As President Obama initiates the drawn down of troops from Afghanistan, America has been in a state perpetual war for a decade. We have spent trillions of dollars fighting the Global War on Terror and our military members and their families have paid a much higher price.
Our veterans are returning home with injuries that go beyond physical, and they are faced with an economic situation that can only be described as bleak. More and more veterans are returning from combat and rotating out of the military every day. The struggles they have faced while deployed often times follow them home, and the general public may not now what they’re dealing with. Let alone how to help our service members acclimate to civilian life and make a successful transition back into the work force.
I spoke to Kyle Stewart, an explosive ordnance disposal technician that was part of the “surge” in 2007 and 2008 that is widely credited with stabilizing Iraq and creating the conditions necessary to bring a significant amount of combat troops home. He offered insight into the daily realities faced by troops in a combat zone with no front line and an enemy that hid amongst the general population for protection.
In these new kinds of counterinsurgency battles, our troops are expected to fill many roles beyond what they were initially trained for. The idea behind a successful counterinsurgency strategy, or “COIN” for short, is to win the support of the population. We have adopted a new set of rules of engagement designed to minimize civilian casualties and destruction of their property, all the while shielding them from the ongoing fighting.
Many supporters of the strategy agree it’s the right way to win, but also acknowledge it exposes our troops to more danger because they are expected to show an inhuman amount of restraint when their lives are directly threatened.
20% percent of the Soldiers deployed in the past 6 years have been diagnosed with PTSD, which accounts for about 300,000 people. The stigma surrounding PTSD within the military as weakness is discouraging service members from seeking help within their chain of command. This fact alone skews the diagnosis rate and leaves mental health professionals wondering how many service members are suffering from symptoms of PTSD without treatment.
Agreeing or disagreeing with the causes or manner in which the wars were conducted is irrelevant. There are millions of service members that volunteered to defend this country and its people and they deserve our respect and support. This is not a partisan issue, we owe everyone that has ever put on a uniform a debt of gratitude and this situation is no different. We can’t allow the aftermath of veteran’s treatment following the Vietnam War to repeat itself and dishonor the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters in arms.
