Mr. Brooks:
I would like to know if veterans can count on your continuing support in their efforts to forge a new life? Will you keep posting on this subject or is this a one shot Pontius Pilate act of contrition on your part? Most importantly will you push for adequate funding for veterans' programs and related job support? Or does funding fall outside, in your "nuanced judgement", the parameters of your rigorous moral philosophy?
I would like to know if veterans can count on your continuing support in their efforts to forge a new life? Will you keep posting on this subject or is this a one shot Pontius Pilate act of contrition on your part? Most importantly will you push for adequate funding for veterans' programs and related job support? Or does funding fall outside, in your "nuanced judgement", the parameters of your rigorous moral philosophy?
16
As you say, trauma destroys the fabric of time. PTSD is a terrifying condition with no end and no exit in sight. The veterans have lost the core of their being. Most of it is guilt and part of it is the realization that what they have done cannot get undone. Having been into the stratosphere totally incongruous with normality, they find themselves in limbo.A veteran never overcomes PTSD. They only find ways to cope with it. We must also not forget the other side of the dividing line either. Generations after generations losing family,friends,homes in a war which is perpetual. No relief,no treatment nor empathy. The most heartbreaking are the children with PTSD.
4
I wish political leadership who makes decision to go to war also get a part of PTSD
11
I think this was a really thought provoking article. It speaks to the question that leaders who have seen war and combat are less likely to start wars than those that did not: Rumsfeld, Cheney, W, etc. It also says something about the father's reluctance to carry the Gulf War into Iraq. That principle doesn't apply to jihadis because, unfortunately, they're convinced that they're doing God's work when they kill.
4
Please. Quit trying to make victims of everyone. There's plenty of soldiers and marines who volunteered knowing full well, and relishing the idea, that combat would be involved. That's what signing up for the military when a war is on is all about. It may have been traumatic, but they had to have known that would likely be the case. Nobody forced them to sign up. The immorality of war was probably why many of them signed up.
The officers coming out of West Point and the Naval Academy desperately seek a combat assignment. It's not traumatic. It's career enhancing.
Geez. The liberal intelligentsia doesn't get war any better now than it did during Vietnam.
Btw, if you want to make a victim of someone, make it of a Korean or Vietnam War vet. Those guys had no choice. Their country said you either become a monster for our purposes or else. And those wars were not extended police actions like Afghanistan and Iraq mainly were. But people spit on Vietnam vets, while showering adulation on guys who volunteered to fight in what amounted to occupations.
This culture might give someone PTSD for how little sense it makes.
The officers coming out of West Point and the Naval Academy desperately seek a combat assignment. It's not traumatic. It's career enhancing.
Geez. The liberal intelligentsia doesn't get war any better now than it did during Vietnam.
Btw, if you want to make a victim of someone, make it of a Korean or Vietnam War vet. Those guys had no choice. Their country said you either become a monster for our purposes or else. And those wars were not extended police actions like Afghanistan and Iraq mainly were. But people spit on Vietnam vets, while showering adulation on guys who volunteered to fight in what amounted to occupations.
This culture might give someone PTSD for how little sense it makes.
8
At some time or other, virtually everyone in warfare questions what they're fighting for and the competence of their chain of command; that's normal. Ditto for combat-related stress that most reasonably well-adjusted people manage to put behind them and move on.
But I believe a lot of the current problem rests with the changing nature of the military itself. For the first time in recent history, we're fielding a pared down all-volunteer force to fight major wars on multiple fronts, while the rest of the country cheers on from the sidelines.
And it simply isn't working.
During the Viet Nam conflict where I served as a draftee/volunteer, traditional forces comprising draftees,enlistees and reservists-- though far from ideal-- provided a better inductee selection pool and spread the burden more justly among a broader cross-section of the population. We need to reconsider that now, as part of addressing the combat stress issue. After all, our nation's defense is everyone's responsibility. War is just too serious a business to dump onto one small segment of our society.
But I believe a lot of the current problem rests with the changing nature of the military itself. For the first time in recent history, we're fielding a pared down all-volunteer force to fight major wars on multiple fronts, while the rest of the country cheers on from the sidelines.
And it simply isn't working.
During the Viet Nam conflict where I served as a draftee/volunteer, traditional forces comprising draftees,enlistees and reservists-- though far from ideal-- provided a better inductee selection pool and spread the burden more justly among a broader cross-section of the population. We need to reconsider that now, as part of addressing the combat stress issue. After all, our nation's defense is everyone's responsibility. War is just too serious a business to dump onto one small segment of our society.
7
I dp think that this is an interesting column.
However, items such as these seem to ignore the fact that civilians who have never been to war and have never experienced "accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong" suffer from PTSD, too.
Some of us experienced trauma in ways that did lead to "moral exile." Rather, we experience exile by virture of over generalization about what the experience of PTSD is.
My husband is a veteran suffering from PTSD, so I do not post this lightly.
Please try to remember that when you publish columns about this topic, PTSD is about more than veterans and to disregard the differences sends the rest of further into exile, further into the oblivion of the unacknowledged and disregarded.
However, items such as these seem to ignore the fact that civilians who have never been to war and have never experienced "accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong" suffer from PTSD, too.
Some of us experienced trauma in ways that did lead to "moral exile." Rather, we experience exile by virture of over generalization about what the experience of PTSD is.
My husband is a veteran suffering from PTSD, so I do not post this lightly.
Please try to remember that when you publish columns about this topic, PTSD is about more than veterans and to disregard the differences sends the rest of further into exile, further into the oblivion of the unacknowledged and disregarded.
7
There seems to be a misunderstanding here about PTSD... It is not simply a military disorder though many people in military -particularly combat zones suffer from it. Others suffer from these symptoms who were abused as children or raped or witnessed others going through horrendous trauma. Many adoptive children suffer from it, most of who were abandoned or taken from parents who came in to the adoption with their own trauma and own memories.
That said, allow me to summarize an interesting tale with at least three -all related-who each had PTSD: the father who was a POW in WWII, his son who was in Nam, and his daughter who was also in Nam. The father and son lived similar lives and suffered similar battle psychosis, while the daughter suffered from abuse of parents-biological and adoptive and form a society which at the time had no clue about the older adoptee who suffered from abandonment and was terrified of all humans, and had her identity stripped from her by a state which still has closed adoptions and documents sealed from the individual to whom is rightful owner of whatever information it contained. To add insult to injury she went to Nam as a nurse.... under the ultra restrictive regimens which is any military.
I had PTSD long before it had a name and then exacerbated the symptoms while working in the environment which was a horrendous war zone called Nam.
One trick is to take steps forward more than those you took backwards to preserve your sanity.
That said, allow me to summarize an interesting tale with at least three -all related-who each had PTSD: the father who was a POW in WWII, his son who was in Nam, and his daughter who was also in Nam. The father and son lived similar lives and suffered similar battle psychosis, while the daughter suffered from abuse of parents-biological and adoptive and form a society which at the time had no clue about the older adoptee who suffered from abandonment and was terrified of all humans, and had her identity stripped from her by a state which still has closed adoptions and documents sealed from the individual to whom is rightful owner of whatever information it contained. To add insult to injury she went to Nam as a nurse.... under the ultra restrictive regimens which is any military.
I had PTSD long before it had a name and then exacerbated the symptoms while working in the environment which was a horrendous war zone called Nam.
One trick is to take steps forward more than those you took backwards to preserve your sanity.
6
"Self-forgiveness"?
I'm sorry, but those who have gone to war and suffer its horrendous impact need ask no forgiveness from themselves or anybody else. It is the cowardly, dissociative leaders of this fearful country who should be begging for forgiveness.
I'm sorry, but those who have gone to war and suffer its horrendous impact need ask no forgiveness from themselves or anybody else. It is the cowardly, dissociative leaders of this fearful country who should be begging for forgiveness.
13
Though I have never been to war I lived in a house of horror for almost 18 years. Even as I turn 70 this year and have gone through thousands of hours of therapy I am still haunted by what was perpetrated upon me and my sister and brother for years by my abusive father. Abuse on every level from the time I was a very young child was my domain. The last time my father slugged me I was in college. He managed to touch me twice in front of daughter at my son's wedding. Needless to say she was horrified and I ran off to the ladies' room to collect myself before the ceremony began.
I still have nightmares and it has a major negative impact on my fairly new marriage as It's hard to be touched by anyone still. So I am empathetic to the soldiers' plight, there are also right now thousands of children living under trauma. We must protect them too.
I still have nightmares and it has a major negative impact on my fairly new marriage as It's hard to be touched by anyone still. So I am empathetic to the soldiers' plight, there are also right now thousands of children living under trauma. We must protect them too.
11
Thanks for the brief article. For past 2 years I have been hosting workshops on Moral injury & PTSD at Loyola Marymount University where we have panels of veterans, active military, chaplains, social worker, and family members having community dialogue about what is working, and what needs to be different and how do we know that. Not an easy tasks herding cats.:)
Examining our personal and institutional wounds and the future is what we must do more of especially with rising conflicts , increased technology and a volunteer armed forces. Our challenges are great but with more public talk we can rise from the ashes.( google the above if you want more info)
Examining our personal and institutional wounds and the future is what we must do more of especially with rising conflicts , increased technology and a volunteer armed forces. Our challenges are great but with more public talk we can rise from the ashes.( google the above if you want more info)
3
Many do not realize that there are several avenues to PTSD, I took a couple of routes there, first was the physical, emotional and psychological pain from another PTSD inflicted parent to joining the Military, and eve though I was on a ship, in port most of the time, but we were also at war at the time, and nearly being killed by various accidents, being on the Damage Control Team, trained to be first thru the door with the hose, helicopter crash crew trained, radioactive and asbestos exposures, as well as various chemicals used at various times. Yes, the military handed me a heavy dose of PTSD as well.
It is something that is dealt with every minute of every day, it is not something that just magically 'goes away', it IS something that can be treated, to various degrees, but it is something that I, myself, deal with constantly. Oh, I can set it aside for a time, not let it get in my way, but at the same time, it is always there in the fabric of what has made us what we are Now, and it is the NOW, for ALL of us, that needs to be addressed. PTSD is as much a wounding of the person as would be being hit by fire or losing parts of yourself, because that is what it can feel like: I have lost a part of myself back there, the wound still exists, and I ave to deal with it in the Now, so, why cannot our Congress do the same and fully fund us, to help us deal with the damage that they they created sending us there in the first place!
If I Have to Deal with it, so do They!
It is something that is dealt with every minute of every day, it is not something that just magically 'goes away', it IS something that can be treated, to various degrees, but it is something that I, myself, deal with constantly. Oh, I can set it aside for a time, not let it get in my way, but at the same time, it is always there in the fabric of what has made us what we are Now, and it is the NOW, for ALL of us, that needs to be addressed. PTSD is as much a wounding of the person as would be being hit by fire or losing parts of yourself, because that is what it can feel like: I have lost a part of myself back there, the wound still exists, and I ave to deal with it in the Now, so, why cannot our Congress do the same and fully fund us, to help us deal with the damage that they they created sending us there in the first place!
