A Diet of Alcohol and Cigarettes

The murder of 16 Afghanistan civilians by one US soldier has had me thinking lately. I am shocked that this has not happened sooner, and that it has not happened more often. Our military has been fighting a war for 10 years now. Most of that time we were fighting two wars.

While most Americans have stayed at home and said all the right things about supporting the troops and blah blah blah, the real issue of the mental toll on the combatants has not been addressed. I am not trying to say that the soldier is not responsible for his actions. I feel that he is fully responsible and should be killed for what he did. I am more concerned by the complete lack of discussion about what war will do to young men when they are exposed to it for a year on/year off rotation for a decade.

The fighting in these modern wars has not been as violent or deadly as a conventional war. The real issue with the mental problems of Iraq and Afghanistan comes from fighting an enemy that uses guerrilla tactics. The mental stress of living in an area and thinking that every citizen you see is out to kill you is what compounds the stress of war on soldiers today. This is why guerrilla warfare is successful. You remove the massive losses that an army normally faces and replace that with the doubt and fear of "Is today the day that the guy by the sheep stand blows me up?"

I do not have an answer for the mental beating that these recent wars have inflicted on the soldiers. The military does not have an answer either. They just bring us home, make us answer a few questions, and then feed us some pills if the bad thoughts do not go away. I would just like to see the issue being discussed more than it is. Starting a program to give returning vets a job is great. That will help a lot of guys out. A more important program would be a successful way to bring these Americans home and help them not want to blow their brains out. Right now the stigma behind seeking help is bad. Correcting that will take a serious overhaul of how the military handles mental illnesses from the top down. Some guys can't handle the thoughts/dreams/memories and kill themselves. Some of us lock away in our homes for a few months on a steady diet of alcohol and cigarettes until we meet a woman who is great enough to pull us out of the funk. Both options are shitty.

I can only hope that the war in Afghanistan can end soon and that we do not have to go through this again in my lifetime. I am certain that another war will pop up eventually, maybe sooner than later. Hopefully we can have a better grasp of how to deal with returning vets by then.