All this nationalism talk has stirred up a little patriotism in me! We learned about how Europe’s superior technology and burgeoning nationalism helped create many new country’s. Nationalism was universally agreed upon by the class, as seen in our World War I projects, to have played a role in starting the Great War. Even though the horrors of the war were apparent afterward, at the time, the people of the involved European countries were supportive of their soldiers. But all the talk on the grisly nature of World War I did little to my now gung-ho attitude toward war.
I think that being a teenage guy pumped up with testosterone and other hormones and my false sense of war being a camaraderie filled and noble experience contributed to my being pro-war. In the back of my mind I always knew about war’s many darker sides. But for some reason my image of the bond that war veterans share after their shared experiences overrode my logical side. Camaraderie and friendships mean a lot to me and they blinded me to the death and destruction in war.
I also think that the might of America’s military wouldn’t allow such cases of PTSD to occur. Sure, more militarily inferior countries would have to deal with the deaths and PTSD cases because they weren’t good enough.
Reading about the widespread effects of PTSD on the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans though has sobered me. There are pretty high percentages of PTSD (about 16% ) and there have been 121 cases of domestic violence in in these returning veterans.
When the soldiers suffer from PTSD, they bring the war home with them and it injures other people, too. It takes a toll emotionally on other family members. The effects of PTSD also have led to the murder and deaths of other people. I read accounts about soldiers who abused their kids, murdered their wives and committed suicide. When these soldiers actually carry the weight of the war with them when they return home, it gives others a taste of the war.
Before I didn’t have these personal experiences of the horrible potential of soldiers suffering form PTSD. I mistakenly lumped them into the category of having vivid flashbacks and waking up sweaty from nightmares. Seeing them come home and harm innocent people has rocked my view of war.
I completely understand. Idealistically, soldiers leave war on the battlefield and come home to be happy after their cruel time away. I am most upset by this in the fact that they hurt people completely unconnected. As you said, most often the wives and children are hurt. If it was an isolated incident, PTSD would be more classically tragic, but as it is it brings mixed feelings. More are harmed than just the soldiers who are suffering.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you made this topic relatable to yourself. It made it very easy for me to try to picture being in the situation that these soldiers faced. I also really liked the statistics because, as a numbers person, this gave me a greater understanding of how much of a problem PTSD really is.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I don't know if this is on purpose, but your font is always different than everyone else's. It's not necessarily a bad thing, I just thought it was worth pointing out.