If I Have to Deal with it, so do They!
4
Only a tiny percentage of Americans have experienced the horrors of war, especially the "collateral damage" involving the deaths of innocent non-combatants. How many members of the Administration and Congress have been among those? Why do we continue to tolerate the War Without End that started with GW Bush and has only accelerated and expanded under Obama? We should know by now that terrorism has been and always will be with us; it cannot be blasted out of existence. Yes, protect our borders, protect our national security, protect our people --but stop bombing and fighting anyone anywhere in the world whom our government labels a terrorist. It's futile, and it's immoral to risk the lives and sanity of those Americans who are doing the fighting -- not just talking about it.
6
I find it ironic that Brooks concludes treatment for PTSD will take "micro-management" and "individual" treatment of each victim, of which there are many. This sounds expensive and liberal.
This is not the usual Brooks conservative trumpet: pick yourself up by the bootstraps. Or Patton's Slap. I wonder if Brooks feels different because of Iraq War guilt or rather if this is another Republican rendition of "caring for the troops", sentiment over substance. If Republicans can feel such charity here, why is it so hard to feel it elsewhere? Is sympathy and charity for troops an exception to the stiff economic/moral code?
I think we owe the troops not only treatment and education, but also an extra dividend for lying them into battle. I think that dividend should be taken from the contractors and others who directly profited from war.
Perhaps they'll be less inclined to lie in the future.
This is not the usual Brooks conservative trumpet: pick yourself up by the bootstraps. Or Patton's Slap. I wonder if Brooks feels different because of Iraq War guilt or rather if this is another Republican rendition of "caring for the troops", sentiment over substance. If Republicans can feel such charity here, why is it so hard to feel it elsewhere? Is sympathy and charity for troops an exception to the stiff economic/moral code?
I think we owe the troops not only treatment and education, but also an extra dividend for lying them into battle. I think that dividend should be taken from the contractors and others who directly profited from war.
Perhaps they'll be less inclined to lie in the future.
11
I think this is a thoughtful and suggestive piece, dealing in a short space with a topic which is important, complicated, and uncertain. I appreciate David's suggestions for further resources, and it's appropriate to check them out before responding (by which time, however, the comments will be closed). I also appreciate the comments from readers who have experienced PTSD or similar issues.
1
Journalists often write outside their own educational background, often at the peril of misunderstanding and misleading. Perhaps Brooks is simply engaging in right wing denial of science. In advocating for "morally" overcoming PTSD, he is is minimizing science and moving dangerously close to a faith based solution.
11
Studies show up to a quarter of foster children suffer from PTSD. That figure should cause a moral outrage. How do you explain guilt as a cause of PTSD for innocent children?
8
And, the risk of trauma to the individual can be minimized with compulsory military service. Better still, if it were instituted, unnecessary wars might end.
7
We got exactly what we needed out of every war we have gotten into, even Vietnam. There hasn't been a questionable American conflict excepting, possibly, the one for Jenkin's Ear.
Saddam Hussein had the largest military by FAR in the Middle East. With all the documented WMD poison gases and nuclear plants he had going, it is quickly becoming an intelligence test to argue that we might have ignored him.
Now we have Iran making the same push, in a very subtle way; time will tell.
Saddam Hussein had the largest military by FAR in the Middle East. With all the documented WMD poison gases and nuclear plants he had going, it is quickly becoming an intelligence test to argue that we might have ignored him.
Now we have Iran making the same push, in a very subtle way; time will tell.
The shortest distance between two points is not a straight line but the path of least resistance. To get from there to here, a man may do better not to think of his life as a unity, except biologically, and not in its psychological persistence: different times, different circumstances, a different person. It’s all essential to who you are, but the past is past, and the present is present.
If you can believe that.
If you can believe that.
If war is a crime, what is the alternative? If a nation prepared its citizens to nonviolently resist aggression, much of the rationale the war would diminish. Gene Sharp has written extensively about this. Of course if the military is to oppress other countries, that's another question.
1
As a Vietnam veteran, with absolutely no professional expertise or credentialing in the field of mental illness & its treatment, I suggest, if not a cure for the ravages of PTSD, at least a balm for it, however long delayed or minor. That is the accounting and justification of war, including the taking of responsibility by those who prosecuted it. The Bush administration is responsible for much of the misery and malaise we continue to suffer because of our involvement in Iraq, and until members of that team address their part in the debacle and admit the fabrications that put us there, those troops who suffer will never be fully healed. A truth commission would do more than countless hours of counseling and medication ever could.
11
I wonder how much of this guilt-related trauma is a product of our all-volunteer military? Especially when enlistments go up after an event such as 9/11, meaning that more enlistees are focused on fighting a particular enemy, rather than, say, just having a job and learning skills. Being drafted seems more like an "act of God" in a way, and could help veterans de-shoulder some of the extreme traumatic reactions. The fact that it would also help keep us out of bad / unnecessary wars is also a plus.
4
@gemli:
"PTSD is not an illness. It's the natural consequence of the human mind rebelling against participating in the amoral cruelty of our more primitive selves. A being who can see the consequences of his actions and who can empathize with his enemy is poorly equipped to engage in war."
You say this with such authority it could almost be true. It's not. PTSD is an illness and it's treatable. It is a natural consequence of being in combat but I don't think you know much about the life a soldier at war. You belittle the character of millions of soldiers who probably had a very clear idea that they were fighting other men and women, very much like them. It's not a lack of empathy that creates PSTD: it's more likely to be the daily stress of avoiding IEDs or gas attacks or just the unrelenting ear-splitting sounds of armaments.
"PTSD is not an illness. It's the natural consequence of the human mind rebelling against participating in the amoral cruelty of our more primitive selves. A being who can see the consequences of his actions and who can empathize with his enemy is poorly equipped to engage in war."
You say this with such authority it could almost be true. It's not. PTSD is an illness and it's treatable. It is a natural consequence of being in combat but I don't think you know much about the life a soldier at war. You belittle the character of millions of soldiers who probably had a very clear idea that they were fighting other men and women, very much like them. It's not a lack of empathy that creates PSTD: it's more likely to be the daily stress of avoiding IEDs or gas attacks or just the unrelenting ear-splitting sounds of armaments.
8
I was wondering how the conversations could be started. A person might not talk to a family member -- too close -- or a therapist -- too distant. Most civilians are not going to inquire too deeply, though many would listen compassionately if the subject were broached by the vet. That leaves friends, neighbours and combat buddies, and the vets themselves, to start the talk. Perhaps civilians don't want to broach the subject out of their own guilt or aversion, but it also could seem prying and stirring up memories the vet perhaps wants unstirred. So, apart from formal groups and arranged occasions, what are the best ways for vets and others to begin to speak of this? Are there local opportunities, close to home?
13
I recommend: "Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War" by Robert E. Meagher, Hampshire College.
2
Great writing...and I would add those who have had a moral injury inflicted upon them also leave a shared moral universe.
It's a safe bet that 90% of the men who have been in combat are seriously psychologically damaged. Only a small percentage of these men can be diagnosed as PTSD, but there are lots of other ways these men carry psychological wounds. Another really good book is Erich Maria Remarque's THE ROAD BACK, which tells the stories of the postwar adjustment problems of the 32 survivors of a 500 man unit. It's a brilliant book.
3
The real crime, as I see it, is that G.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condaleeza Rice etal..along with a majority of our illustrious congressional representatives and generals, felt absolutely no qualms about sending thousands of young men and women to invade, occupy and fight in Iraq under false pretenses. If there is a moral issue here, and there surely is, it is that our so-called leaders were utterly amoral in their decision to invade Iraq. And while these folks are sitting pretty in Texas, Jackson Hole, WY and elsewhere, far too many returning members of the US Military are scarred and suffering from PSTD. This, Mr. Brooks, is the "moral injury".
75
I agree. The Iraq invasion was immoral and the perps should have to pay the consequence. The rise of ISIS is one of the disastrous results of the Bush/Cheney administration.
7
And the worst the very same power elite have no qualms about sending young men and women to war, with no corresponding sacrifice from their families. Its as if the rich and the power elite don't have to make any sacrifices for the country.
3
During WWII, an uncle saw combat and was a POW. Returning to the US with an English GI bride, he had a job. However, he was a very angry man. During nonwork hours, he watched war movies day and night, beat up his wife (probably causing numerous miscarriages) and never received treatment for what probably was PTSD. His family and children (and I as a new immigrant to the US) were always scared of him. A tragedy. Late in life, after a divorce, he calmed down and found happiness.
2
Maybe people don't suffer PTSD after natural disasters because humans have evolved enough to digest the force/calamity/destruction that humans can do. We have evolved enough to digest what the world can offer.
Easy for Brooks, who was all in for the Iraq War from behind his laptop, to talk this nonsense.
7
Mr Brooks says, "People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters." That's incorrect. Per the journal Epidemiology Reviews, 07/05, the prevalence of PTSD syndromes after disasters, natural and technological, but not military, ranges from 10% to 50%. We are all vulnerable to suffering the consequences of severe stressors.
6
(Dr.) Steve - There is much more out there related to PTSD than the 'wars'.
Thank you for your comments.
Thank you for your comments.
1
Good points throughout this brilliant and succinct essay. Mr. Brooks speaks not only from a compassionate but a moral judgement point. Trauma being the quintessence of morally ambiguous crisis of the body, the heart, and the soul, usually all at once, the remedy for such trauma must address the moral fabric of the sufferer as well as the emotional and cognitive facets. This is a deep topic that cannot be fully grasped in an Op-Ed, but Mr. Brooks does exceptionally well at the task he has set for himself in this piece. Thanks for highlighting these programs and services and the attendant new theories and insights implicated in their development.
5
Brilliant? Or was that sarcasm?
2
Thanks. Very much appreciated.
Very fine, sensitive writing, David. I was in the Vietnam War, and in the first decade of this century I had a colleague whom I discovered was on the ground in Vietnam. Once he found out that I was there, we had many long conversations. It was as if a volcano of memory had erupted between us. Sharing is a necessary cure.
But before that, a family member was in the liberation of Europe, serving in the Army. After his experience at liberating prison camps, he dreamed about it for his entire life. When I was young, I wondered why, or how, he could have been so affected. I found out.
What is *never* on the minds of those who send us to war is the psychological damage to those whom they send. Indeed, the object is to win. Like the surgeon who does not see the little girl whose heart he repairs playing in her neighborhood, so leaders must be resolute. But they must be wise.
Vietnam and Iraq were not wisely envisioned. This adds to the burdon of a returning Veteran. He fought a war that no leader would support were he able to return to those days.
