be sent to this goddamn war.

[saigon68]

13. Thx Mari

I help disabled Veteran's obtain benefits as a veteran's service officer.

The following explains better than I can, why I do it

The StarFish story:

There was a young man walking down a deserted beach just before dawn. In the distance he saw a frail old man. As he approached the old man, he saw him picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the sea. The young man gazed in wonder as the old man again and again threw the small starfish from the sand to the water. He asked, “Old man, why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste of time.” The old man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. “But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish!” exclaimed the young man. “How can you make a difference?” The old man looked at the small starfish in his hand and as he threw it to the safety of the sea, he said, “It makes a difference to this one!”

[koopie57]

12. I know what you mean

response to post 7. But I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments of 9.

I suspect going to war is hard for most generally everyone, but there are so many kids who simply will be destroyed if they have to go fight and kill. I look at my son and his friends, and I just get sick to my stomach and thinking about how these kids would make it. I see how they react to a hurt animal. They are 16 and have very soft hearts.

I wonder what would be so wrong about recruiting those in prisons (they do this in the high schools) and see who would be willing to join the service. Of course not those who are mentally unsound, but those who made mistake and didn't stop to think beforehand, or drove drunk (well, except Janklow). I don't know...just thinking about that.

[InkAddict]

10. There might be some in GTMO too!

But it seems "our boys" might be stressed out by different things - a camp newsletter offers stress tips for the keepers, but give me a break, wear a festive T-shirt to chase away the holiday blues, be courteous to your roommates by cleaning up/out your "dorm-like" refrigerator?

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:ZNoA1woIZcwJ:www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/jtfgtmo/wire/current_wire.pdf++site:www.nsgtmo.navy.mil+%22Kathy+Platoni%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

(Scroll down to page 5)

http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/jtfgtmo/wire/v04/i19/current_wire19.pdf

(Scroll down to page 6)