Who Is Listening?

Earlier this afternoon, about 2:00pm local time in Baghdad, Iraq, an American soldier fired on his fellow troops at a counseling center and five comrades were left dead. Another wakeup call has been sounded. Is anyone listening?

During the course of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, much attention has been paid to the human death toll of American soldiers and contractors, as well as Afghani and Iraqi citizens. Less attention has been paid over the years to the human toll in terms of disabilities caused by the wounds of war. Not nearly enough attention has been given to the untold suffering caused by the stress and trauma of months and years spent in these war zones.

Tens of thousands of citizen soldiers have been sent to Afghanistan and Iraq in the years since September 11, 2001. Many have returned to their homeland and over time are able to reintegrate into their families, careers and community. Others require assistance to make necessary changes but overall adapt to being "back home". Still others are going to require possibly years of counseling and or medical treatment to recover from the stresses of war. Some have returned completely unable to cope with the life of ordinary citizenes and various tragedies have ensued which we are able to read about in newspapers or watch reports on television.

As the parent of an Iraq veteran, it causes me to be concerned that the primary assistance that is offered to returning veterans is of a more immediate nature. Perhaps not enough consideration is given or attention paid to what will happen one year, two years, five years or even ten years or more later. Not everyone will cope or grieve or deal with traumatic stress during the same time frame. Couple that with the fact that many soldiers have been asked to serve multiple tours of duty in one of the war zones.

As horrible as it sounds, it seems that the crisis which took place earlier today might be the tip of the iceberg. Upon entering these conflicts, the former administration and our nation asked tens of thousands of men and women to set aside their lives, their families, their careers, their education and their communities to trek half way around the world to the middle of a desert or some desolate mountains to fight against what oftentimes has been an elusive enemy. On top of the stressors that might already exist in these individuals' lives, their families or their jobs, they now have the additional stress of living, working and surviving in a war zone for about 18 months, more or less.

So, in some faraway land, a soldier who is seeking help for his own issues finds them to be too much to handle and acts inappropriately, killing five of his fellow comrades. Everyone of us would consider this a tragedy. The question will be what is done in the face of this tragedy so that history does not continue to repeat itself.

~ DB Turnmire