The Iraq War distresses me because our national leaders violated Santayana's famous statement: they did not read history. Now our Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans join us Vietnam War Veterans in trying to see value in an exceedingly violent, and ostensibly senseless, past.
But before that, a family member was in the liberation of Europe, serving in the Army. After his experience at liberating prison camps, he dreamed about it for his entire life. When I was young, I wondered why, or how, he could have been so affected. I found out.
What is *never* on the minds of those who send us to war is the psychological damage to those whom they send. Indeed, the object is to win. Like the surgeon who does not see the little girl whose heart he repairs playing in her neighborhood, so leaders must be resolute. But they must be wise.
Vietnam and Iraq were not wisely envisioned. This adds to the burdon of a returning Veteran. He fought a war that no leader would support were he able to return to those days.
The Iraq War distresses me because our national leaders violated Santayana's famous statement: they did not read history. Now our Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans join us Vietnam War Veterans in trying to see value in an exceedingly violent, and ostensibly senseless, past.
6
Plus those politicians sons, for the most part, never fought. I always say, if you can't fight in the war yourself, you can't send others to fight either.
1
Mr. Brooks:
"These men are worth your tears, You are not worth their merriment"
Wilfred Owen
"These men are worth your tears, You are not worth their merriment"
Wilfred Owen
2
I find it fascinating when conservatives suggest we give lots of support to soldiers with PTSD -- but then the same conservatives look at the poor people in our inner-cities, who have often seen relatives shot right in front of their eyes, experienced physical abuse, and had parents dragged off to jail -- often below the age of 10 years old -- and conservatives conclude that those people ought to magically pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that they are lazy (rather than clinically depressed), and heaven forbid that we offer them any assistance whatsoever.
Seeing people shot is upsetting. If you believe that, you should start by offering support to treat all our citizens at home -- rather than spending trillions to traumatize both our own and other citizens around the world.
Seeing people shot is upsetting. If you believe that, you should start by offering support to treat all our citizens at home -- rather than spending trillions to traumatize both our own and other citizens around the world.
7
At our dinner table growing up in the 60's debate on the issues of the day were expected. My father, a corpsman who for the most part fought WW II from hospital ships and field hospitals spoke infrequently of his experiences with the Marines that began just after Guadal Canal and ended when he was withdrawn, under arrest, from Iwo Jima. One night my older sister, the an opponent of the Viet Nam War said in defense of her generation's apparent combat failures, excoriated by my father (he eventually came around) that he (my father) didn't understand what it was like. Pop exploded, " don't tell m
1
thanks, david. now you need to push back hard against your fellow republicans who want to send our troops everywhere, all the time, and the notion that our president, who thinks long and hard before putting any of our troops in arms way is feckless or a ditherer.
8
Absolutely agree that there is a huge gap between civilians and warriors. War: ALIEN world.
Mr. Brooks, where is biology in this piece? Physics, complexity?
Regarding guilt: Genocide, war, rape are apps on file, part of the genetic repertoire. Not that they get a free pass, but DNA has been through catastrophic/collapse situations over and over in its billions-of-years history. You know that often ugly methods of interfacing with those situations have been programmed into the aggregate information structure that is the human being.
The reality of the genetic code has to be integrated with moral code. Religious and moral code haven't done that sufficiently. Religious code, while it has wisdom, has been rendered largely obsolete by exponentially accelerating complexity, which includes knowledge accruement.
Nor have we updated moral code per exponentially accelerating complexity. Hard to do per this: “There were 5 exabytes of information created by the entire world between the dawn of civilization and 2003; now that same amount is created every two days.” E. Schmidt, former Google CEO
Software code has to help integrate multiple cultural coding structures as it has far greater reach, speed, power, and accuracy, like alphabet code relative to pictograph code.
We don't understand that code is physics-efficacious, entropy-generated infrastructure for complex network relationships in bio, cultural, & tech network for a world that is fundamentally Information-in-Relationship.
Mr. Brooks, where is biology in this piece? Physics, complexity?
Regarding guilt: Genocide, war, rape are apps on file, part of the genetic repertoire. Not that they get a free pass, but DNA has been through catastrophic/collapse situations over and over in its billions-of-years history. You know that often ugly methods of interfacing with those situations have been programmed into the aggregate information structure that is the human being.
The reality of the genetic code has to be integrated with moral code. Religious and moral code haven't done that sufficiently. Religious code, while it has wisdom, has been rendered largely obsolete by exponentially accelerating complexity, which includes knowledge accruement.
Nor have we updated moral code per exponentially accelerating complexity. Hard to do per this: “There were 5 exabytes of information created by the entire world between the dawn of civilization and 2003; now that same amount is created every two days.” E. Schmidt, former Google CEO
Software code has to help integrate multiple cultural coding structures as it has far greater reach, speed, power, and accuracy, like alphabet code relative to pictograph code.
We don't understand that code is physics-efficacious, entropy-generated infrastructure for complex network relationships in bio, cultural, & tech network for a world that is fundamentally Information-in-Relationship.
3
Trauma: the Greek root means "a piercing injury" with the English derivative "throe", the condition of being in "anguish", a very cramped place.
When I accompanied Mom to the Renel theater in Philly so she'd have company, I looked forward to a wartime newsreel about victories in Germany and the Pacific - and also to watching the lions-eating-Christians saga "The Sign of The Cross". Neither of us expected the newsreel we saw -- it had no Pacific footage, but movies taken at Bergen-Belsen by the British, bulldozers burying mountains of dead concentration camp victims. Mom was stunned and sat silent. I thought, "I must remember this forever. I could have been the victim -- or the sadistic guard. And I must remember this "news" because we always forget last week's." I was 5. And what we know as the Holocaust has stayed fresh, clear, "news" to me ever since. Socrates said "The unexamined life is not worth living". We are all lions and Christians. Life is a coliseum, yet we work and love. We remember, we weep, we hurt, and we move on.
When I accompanied Mom to the Renel theater in Philly so she'd have company, I looked forward to a wartime newsreel about victories in Germany and the Pacific - and also to watching the lions-eating-Christians saga "The Sign of The Cross". Neither of us expected the newsreel we saw -- it had no Pacific footage, but movies taken at Bergen-Belsen by the British, bulldozers burying mountains of dead concentration camp victims. Mom was stunned and sat silent. I thought, "I must remember this forever. I could have been the victim -- or the sadistic guard. And I must remember this "news" because we always forget last week's." I was 5. And what we know as the Holocaust has stayed fresh, clear, "news" to me ever since. Socrates said "The unexamined life is not worth living". We are all lions and Christians. Life is a coliseum, yet we work and love. We remember, we weep, we hurt, and we move on.
2
Brooks' thesis can be stated much more clearly. Consider how many Nazi's both considered themselves "good Christians" yet committed outrageous moral crimes? How many white southerners of the 1800's did the same and felt as good? How many of those came down with the *opposite* of PTSD - a profound sense of fulfillment, duty, self-esteem, and social acclaim? Millions.
Obviously, (absolute) "moral injury" has nothing to do with it.
As Brooks will remember, we are a "Social Animal." We evolved many complex emotions to motivate us to mesh into social groups long before any particularly rational consciousness appeared. A group member's social standing in-part determined breeding success and relative "wealth" (deference and priority) within the group.
Once we gained culture and language we found that social standing can only come in two ways: to be known and accepted for who we are; or to fake who we are. But fakery turns on those evolved, adaptive emotions, making us feel guilt (unless you have psychopath genes).
So the treatment for PTSD makes sense: express what happened and how you feel about it - and obtain acceptance from *someone* who understands (and preferably society). Sometimes just the illusion of total acceptance will do (from a deity, to delusions of grandeur). When this fails, it is likely because the sufferer disapproves of therapy, self-expression, or suspects the social acceptance is disingenuous (subconsciously or not). Those are circular memes, hard to undo.
Obviously, (absolute) "moral injury" has nothing to do with it.
As Brooks will remember, we are a "Social Animal." We evolved many complex emotions to motivate us to mesh into social groups long before any particularly rational consciousness appeared. A group member's social standing in-part determined breeding success and relative "wealth" (deference and priority) within the group.
Once we gained culture and language we found that social standing can only come in two ways: to be known and accepted for who we are; or to fake who we are. But fakery turns on those evolved, adaptive emotions, making us feel guilt (unless you have psychopath genes).
So the treatment for PTSD makes sense: express what happened and how you feel about it - and obtain acceptance from *someone* who understands (and preferably society). Sometimes just the illusion of total acceptance will do (from a deity, to delusions of grandeur). When this fails, it is likely because the sufferer disapproves of therapy, self-expression, or suspects the social acceptance is disingenuous (subconsciously or not). Those are circular memes, hard to undo.
Given that women are something like twice as likely to experience PTSD, it would have been appreciated if Mr. Brooks thought to include the most common cause of PTSD - rape. We are all so focused on war and soldiers to bolster the validity of this condition, women are neglected as those who experience it most often, and the violence at home that causes it. Not to mention all the women who are deliberately raped as a weapon of war...How long are we expected to be invisible? This is ridiculous.
10
An important film with PTSD as a running theme was In The Valley of Elah which was a box office failure.
Hank's sanitized bedtime version of valor and glory in the Valley of Elah told to a young boy left out the fact that the novice boy warrior for the Israelities cut off Goliath's head while Goliath was still semi conscious and took the head with him on a campaign tour. Hank's own son Michael had also become a sadist after a tour in Iraq just as the future King of the Israelities had become a sadist after soldiering for his tribe.
Hank's sanitized bedtime version of valor and glory in the Valley of Elah told to a young boy left out the fact that the novice boy warrior for the Israelities cut off Goliath's head while Goliath was still semi conscious and took the head with him on a campaign tour. Hank's own son Michael had also become a sadist after a tour in Iraq just as the future King of the Israelities had become a sadist after soldiering for his tribe.
1
Interesting that Mr. Brooks can talk about the necessity of moral healing for PTSD without discussing the immorality of elected leaders who send our young men and women to wars of opportunity that only benefit the contractors / war profiteers, while actually diminishing our nation's standing in the world. I guess that discussion would not be acceptable to his party's philosophy of morality.
14
Please check out PTGI: Post Traumatic Growth Institute, whose motto is "God Doesn't Waste Pain." PTGI DOT US DOT COM
PTSD is not only among soldiers. It is not only among moral atrocities.
It is accident victims. It is a young girl hit in a crosswalk. It is a bank teller robbed for the third time. Those are two examples I knew well and represented.
It is accident victims. It is a young girl hit in a crosswalk. It is a bank teller robbed for the third time. Those are two examples I knew well and represented.
8
What about the Vet who comes home, with trauma. and bullies his neighbors , gets arrested for assault . Its hard to feel compassion for a vet who scares you and is very violent.
