The story in the New York Times on January 13, 2008 (entitled: "Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles"; click here to access the article) saddened me. These stories reflect as much upon our social relationship to our veterans as to the psychology underlying the violent actions of combat veterans. Domestic violence results in violent acts by perpetrators of violence. Of course, this is not always true since some individuals have the capacity for hurting others regardless of their environmental context. In the case of the soldiers in the New York Times story, none had had a previous criminal or psychiatric history prior to their current actions.
"Domestic" in the Oxford English dictionary refers not only to "one's place of residence or family affairs" but also to "one's country or nation". Certainly both elements of the term are applicable to our country's returning soldiers. Now let us investigate the basic question, "How can the transformation of young men and women (as well as some adolescents) into trained killing machines be reversed once they return to a normal society not at war?"
Soldiers are trained to kill and are legally allowed to break standard conventional norms in order to resist an "enemy" of this country. The taking away of someone else's life which in many religious circles is considered precious, unique and sacred, is at minimum an instrumental act to achieve a socially condoned outcome. Yet the killing and death of an enemy as well as the enemy's killing of a fellow comrade in arms has to be one of the most disturbing of all human activities. Literally, within the brains of many soldiers these legally sanctioned violent activities are stored as memories that cannot be forgotten. While few soldiers returning home commit violent crimes, in all of the stories presented in the New York Times article you are able to see a glimpse of a soldier's shattered life world ( i.e.. all of his/her life experiences to date).
These soldiers can be seen to be tumbling down from a relatively normal pre-war life to a new post-war experience of emotional distress and ruin. In my clinical work over the past 30 years, I have witnessed many victims and perpetrators of extreme violence living in a life of despair that is full of nightmares and traumatic memories. I have treated family members who cannot seem to be able to comfort their soldiers with their love and support.
It is an ancient and well-known story that society rejects their wounded warriors. Sophocles in his great play Philoctetes more than 2000 years ago described the plight of the Greek hero, Philoctetes. Philoctetes, who is mortally wounded by a vengeful act of the goddess Hera, is abandoned by the Greeks on their way to Troy with a snake wound of unbearable and extraordinary pain. He is left to suffer alone on the island of Lemnos with a wound so sever he howls in agony and a stench so foul it permeates the clean air of the island where he is a prisoner. This play provides a classic metaphor of society's treatment of its wounded warriors.
It is my belief that American society (like many societies) cannot accept its guilt over the soldiers' injury. At the same time, society is ashamed of the soldiers' weakness, especially if they exhibit emotional problems from the war. But most importantly, citizens are afraid that the soldiers' rage and deadly killing skills will be turned against them.
The soldiers in the New York Times' article fulfill our worst fantasies of the "crazy" homicidal combat veteran. These combat soldiers broke free somehow of their socially prescribed roles to "suck it up", put the war behind them and/or passively accept a psychiatric diagnosis of PTSD and enter into a lifetime of treatment at the Veteran's Administration hospitals or even worse suffer a homeless existence of begging for handouts in our cities and towns.
Yet maybe there is a middle ground for our warriors who have returned home. Philoctetes was healed not only by the gods but by the love of his great friend Achilles' son Neoptolemus. The systematic elimination of empathy in a soldier contributes to a soldier becoming an effective "killing machine" in the war. Similarly, the military must reverse this process by re-kindling the capacity for empathy in those returning home. The re-entry of soldiers into their families and communities must be given immediate attention and responsibly resourced. The havoc being perpetrated on soldiers' families is not an unpleasant side-show but a direct cost of war that must also be ameliorated.
It would be great if any soldiers or their family members, the American Legion, or other veterans could contribute to this discussion. I would be delighted to post anyone's comments and/or relevant links on this blog.
Thank you for the enormous passion articulated on our veterans. We are a superpower nation and should not give in to world's detrimental demands and forces of coercion. Our soldiers are volunteers in keeping the piece. However, time has gone by and is going considerably unnoticed that the people who defend this nation are more disadvantaqged. They are individuals most frequently never had self sastaining resources before obliging themselves to duty.They are individuals who went in to sacrfiice for their understanding of freedom or lack thereof. In order to attain a liverage, many including myself suggest that every one of us have to tangibly contribute to the defence of this nation. I suggest that all high school students be civically and militarily trained before their entry to college. Second, military advancement should be an unending research and improvement. Third, the cost of war should be proportional to the benefit of peace thereafter. Our military, economic and intellectual resources have to be enhanced for the good of this nation and its prosperity.
Posted by: Godfrey Elizai | March 30, 2009 at 06:17 AM