Mark Liddell
Mark Liddell
2
One of the worst post-Vietnam decisions was the elimination of the draft. Relatively few men and women serve our country. Some who do not are doing noble work for veterans. Many are oblivious to the consequences of war, so well expressed by Mr. Brooks.
The lack of compulsory national service is one of the causes of our frayed social fabric.
I propose that every able bodied and mentally stable man and woman be required to perform some form of service, whether in the military, a worthy community organization (NOT a house of worship), or for a charity that does great good.
Far too many have avoided the consequences of our government's decisions. It's time for that to end.
The lack of compulsory national service is one of the causes of our frayed social fabric.
I propose that every able bodied and mentally stable man and woman be required to perform some form of service, whether in the military, a worthy community organization (NOT a house of worship), or for a charity that does great good.
Far too many have avoided the consequences of our government's decisions. It's time for that to end.
7
My only friend who will talk about his days in Viet Nam joined the army because he figured the best place to protest the war was right in the middle of it.
When he came home he smoked pot and claims that it kept PTSD at bay. He's a pretty well adjusted and happy physicist now.
I am constantly amused by Mr. Brooks' columns regarding the philosophy of this or that, or in this case, the morality of war. Most people are convinced that WWII was a "righteous" war and stopping Hitler was "righteous" but had France and England been a little more "righteous" towards Germany after the moral swamp of WWI he might have remained a B grade painter.
Since WWII the wars have been largely fought in pursuit of profits. And our latest foray into Iraq was was a quagmire of epic proportions and a moral morass of historic scope. And Dick Cheney would do it all over again. Not change a thing. My guess is that David Brooks would vote for him, all over again.
When he came home he smoked pot and claims that it kept PTSD at bay. He's a pretty well adjusted and happy physicist now.
I am constantly amused by Mr. Brooks' columns regarding the philosophy of this or that, or in this case, the morality of war. Most people are convinced that WWII was a "righteous" war and stopping Hitler was "righteous" but had France and England been a little more "righteous" towards Germany after the moral swamp of WWI he might have remained a B grade painter.
Since WWII the wars have been largely fought in pursuit of profits. And our latest foray into Iraq was was a quagmire of epic proportions and a moral morass of historic scope. And Dick Cheney would do it all over again. Not change a thing. My guess is that David Brooks would vote for him, all over again.
12
There are other forms of warfare besides bombing and firing cannons. If we are going to talk about moral injury, we need, in particular, to recognize economic warfare. This kind of war grinds away, creates entrenched poverty, and destroys society just as ruthlessly as the physical kind. Its victims lead lives filled with stress and trauma day after day, and do not usually get any kind of therapy or sympathy. More often than not they are told there is something wrong with them -- that they are weak, lazy, "takers," and so on.
In some ways economic warfare is worse because it is what Dante called a crime against one's own intellect And where you have a physical war you will find that it is usually preceded by an economic war. If the world wants to be serious about trying to stop the former, it needs to pay a lot more attention to the latter.
In some ways economic warfare is worse because it is what Dante called a crime against one's own intellect And where you have a physical war you will find that it is usually preceded by an economic war. If the world wants to be serious about trying to stop the former, it needs to pay a lot more attention to the latter.
1
"We try to practice kindness and to cause no pain"--let alone the collateral damage. inherent in the rule of war vs rule of law.
Yet so much of civil life is competition--zero/sum: you get the girl/guy/job/promotion--someone else loses--often extended families too. Like sports and most games, business is essentially competitive--competing for market share, aiming at monopoly or monopsony. Losing hurts.
Civil society as well as war is competition. The difference is the underlying co-operation to "play the game"--win or lose. The bigger/deeper picture is civil competition recognizes that competition needs cooperation--winners need losers.
Political competition too needs the underlying will to "agree to disagree"--given only due process--a fair game.
PTSD afflicts not only warriors but civilian competitors victimized by workplace hatred, jealousy, envy, cheating and other forms of "undue process."
A supervisor out to get you can drive you crazy. And sometimes they do so merely due to criticism.
But even in the classroom, it is hard for some students to learn that criticism of their ideas ("shooting them down") is not disrespect for them. Indeed "humoring" their ideas would be disrespect--treating them as children.
Some cultures and religions need to learn that as well.
But war is essentially an unfair game--no cooperation underlying competition. Oddly--given history's predilection for war--only some human autonomic nervous systems are fit for that.
Yet so much of civil life is competition--zero/sum: you get the girl/guy/job/promotion--someone else loses--often extended families too. Like sports and most games, business is essentially competitive--competing for market share, aiming at monopoly or monopsony. Losing hurts.
Civil society as well as war is competition. The difference is the underlying co-operation to "play the game"--win or lose. The bigger/deeper picture is civil competition recognizes that competition needs cooperation--winners need losers.
Political competition too needs the underlying will to "agree to disagree"--given only due process--a fair game.
PTSD afflicts not only warriors but civilian competitors victimized by workplace hatred, jealousy, envy, cheating and other forms of "undue process."
A supervisor out to get you can drive you crazy. And sometimes they do so merely due to criticism.
But even in the classroom, it is hard for some students to learn that criticism of their ideas ("shooting them down") is not disrespect for them. Indeed "humoring" their ideas would be disrespect--treating them as children.
Some cultures and religions need to learn that as well.
But war is essentially an unfair game--no cooperation underlying competition. Oddly--given history's predilection for war--only some human autonomic nervous systems are fit for that.
2
"We try to practice kindness and to cause no pain.", "civilian life enmeshed in a fabric of moral practices and evaluation"! How simple morality is and how wonderfully conforming our civilian life! No, I am sorry David, I disagree with your sense of morality.
How can we know morality when, today, it is a discussion mostly confined to Philosophy departments and half empty churches. How do character, duty, courage, justice and patriotism fit into the contemporary concept of morality? You suggest that war is "always a crime". Can the atrocities demeaning our humanity; beheadings, immolations, mass kidnappings, and genocide, justify a war that is, perhaps, not morally wrong or murderous or a crime? Can the existential threat to a state morally justify war?
Perhaps the high incidence of emotionally injured veterans and the enduring quality of their injuries come not totally from their hellish experiences, which war certainly offers in abundance, but also injury exacerbated by the lack of a foundation to self-evaluate their actions and feelings, an emptiness emanating from a nation lacking clear moral definition, or one offering, at best, only the uncertainty and fragility of moral relativism and simplistic, feel good absolutes such as "practice kindness and cause no pain".
2
It seems more accurate to leave the D out of PTSD. The label would then become Post Traumatic Stress. Applying the word disorder makes this issue seem abnormal; like a disease, rather than a "normal" reaction to horrid abnormal experiences. Helping those impacted within a therapeutic framework of "normality" aids in the healing process by removing the "sick" orientation that can be easily internalized as disease causing even more distress. (Of course there can be psychopathology that must be medically treated.) Also, It's hard to imagine that after experiencing the death/destruction inherent in war anyone would be completely free of at least some Post Traumatic Stress. Brooks mentions that treatment for PTS/PTSD focuses on helping those impacted reassess their perceived level of guilt and responsibility which is often huge. Cognitive Therapy/Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy is a way to do that. These therapies conclude that reactions are based on beliefs. If we think we're worthless, we react as if we are. Thus problems can be minimized by changing errors in thinking that maintain stress/depression for example. And Brooks' statement that war "trauma has to be overcome morally" can also be placed into the cognitive therapy model. That means a therapeutic process that helps an individual find and understand errors of thinking and excanging those faulty ideas for more accurate ones thus reducing overall levels of distress.
2
Maybe as we look at PTSD from Afghanistan and Iraq we can get a better understanding of the Vietnam Veterans and what they went through and what they are going through. Then maybe we can project forward and say, "Don't put our troops out in the field to hurt someone else, unless you've thought this through." Which maybe brings us to a foreign policy based on "human rights" and not on getting "advantage" over the other party or a foreign policy based on what is in my best interest and not yours.
PTSD doesn't just affect veterans. What about rape victims, child abuse survivors, accident survivors? Where are they in this book/article?
7
A. Bring back the draft and let the entire nation, rich and poor alike take responsibility for the horrific decision to fight a meaningless war for corporate profit.
B. Stop calling it fancy, euphemistic names like PTSD and bring back the original name: "shell shock"
C. Get rid of journalist and newspapers that act as cheerleaders for illegal wars.
B. Stop calling it fancy, euphemistic names like PTSD and bring back the original name: "shell shock"
C. Get rid of journalist and newspapers that act as cheerleaders for illegal wars.
6
What about the "morality" of waging war based upon non-existent alleged facts, one which was entered into in violation of international law? Absent this moral failing, PTSD would be less of an issue, or hardly one at all. Unfortunately, we live in country that embraces the notion of endless war.
8
PTSD is first and foremost a physical disease. Your body goes into heightened fight or flight mode for an extended period of time with adrenalin, cortisone or all sorts of brain chemicals and chemistry firing wildly. This causes permanent damage to your brain and brain chemistry. Damage that you have to learn to work around if you can.
PTSD can come from military service or from bullying at work. Your brain is highly fragile and reacts poorly to any excessive amount of stress, whether psychological or physical. As one scientist aptly put it, "You think it's a pillow fight but your brain thinks it's a war."
You can't train the brain to withstand high levels of stress - that's the error of military training. Even the best trained and most disciplined fighters succumb later because your brain as an adult is as fragile and vulnerable as when you were a baby. At a TBI conference a presenter likened the brain to when your mom made Jello and flopped it out of the metal pan on the counter, where it sat jiggling around when you touched it. I think if everyone saw a real brain in this state they would realize how truly fragile it is.
The mistake of our age continues to be that we believe PTSD to be predominantly psychological or mental when in fact it is physical damage to the brain. When we finally start saying people with PTSD have permanent brain damage, you'll know we're on the right track.
PTSD can come from military service or from bullying at work. Your brain is highly fragile and reacts poorly to any excessive amount of stress, whether psychological or physical. As one scientist aptly put it, "You think it's a pillow fight but your brain thinks it's a war."
You can't train the brain to withstand high levels of stress - that's the error of military training. Even the best trained and most disciplined fighters succumb later because your brain as an adult is as fragile and vulnerable as when you were a baby. At a TBI conference a presenter likened the brain to when your mom made Jello and flopped it out of the metal pan on the counter, where it sat jiggling around when you touched it. I think if everyone saw a real brain in this state they would realize how truly fragile it is.
The mistake of our age continues to be that we believe PTSD to be predominantly psychological or mental when in fact it is physical damage to the brain. When we finally start saying people with PTSD have permanent brain damage, you'll know we're on the right track.
3
Mr. Brooks:
War is not a crime. It is a legally sanctioned act of aggression. War, in the context of morality you frame here is a sin. But, the context you frame here is inadequate, if not wrong. War is a reality that belies whatever context the outsider uses to enforce their understanding of it. It is a world apart that requires a different self, a primal one. I often say that war is where one goes to kill his inner child.
The goal of re-integrating oneself into the society left behind is a false one. There is no going back after participating in a war. Therapy that doesn't acknowledge this is useless. The moral reckoning spoken of here simply does not apply and I don't care a whit about being judged or measured by anyone who has not experienced it. No civilian can enter into that world and "expand his moral awareness" by reading a book.
Nor is combat a "depraved world '. That is something that only a civilian would say. However, there is often depravity in the decision to go to war and in how war is conducted by those in charge.Your morality has no place in war and whatever redemption you offer is without merit. I will always exist outside of your world. That is simply the way of it. If anyone should seek redemption it is those who justify the use of force in questionable causes: like you.I am neither ashamed nor proud of my combat service.I am still here
and that is enough.
War is not a crime. It is a legally sanctioned act of aggression. War, in the context of morality you frame here is a sin. But, the context you frame here is inadequate, if not wrong. War is a reality that belies whatever context the outsider uses to enforce their understanding of it. It is a world apart that requires a different self, a primal one. I often say that war is where one goes to kill his inner child.
The goal of re-integrating oneself into the society left behind is a false one. There is no going back after participating in a war. Therapy that doesn't acknowledge this is useless. The moral reckoning spoken of here simply does not apply and I don't care a whit about being judged or measured by anyone who has not experienced it. No civilian can enter into that world and "expand his moral awareness" by reading a book.
Nor is combat a "depraved world '. That is something that only a civilian would say. However, there is often depravity in the decision to go to war and in how war is conducted by those in charge.Your morality has no place in war and whatever redemption you offer is without merit. I will always exist outside of your world. That is simply the way of it. If anyone should seek redemption it is those who justify the use of force in questionable causes: like you.I am neither ashamed nor proud of my combat service.I am still here
and that is enough.
38
David: Is it possible that if PTSD is truly related to the moral injury that likely has afflicted all veterans of recent wars to some degree - with this moral trauma that lies within PTSD; that the public's true understanding of this could become the first step toward making war totally irrelevant in the future, because no one would ever want to go through the type of pain that these veterans are going through?
In the run up to the Iraq war, I had an intense argument with pro-Iraq invasion neocons. I told them the long term costs for this war would be horrible and asked whether they would be willing to send their sons when they were of age in 8 years (the boys were 11 and 10). They laughed at me as I explained we would still be there.
Just now I'm reading an amazing account of the eastern warfront in WWI. In it, an artist, Bela Moldovan, describes terrible PTSD, and how it's dismissed by the higher-ups as cowardice.
This is why what Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the draft dodgers and chicken hawks did in Iraq is so offensive and obscene.
Just now I'm reading an amazing account of the eastern warfront in WWI. In it, an artist, Bela Moldovan, describes terrible PTSD, and how it's dismissed by the higher-ups as cowardice.
This is why what Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the draft dodgers and chicken hawks did in Iraq is so offensive and obscene.
22
"The War to End All Wars" never ends.
3
Very thoughtful and intelligent insight. One glaring error, perhaps intentional, is your characterization of "civilians blind innocence." it is willful. It is by institutional design that the 99% who never serve tacitly approve of. The wars of fought by "the other guy" and conveniently often those who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. There are costs. We are just not willing to pay them. One way or the other, of course, we truly do. If you do 4 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, you should come home to guarantees. No matter the price. We "OWE" them. End of conversation.
3
We may live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but we don't practice it very well. Insurance companies insist on short-term therapies, cookie-cutter approaches where individualized diagnosis and treatment is essential. It's as if everyone who comes in with chest pain is given an antacid.
Aside from under-insuring mental health, we stigmatize mental disorders, mostly because we don't understand them very well. People who would never miss an annual physical check-up wouldn't consider a psychological exam. How many times have people asked me, "Why are you depressed?" as if depression was a choice, like ordering from a menu. No one ever asks me, "Why do you have a cold?"
PTSD is a psychological condition; it requires psychological treatment, not moralizing. David Brooks would never prescribe "philosophical autobiography" for a broken leg.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
Aside from under-insuring mental health, we stigmatize mental disorders, mostly because we don't understand them very well. People who would never miss an annual physical check-up wouldn't consider a psychological exam. How many times have people asked me, "Why are you depressed?" as if depression was a choice, like ordering from a menu. No one ever asks me, "Why do you have a cold?"
PTSD is a psychological condition; it requires psychological treatment, not moralizing. David Brooks would never prescribe "philosophical autobiography" for a broken leg.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
7
The concept of Moral Injury has been integrated into the lexicon of post war trauma and fits other types of traumatic injury as well. David Brooks does us a service by introducing the notion to a wide audience. But his use of the term "moral reckoning" suggests incorrectly that the therapy involves self-blame. These soldiers are already blaming themselves, frustrated that others "don't get it," but unable to share what happened, after being trapped in a moral dilemma in which there is no good option. That may be true of rape survivors and survivors of childhood sexual abuse, as well. I think he may also be wrong in stating that people "generally don't suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters." Imagine that you wake up to a house on fire. You get yourself and everyone you can find out before being overcome by smoke. You couldn't find that last person or pet, however. Or you are home when an earthquake causes your kid's school to collapse. Or you survive a tsunami or flood but all of your family members are never found. There is always a "what if."
2
>
Maybe so for some, but as a Vet I know there are a lot of people trying to get VA comp benefit settlements from this PTSD and other questionable matters, which is creating an undue load on the VA and Vets that really are in need. But Vets are a scared cow. Very hard to be refused a comp claim if your persistent.
There is no correlation between those that actually saw combat in Jr's wars and the recent Vet suicides, google it.
I've said this before, the last two wars were very light compared to WWII, Korea, and Vietnam as far as wounded and KIA, google it.
Something does not past the stink test.
As a Vet, I know that the military takes in a lot of dead-enders; these people were at the end of hope before they joined up.
But assuming all you said is true, then you should realize that we cannot afford these Neo-con wars anymore. What the heck is going to happen if we get into a real war, say with Russia or China. We could be looking at 50,000 KIA in the first week.
Maybe so for some, but as a Vet I know there are a lot of people trying to get VA comp benefit settlements from this PTSD and other questionable matters, which is creating an undue load on the VA and Vets that really are in need. But Vets are a scared cow. Very hard to be refused a comp claim if your persistent.
There is no correlation between those that actually saw combat in Jr's wars and the recent Vet suicides, google it.
I've said this before, the last two wars were very light compared to WWII, Korea, and Vietnam as far as wounded and KIA, google it.
Something does not past the stink test.
As a Vet, I know that the military takes in a lot of dead-enders; these people were at the end of hope before they joined up.
But assuming all you said is true, then you should realize that we cannot afford these Neo-con wars anymore. What the heck is going to happen if we get into a real war, say with Russia or China. We could be looking at 50,000 KIA in the first week.
3
And resort to nuclear weapons as well.
1
Corrections: Past = pass your= you're
I hate auto spell, kind of.
I hate auto spell, kind of.
1
Mr. Brooks' essay was extremely frustrating to read. I live on Camp Lejeune and am a military spouse and teach yoga on base. While I am not an expert in PTSD, I do teach yoga to Marines who suffer from PTSD. I strongly believe that making PTSD a moral issue is harmful and dangerous. Marines and soldiers and sailors are not "choosing" their actions in a war zone. They are trained within an inch of their lives, and when they are in harm's way, training and instinct kick in. From the accounts I have heard, a marine's goal is to keep the soldier or marine next to him or her safe and bring everyone home. They are trained to follow orders and have their buddies' backs. "Choice" is really not an option.
PTSD is a natural response to extreme fear, and seems an appropriate response to one's life being in danger. To tell these brave men and women that they have moral issues is really harmful and I don't see how it is helpful at all.
Perhaps the only moral issue here is that of choosing to serve one's country versus choosing not to serve. Like Mr. Brooks, I am not a active duty military and I don't think I could ever be courageous enough to do what these men and women do every day. They have signed up to protect us - complete strangers for the most part - and they are engaging in the horrible act of war so we don't have to. They are the ones taking the bullets for us, regardless of whether or not we believe this war is just or not.
PTSD is a natural response to extreme fear, and seems an appropriate response to one's life being in danger. To tell these brave men and women that they have moral issues is really harmful and I don't see how it is helpful at all.
Perhaps the only moral issue here is that of choosing to serve one's country versus choosing not to serve. Like Mr. Brooks, I am not a active duty military and I don't think I could ever be courageous enough to do what these men and women do every day. They have signed up to protect us - complete strangers for the most part - and they are engaging in the horrible act of war so we don't have to. They are the ones taking the bullets for us, regardless of whether or not we believe this war is just or not.
78
The original choice is whether or not to answer your country's call. But it's really more complicated than this. Who is "your country" and is the call justified? In reality, it's politicians asking you to risk your life and take other lives, not your country. What are their motives? Is the country really in the kind of material or existential danger that requires sending armies thousands of miles away? As citizens, we have a right and an obligation to ask these questions and make an informed decision.
Most young men (and I was one of them when the war drums were being beaten to invade Viet Nam) never bother to do that due diligence. I often go to Washington and visit the Vietnam Memorial--and my heart sinks when I see those 50,000-some names. They died for nothing. They died for believing in a lie or a mistake or for not stopping to ask "is this really what's good for my country that it deserves putting my life and my moral compass on the line?"
Patriotic propaganda seems to always work. It takes no courage to rush off to the recruiting office. It's much harder to ask the hard questions and if necessary stand on principle.
The tragedy and stupidity of Vietnam seems not to have been an instructive lesson. Exceeding it on both counts was the tragic and stupid Iraq invasion, which it now appears has metastasized into a growing conflagration and is about to engulf the entire Middle East. We escaped the whirlwind last time. It seems this time we will not be so lucky.
Most young men (and I was one of them when the war drums were being beaten to invade Viet Nam) never bother to do that due diligence. I often go to Washington and visit the Vietnam Memorial--and my heart sinks when I see those 50,000-some names. They died for nothing. They died for believing in a lie or a mistake or for not stopping to ask "is this really what's good for my country that it deserves putting my life and my moral compass on the line?"
Patriotic propaganda seems to always work. It takes no courage to rush off to the recruiting office. It's much harder to ask the hard questions and if necessary stand on principle.
The tragedy and stupidity of Vietnam seems not to have been an instructive lesson. Exceeding it on both counts was the tragic and stupid Iraq invasion, which it now appears has metastasized into a growing conflagration and is about to engulf the entire Middle East. We escaped the whirlwind last time. It seems this time we will not be so lucky.
5
I understood the column in a different manner which I hope may assist you. I do not think it questions the morals of our service men and women. I find its about how service men and women suffer as result of witnessing and experiencing moral confusion. Military men and women do make what I assume to be clear moral decision to serve and I too commend them for their service.
What they experience in their tours and in a war zone, doing as they are trained and serving their buddies, is often fraught with limited choices. Ones that may have horrible consequences. I can only imagine how these have a toll on their moral compass and the after effects to their inner well being.
They are brave no matter your thoughts of war. They are individuals who must deal with their experience. I believe we owe them much.
What they experience in their tours and in a war zone, doing as they are trained and serving their buddies, is often fraught with limited choices. Ones that may have horrible consequences. I can only imagine how these have a toll on their moral compass and the after effects to their inner well being.
They are brave no matter your thoughts of war. They are individuals who must deal with their experience. I believe we owe them much.
1
I think you misunderstood Brooks. He's not advising people to treat PTSD as a moral issue. He's saying that the thing which makes PTSD especially serious for soldiers is that every flashback due to memories of intense fear is a reminder of the moral horrors they endured.
Karen Armstrong ,in her recent book, The killing fields, shows how various religions are used by the nation states to justify there actions, If you have a nation of morals and peace ethics you will have the problem we are seeing in our "warriors', These others learned that you must give religious justification to these brutal and terrible actions these warriors are asked to do. You must build hate and see the enemy as evil.
The Islamic ISIS have this religion and they are feeling positive about their actions. Our guys are church loving, turn the other cheek, don't kill folks. They don't have a chance mentally of accepting their actions they have been taught all their lives as sins.
Our society may have the most expensive military in the world but we don't prepare or soldiers to kill up close and personal. That's why we like air attacks and Drones, we don't see our direct involvement in the slaughter.
The Islamic ISIS have this religion and they are feeling positive about their actions. Our guys are church loving, turn the other cheek, don't kill folks. They don't have a chance mentally of accepting their actions they have been taught all their lives as sins.
Our society may have the most expensive military in the world but we don't prepare or soldiers to kill up close and personal. That's why we like air attacks and Drones, we don't see our direct involvement in the slaughter.
I believe this has a lot to do with the fact that these men and women are volunteers. Conscripts can at least feel as if they are reluctant participants in an unholy endeavor, forced to kill or be killed. As you say, our volunteers "feel there is something wrong with them because they find war repugnant but also thrilling." I suggest there is more than a grain of truth to that.
And that is, I believe, your answer. Not just to your navel-contemplating soliloquy, but to our current foreign policy and unrelenting militarism. If this unending war that we have been fighting for at least the last 12 years--a ceaseless military operation that has drained our treasury and sapped our morals--had been fought by conscripts, it would have been over years ago.
The only check on our war-addicted politicians is the ability we citizens have to refuse to send our sons and daughters to fight meaningless wars. Let's find something else for our young men and women to do--in civilian life--that enriches rather than destroys humanity. That would certainly solve the issue of PTSD. And it might--almost certainly will--make us a better country.
And that is, I believe, your answer. Not just to your navel-contemplating soliloquy, but to our current foreign policy and unrelenting militarism. If this unending war that we have been fighting for at least the last 12 years--a ceaseless military operation that has drained our treasury and sapped our morals--had been fought by conscripts, it would have been over years ago.
The only check on our war-addicted politicians is the ability we citizens have to refuse to send our sons and daughters to fight meaningless wars. Let's find something else for our young men and women to do--in civilian life--that enriches rather than destroys humanity. That would certainly solve the issue of PTSD. And it might--almost certainly will--make us a better country.
1
We are beginning to discover that PTSD is a human condition with many causes. Certainly there is the cause of combat but there are many things that can affect the same response. Most telling perhaps is the grotesque number of children who face it because of their treatment by their caregivers. But we should also consider the one in four women who are victims of sexual assault. As well the growing number of urban poor who fear rather than respect the instrumentality of law and order.
It is not just intense fear, it is also the feeling that nothing can be done to escape the fearful situation.
But there is a third element, which might explain why the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are faced with such a high level of exposure to this human tragedy. That is the stark contrast between the world of fear where these traumas prevail and the world we have built for most of us to live in.
We, the inhabitants of 'middle class' America have finally built effective walls to reserve our daily lives from the trauma of reality. It is as David mentions, PTSD does not often strike those who survive a single horrific event, it infects those who live in a world for days, or weeks, or months that is without mercy or respite. It also infects those who live with the fear that the rapist, the hunger, the angry father, the child gang or guerrilla fighter can pop up from around the next corner or out of the next doorway.
A fear that even time may not be able to put aside, but only time can.
It is not just intense fear, it is also the feeling that nothing can be done to escape the fearful situation.
But there is a third element, which might explain why the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are faced with such a high level of exposure to this human tragedy. That is the stark contrast between the world of fear where these traumas prevail and the world we have built for most of us to live in.
We, the inhabitants of 'middle class' America have finally built effective walls to reserve our daily lives from the trauma of reality. It is as David mentions, PTSD does not often strike those who survive a single horrific event, it infects those who live in a world for days, or weeks, or months that is without mercy or respite. It also infects those who live with the fear that the rapist, the hunger, the angry father, the child gang or guerrilla fighter can pop up from around the next corner or out of the next doorway.
A fear that even time may not be able to put aside, but only time can.
2
One of your best columns, David. As a life-long anti-war activist, I appreciate your emphasis on the issue of GUILT in relation to war. We often forget when we paste the label "war" on something, that beneath all the military ritual, flag waving & macho-patriotism, we are talking about human beings in large numbers killing and disabling each other (in body & mind). To unnecessarily kill a single human being is murder and therefore by extrapolation an unnecessary war is the moral equivalent of murder, the culpability for which lies with those who gave the orders to start it, NOT the soldiers fighting it who are under constraint to follow those orders, and are often thrust into situations in which they must engage in whatever brutality is necessary to save themselves and their comrades in arms. The centuries old Just War Tradition, which we've long forgotten, encapsulated these ideas.
Ask yourself this: in times when you've done injury to others, the way we all have, what is the biggest factor that determines whether we forgive ourselves and let it go. Speaking for myself, it was when I could at least tell myself that what I did was necessary and I had no choice. This I believe is part of the mental cruelty we foist on our brave soldiers when we send them to fight a 'war of choice', one of questionable necessity (like Iraq was)- we take away the last psychological comfort they might have in at least saying to themselves - it was necessary - we had no choice.
Ask yourself this: in times when you've done injury to others, the way we all have, what is the biggest factor that determines whether we forgive ourselves and let it go. Speaking for myself, it was when I could at least tell myself that what I did was necessary and I had no choice. This I believe is part of the mental cruelty we foist on our brave soldiers when we send them to fight a 'war of choice', one of questionable necessity (like Iraq was)- we take away the last psychological comfort they might have in at least saying to themselves - it was necessary - we had no choice.
5
What and who determines whether a war is a " war of necessity " or a " war of choice "?
@bd, San Diego. "...who determines whether a war is a " war of necessity" or a " war of choice?"
Certainly a good question. I would recommend reading the literature on the Just War Tradition, including Just War Criteria developed centuries ago by Christian theologians & Jewish scholars; read what Ron Paul says about it to. But at least we should ASK that question with the burden of proof being on those justifying that a war they want us to embark on IS necessary. This was NOT explicitly done in the case of Iraq. It was widely regarded and accepted as just being a "war of choice".
"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. ……It was right to resist the war.” Pope Benedict XVI
“It is essential not to lose sight of the moral dimension of war. ……..The War in Iraq did not even come close to satisfying the requirements of a just war.” Ron Paul
Certainly a good question. I would recommend reading the literature on the Just War Tradition, including Just War Criteria developed centuries ago by Christian theologians & Jewish scholars; read what Ron Paul says about it to. But at least we should ASK that question with the burden of proof being on those justifying that a war they want us to embark on IS necessary. This was NOT explicitly done in the case of Iraq. It was widely regarded and accepted as just being a "war of choice".
"There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. ……It was right to resist the war.” Pope Benedict XVI
“It is essential not to lose sight of the moral dimension of war. ……..The War in Iraq did not even come close to satisfying the requirements of a just war.” Ron Paul
2
Like many Vietnam veterans, I've been trying to figure out why I came away from American Sniper and even this piece by David Brooks with a sense of emptiness and deja vu. There has been virtually no conversation about the mis- and mal-diagnosed brain injuries that destroy beneath the surface of "Invisible Wounds." Hundreds of thousands of cases of PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI) share similar symptoms: headaches, depression, hypervigilance, anger, loss of executive function, sleeplessness, bruised brains and souls, isolation. We know from experience that uncounted brain-injured are "only" diagnosed with PTSD. Suicides at 22 a day; failed attempts at 44 -- over 24,000 acts of desperation a year, frequently because hope is lost. The service member suicide epidemic -- and special operators commit suicide at twice the rate of the active force -- not only must be depicted but the uncovering of treatments that already exist to treat and heal the brain injured have to be written about and explored in investigational ways. The NFL and DOD and the public need to be shown how they can embrace modern medicine. PTSD is frequently a TBI that can't and won't be cured with the 114+ drugs used without FDA approval or with talk and dance therapy . Families need accurate diagnoses so they can prepare and intervene. Hiring more shrinks and psychs is a dodge for accurate diagnoses and effective treatments that are denied the wounded. For more information see: www.treatnow.org.
1
Mr. Brooks is correct that chronic PTSD after a single disaster, natural or man made, is uncommon. PTSD after sustained repetitive combat is epidemic. Therein lies the important difference. In battle, behaviors caused by PTSD have survival value and are deemed heroic. Prevention of PTSD is facilitated by reducing multiiple exposure to combat. When the military accepts PTSD in the absence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a combat casualty justifying treatment,removal from the battle field , and rehabilitation, the prevalence of the disease will decline. When will they accept that volunteering for four tours in Iraq/Afganistan may be called heroic but simply confirms that PTSD will be the inevitable result. The correlation between unremitting combat exposure and PTSD has been known to the military medical corps since Viet Nam.
1
In order for soldiers to engage in war, they have to be taught to cast aside basic human decency. Once they return home they are somehow supposed to "magically" regain it.
While this column addresses the very real need for PTSD to be addressed, and soldiers helped as much as possible to put together broken lives, I would like to know your feelings David about having endorsed the Iraq War from the beginning. Do you have any misgivings about having encouraged a war that has devastated so many lives in so many ways? Have you asked yourself what has been gained by over12 years of unending conflict? What have the Iraqi's gained? What about the Middle East - is it better off now? Did you not know that PTSD would be a consequence of war (as it has always been) before we engaged in it? Did you even think about the consequences our soldiers and the Vietnamese suffered as a result of our involvement in Vietnam, and not see we were heading for a similar conflict as others did? Did you really understand what war meant? Do you have any sleepless nights, now that you have seen war's devastation? Do you ever think about the toll in terms of human lives exacted by war, or the loss of trillions of dollars that are "gone with the wind"? Morally, The Iraqi War, based on false premises, has been one of the most devastating wars (on so many levels) this country has ever fought in.
While this column addresses the very real need for PTSD to be addressed, and soldiers helped as much as possible to put together broken lives, I would like to know your feelings David about having endorsed the Iraq War from the beginning. Do you have any misgivings about having encouraged a war that has devastated so many lives in so many ways? Have you asked yourself what has been gained by over12 years of unending conflict? What have the Iraqi's gained? What about the Middle East - is it better off now? Did you not know that PTSD would be a consequence of war (as it has always been) before we engaged in it? Did you even think about the consequences our soldiers and the Vietnamese suffered as a result of our involvement in Vietnam, and not see we were heading for a similar conflict as others did? Did you really understand what war meant? Do you have any sleepless nights, now that you have seen war's devastation? Do you ever think about the toll in terms of human lives exacted by war, or the loss of trillions of dollars that are "gone with the wind"? Morally, The Iraqi War, based on false premises, has been one of the most devastating wars (on so many levels) this country has ever fought in.
10
"That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime." --- Brooks
How about telling our leaders and those in the military-industrial complex that war is a crime? It's a crime against humanity and against sanity. Why is it that some people think fighting is the only solution to problems?
What's particularly galling is knowing that those who were in the military and now suffer severely from PTSD are the victims of so-called leaders who misled the country into an unjustified war and who perpetuate military action even though it's self-defeating. And it's even more galling to realize that arms manufacturers have become obscenely rich while the poor soldiers who have to use them wind up with shattered lives.
How about telling our leaders and those in the military-industrial complex that war is a crime? It's a crime against humanity and against sanity. Why is it that some people think fighting is the only solution to problems?
What's particularly galling is knowing that those who were in the military and now suffer severely from PTSD are the victims of so-called leaders who misled the country into an unjustified war and who perpetuate military action even though it's self-defeating. And it's even more galling to realize that arms manufacturers have become obscenely rich while the poor soldiers who have to use them wind up with shattered lives.
47
The US empowered fools who do not know that deterrence, not war, is the objective of military policy.
2
One book that really pierces how "people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities" is the groundbreaking book, "None of Us Were Like This Before." http://noneofuswerelikethisbefore.com/ David Brooks rightly mentions many worthy books -- but this book also needs to be included, especially because of the way it confronts how atrocities (in this case, torture) has directly contributed to "moral injury" and PTSD. It's also an amazing, gripping read -- and story that needs to be widely read and understood.
9
Clint Eastwood's movie, "American Sniper" has already brought the problem of training men to kill into focus, as its hero, Soldier and sniper Kyle, kills 160 in Iraq, and returns home to be killed by another American Soldier trained to kill.
"The Moral Injury" David Brooks describes makes clear that those who enter the military and receive Basic Training for War must have Basic Training for Civillian Life while in the military and before leaving the military.
Basic Training For Soldiers Entering Civillian Life, before departing the military would have to include at least the 6 month period devoted to Basic Training for War, plus the additional time and attention required to heal psychological and physical wounds, and a Practicum of tutelage and therapy after entering Civillian Life.
The "American Sniper", and his killer, would both be retrained over a period of months and years to relearn the arts of living in peace as civillians as an important part of their Basic Training For Civillian Life.
I have thought this through because as a candidate for President of The United States I can only put myself forward in good conscience with a workable plan to solve the problems of war for the soldiers and civillians who are traumatized by war.
[email protected]
www.gtvnn.net
"The Moral Injury" David Brooks describes makes clear that those who enter the military and receive Basic Training for War must have Basic Training for Civillian Life while in the military and before leaving the military.
Basic Training For Soldiers Entering Civillian Life, before departing the military would have to include at least the 6 month period devoted to Basic Training for War, plus the additional time and attention required to heal psychological and physical wounds, and a Practicum of tutelage and therapy after entering Civillian Life.
The "American Sniper", and his killer, would both be retrained over a period of months and years to relearn the arts of living in peace as civillians as an important part of their Basic Training For Civillian Life.
I have thought this through because as a candidate for President of The United States I can only put myself forward in good conscience with a workable plan to solve the problems of war for the soldiers and civillians who are traumatized by war.
[email protected]
www.gtvnn.net
3
Yes, "moral injury" vividly describes what happens to a person whose beliefs or faith systems are negated by raw experience. Those with fewer illusions to shatter are less vulnerable to it.
1
I do not believe we should be sending 18-21 year old people to war. If we stepped onto this planet from another one and saw a culture that sent its fledgling adults straight to hell we would think this is an insane world. In WWII the average age was higher than in Vietnam. I know the reasons: Young men (and women) are stronger, more agile, etc etc etc..They are also without life experience, and far from having the ego strength to go thru what war requires. I'd start with raising the age.
3
I'm sorry to disagree, but Mr. Brooks is 'conflating' two distinctly different psychological patterns: moral injury and PTSD. As a therapist with thirty five years of experience, and several years working with combat veterans, this is a frustrating article to read. His assertion that people don't usually suffer from PTSD after natural disasters - also untrue. Often folks can't go back into the house that shook, can't sleep at night because that's when the water's rose, panic at the sound of thunder because that was the sound just before the tornado. PTSD and moral injury are crucial concerns we all need to attend to if our veterans are going to 'truly' come home, but this article really seems to muddy those waters. The patterns of the two struggles are sometimes similar, but subtle inner dynamics are different - and it is important to keep that in mind.
95
Brooks is pretty good at "muddying the waters."
3
I don't think you've understood Brooks. What you say about PTSD from natural disasters may be true. But, it is much worse if every fear reaction is a reminder of the moral horrors that accompanied the fear.
Mr. Brooks' encouragement of individual moral self-examination is but one sliver of the moral work to be done here. Those who have lived through the horrific experiences of war may well benefit from such insights, but since scientific evidence suggests that traumatic experiences changes brain functioning, there is a great need to consider a wider range of additional approaches in dealing with PTSD. More importantly, the whole society must unflinchingly conduct a rigorous moral evaluation of its common life, values, judgment and commitments, especially in acknowledging the burden of suffering that war inflicts on those who serve and their loved ones.
Part of the issue is that today's soldiers are volunteers who are diligently trained to be 'warriors' rather than human beings in a wider context. Because they are 'warriors' they can be sent anywhere without proper support and without clear frontlines. Soldiers in earlier generations were draftees who had a life outside of their 'warrior' existence -- they were traumatized enough, but social institutions like Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, American Legion, VFW, ... were enough to help them reintegrate into society and deal with their feelings of guilt at having survived friends and at having killed human beings. Our PTSD problem is the flurry of semi-official wars, trying to change the world 'for the better'. If we had followed the advice of General Shinseki [?] about the manpower needed to win in Iraq, it would have lessened the prevalence of PTSD, but it would have made the Iraq adventure too costly, so he was fired. Wide-spread PTSD is the logical result of wars with unachievable aims in a fighting situation where the 'warrior' never knows where his (her) enemy is located.
4
You seem to be taking a (typical conservative) pot shot at therapy, but that's exactly what you're describing as what these veterans need, despite you're weak attempt to couch it in terms of morality.
I wonder how many of those receiving VA disability for PTSD were actually in the kind of combat situations Mr. Brooks describes. As a Washington Post article last fall noted, there is concern over the validity of many claims.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-disability-awards-grow-so-do-c...
In addition, there are huge problems with the VA disability system, including a veteran who injured his leg playing football - an injury that gave him a 30% disability rating ($450/mo tax free) but didn't prevent him from playing football for San Diego State. This and other horror stories were documented by the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-adv-disability-politics-20141116-sto...
What we should be doing is being very generous with treatment for PTSD - no questions asked. But we should be much more discriminating in giving disability payments, which would actually benefit those with PTSD. Treatment and recovery is more important than cash payments.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-disability-awards-grow-so-do-c...
In addition, there are huge problems with the VA disability system, including a veteran who injured his leg playing football - an injury that gave him a 30% disability rating ($450/mo tax free) but didn't prevent him from playing football for San Diego State. This and other horror stories were documented by the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-adv-disability-politics-20141116-sto...
What we should be doing is being very generous with treatment for PTSD - no questions asked. But we should be much more discriminating in giving disability payments, which would actually benefit those with PTSD. Treatment and recovery is more important than cash payments.
2
People have post traumatic syndrome or distress for many reasons besides the horrors of war. Crime also causes this syndrome; if you are robbed at gunpoint, or had your home invaded in the middle of the night, while the intruder stares you down in your bed, you will have post traumatic stress too. Stalking victims suffer from this syndrome every single day too. It is about man's inhumanity to other human beings, and that is what all war, crime, and intrusions are about.
4
My father was a prisoner of war during World War II. When I said that his war was the good war and Vietnam was the bad war he told me all wars are hell. Then he told me a what if story about a thirteen year old with a rifle pointed at you. What would you do he asked me and the story ended there. I am pretty sure it was his story and it caused him much pain his whole life.
Surely we now know that the people we send to war must do things that ruin them forever. Surely we now know that the wars we have engaged in have come back to bite us down the road.
I would argue that we know we will be creating a generation of messed up people on both sides when we start a war. We know we will have a generation of homeless vets. We start wars anyhow because no matter how much we say we support our troops, we really just don't care what they will have to live with the rest of their lives and we don't care about the trauma we will create in another country.
Surely we now know that the people we send to war must do things that ruin them forever. Surely we now know that the wars we have engaged in have come back to bite us down the road.
I would argue that we know we will be creating a generation of messed up people on both sides when we start a war. We know we will have a generation of homeless vets. We start wars anyhow because no matter how much we say we support our troops, we really just don't care what they will have to live with the rest of their lives and we don't care about the trauma we will create in another country.
6
I suppose if Brooks were writing about schizophrenia in the 50's he would
attribute it to a moral injury as well. Of course we now know that it is brain disorder treatable with medication. I have no doubt PTSD will be found to be in the same category. There is already research showing that memories recorded during high stress periods(car crashes, war etc) are recorded in a different way by the brain. Below is a link to an Atlantic article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/ending-the-nightmares-...
attribute it to a moral injury as well. Of course we now know that it is brain disorder treatable with medication. I have no doubt PTSD will be found to be in the same category. There is already research showing that memories recorded during high stress periods(car crashes, war etc) are recorded in a different way by the brain. Below is a link to an Atlantic article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/ending-the-nightmares-...
2
For an example of one man's response to the "moral" injury of PTSD I recommend Ehren Tool, former marine and veteran of Desert Storm. His artistic outreach is so universal that he's been invited to spend this summer in Verdun as part of its centennial remembrance.
http://www.dirtycanteen.com/ehren-tool.html
http://inthemake.com/ehren-tool/
http://www.dirtycanteen.com/ehren-tool.html
http://inthemake.com/ehren-tool/
1
PTSD must also be addressed and healed through the body. Please read Bessel Van Der Kolk and Peter Levine.
They theorize PTSD is caused by a disruption in the natural fight or flight response to traumatic events. The body 'hangs on' to these 'uncompleted' traumas-- hence the somatic element is critical to healing.
Conversation is important, but it can't get very far until the sufferer is calmed enough to take healing words in.
They theorize PTSD is caused by a disruption in the natural fight or flight response to traumatic events. The body 'hangs on' to these 'uncompleted' traumas-- hence the somatic element is critical to healing.
Conversation is important, but it can't get very far until the sufferer is calmed enough to take healing words in.
15
David Brooks writes, “That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime. It involves accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong.” Unfortunately, it is always the low-level grunts and foot soldiers that pay the penalty. Those that actually incite the “crime” get off scot-free, and go on with their lives by having presidential libraries built in their honor, or being awarded high-level positions in academia or think-tanks, or they end up as highly-paid consultants, or lobbyists, or corporate board members, or media pundits, or some combination thereof. For those with the stomach to stand on the graves of others while trumpeting their own patriotic zealotry, it really is the perfect crime: highly lucrative with absolutely no chance of prosecution.
8
The development of technology to eliminate American's human trauma from the battlefield has been aggressively underway since the early 90s with the rise of computer games. The games have developed several generations of young men that are very adept at man-machine interfaces and are de-sensitized to trauma inflicted in a virtual environment. Today's spear point is more and more a drone allowing the pilot to remain isolated by 10,000 miles from the blood. Problem is humans retain the intelligence to appreciate that unmoving images won't regenerated for the next game cycle. Eventually our drone pilots internalize the destruction they have unleashed on another human. Bomber pilots from WW2 suffered guilt for their actions, physical isolation does not prevent PTSD it only keeps it at bay longer. The ultimate solution is eliminating the moral component, human thought, from the equation. We are starting to see the very first applications of artificial intelligence in battle drones and robots. Needless to say when the human is removed from battle so will any sense of humanity. Good luck saying “I surrender” to a robot.
1
The government never had the personal needed to complete missions in Afghanistan and Iraq at same time without multiple deployments of the same battle weary troops . The large amount of cases of PTSD's are a direct miscalculation of amount of troops needed a least , at worse a blatant disregard for mental health of troops , due to information gained during Vietnam , 1 deployment of 365 days. Only people who did more were volunteers or RA career personal .
O
O
3
Mr. Brooks hits the nail on the head. As Judith Herman describes in Trauma and Recovery, the basic text for trauma treatment, trauma shatters the person's understanding of the world, who they are, and what they can count on. Dealing with moral and spiritual issues and creating a coherent meaningful autobiographical narrative in the context of a relationship in which the person feels trusted, respected, and understood is central to recovery.
Do not know if Brooks and some of those commenting on his opinion piece know what they are talking about, but I do know that a member of our family, a Marine Corps officer, was deployed to Afghanistan and came back a changed person.
5
Brooks' commentary on recent literature is sound so far as it goes but stops short in exploring moral injury as a cause of PTSD. Pervasive fear, injury to oneself, and the death of a comrade are well-recognized sources. When he goes beyond them and generalizes about moral injury, his one specific example pulls punches. An innocent child is killed, but in the context of the use of children as human shields by insurgents. The soldier feels terrible but has an excuse.
Consider a man or woman who hikes the length of the Ho Chi Minh Trail under unimaginable conditions, never violates the law of war and then tries to kill you. Killing him in self-defense can and does cause permanent moral injury. Participating in a war in which your government classifies civilians as " Viet Cong sympathizers" and thereby annuls their inherent rights to life and liberty causes permanent moral injury.
Brooks' conclusion from anecdotal evidence that US soldiers in World War II did not suffer, because theirs was a good war, is scientifically wrong and contrary to much countervailing anecdotal evidence.
The closest Brooks comes to the most fundamental source of moral injury is generalizing: "Soldiers who’ve endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms." I hope that more specifics can help lead us to the resolution that war should be a last resort and that when it is chosen, its veterans should be given all possible support.
Consider a man or woman who hikes the length of the Ho Chi Minh Trail under unimaginable conditions, never violates the law of war and then tries to kill you. Killing him in self-defense can and does cause permanent moral injury. Participating in a war in which your government classifies civilians as " Viet Cong sympathizers" and thereby annuls their inherent rights to life and liberty causes permanent moral injury.
Brooks' conclusion from anecdotal evidence that US soldiers in World War II did not suffer, because theirs was a good war, is scientifically wrong and contrary to much countervailing anecdotal evidence.
The closest Brooks comes to the most fundamental source of moral injury is generalizing: "Soldiers who’ve endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms." I hope that more specifics can help lead us to the resolution that war should be a last resort and that when it is chosen, its veterans should be given all possible support.
3
John, as you said, we meet again. I have to respectfully disagree with some of what you said. The problem is that there are conflicting moral acts. As I noted, most of us were draftees. Something we occasionally discussed was that if we had somehow avoided the draft, then someone else would have been drafted in our place. I don't know when you were there, but when I was infantryman could re-enlist for 3 years in another MOS to get out of the infantry. A lot of guys did, including about 20 in one shot in the midst of a field operation when they were told they would be extracted immediately if they did. We weren't angry at them about that. 2 and a half weeks later we were on a firebase with a lot of brand new replacements and were attacked our first night there; 29 killed, including many of the new replacements. Who should feel guilty about that?
Most of our fighting was at night and most of those we killed were accomplished by laying down a volume of fire. We saw a lot more dead NVA than live ones and rarely had any idea who had actually killed anybody. On the two occasions in which I did specifically target and likely kill an NVA soldier, I wasn't the one who went and looked, so there was never a specific face for me. Maybe if there had been it would have been different. As it is I've tried to summon a feeling of guilt and I just can't.
Maybe it's a moral lack, or maybe it's knowing that at least I didn't make somebody else do it, which was really about all I could do.
Most of our fighting was at night and most of those we killed were accomplished by laying down a volume of fire. We saw a lot more dead NVA than live ones and rarely had any idea who had actually killed anybody. On the two occasions in which I did specifically target and likely kill an NVA soldier, I wasn't the one who went and looked, so there was never a specific face for me. Maybe if there had been it would have been different. As it is I've tried to summon a feeling of guilt and I just can't.
Maybe it's a moral lack, or maybe it's knowing that at least I didn't make somebody else do it, which was really about all I could do.
Actually, Rich, I would try to resolve any disagreement by stipulating that there are many different sources of PTSD and that some soldiers having the same experience will suffer from it while others do not.
In my case there are two principal sources of the condition. The man had already wounded four of us -- two far more seriously than me -- when I shot him. Of course I did the right thing but that has not precluded "moral injury". The second, mostly vicarious, comes from my association with the Tiger Force, which stands accused of a rampage of war crimes.
Your firebase account sounds similar to two I know of:
1) FSB Mary Anne
2) A Cav firebase in Cambodia where a friend served as a medic.
I was in the 101st in 68-9.
All the best
In my case there are two principal sources of the condition. The man had already wounded four of us -- two far more seriously than me -- when I shot him. Of course I did the right thing but that has not precluded "moral injury". The second, mostly vicarious, comes from my association with the Tiger Force, which stands accused of a rampage of war crimes.
Your firebase account sounds similar to two I know of:
1) FSB Mary Anne
2) A Cav firebase in Cambodia where a friend served as a medic.
I was in the 101st in 68-9.
All the best
John, FSB Henderson, May 6, 1970.
I was A/2/501 of the 101st. They were no longer a true airborne division by the time I was there, though they retained the name with (airmobile) appended.
I've heard of Tiger Force and was aware of the accusations; would like to hear your take on that.
Take two and Drive On.
I was A/2/501 of the 101st. They were no longer a true airborne division by the time I was there, though they retained the name with (airmobile) appended.
I've heard of Tiger Force and was aware of the accusations; would like to hear your take on that.
Take two and Drive On.
2
Though I appreciate Mr. Brooks' emphasis on the moral injury involved in healing from combat trauma, I can't make sense of Mr. Brooks' paragraph at all. What is 'rigorous philosophical autobiography" and how is that supposed to help anything? And what are the implications of such self-engagement when a person realizes they have fallen short of their own moral convictions? Regardless of a person's personal moral philosophy, the reality of war dictates that service people are placed in situations where they have little to no control, where the hierarchy of the military system may reward or even dictate that they put individual compunctions aside, and where survival is often of the fittest without regard to or even in spite of their moral convictions. Any de facto 'rigorous philosophical autobiography' is of limited utility as it will do nothing to change an individual's personal history and may actually only assist the service member in condemning and alienating themselves further. It is rather how a person interprets and integrates their experience of acting against their own moral compunctions that is more salient, meaningful, and relevant when it comes to healing 'moral injury,' and indeed, to PTSD itself. Assisting the service member in making sense of their experience is as much the task of the mental health provider as it is of anyone else.
Take this as a chance to learn how to deal with PTSD in veterans, because we haven't been in a real war for decades and sooner or later we will be in one that makes all the "wars" of recent years look like a game of ping pong.
As somebody recently pointed out, the total casualties suffered by the US military since WW2 would not register among even minor battles of the two great wars of the 20th century. And yet the country emerged from those conflicts without all the hand-wringing of these pussyfooting times. Certainly some veterans of the post-WW2 era came back with all the traumas described in the many books and TV specials we are getting treated to. The lessons of history, though, are clear. We can move on, people do recover.
As somebody recently pointed out, the total casualties suffered by the US military since WW2 would not register among even minor battles of the two great wars of the 20th century. And yet the country emerged from those conflicts without all the hand-wringing of these pussyfooting times. Certainly some veterans of the post-WW2 era came back with all the traumas described in the many books and TV specials we are getting treated to. The lessons of history, though, are clear. We can move on, people do recover.
Part of the problem with the recent mideast wars is that soldiers are sent back over and over for multiple tours of duty. A draft would be more fair but seem politically impossible especially after Viet Nam.
3
To carry the thought of A. Davey in a slightly different direction, perhaps with the draft or requirement of civil service of the young would provide some interest of Veteran causes by the wealthy.
LA had a transit strike that lasted for months. In Southern CA only waiters, maids and minimum wage earners use the rail or bus. A hint of a transit strike in SF, Chicago or NY and there is all out war by white collar to stop it-and it is prevented or makes barely a peep.
I have never been so disgusted than when so much praise was piled on Tillman for his miraculous decision to sidestep a seven figure game contract and join the fight.
I guess the hundreds of thousands that left their children, parents, spouses and loved ones was a minimum sacrifice comparatively to fine dining and cheers.
The best idea is to keep people who see Cheney or John "boots on the ground" McCain as idols out of places where decisions are made that involve the life or death of others.
LA had a transit strike that lasted for months. In Southern CA only waiters, maids and minimum wage earners use the rail or bus. A hint of a transit strike in SF, Chicago or NY and there is all out war by white collar to stop it-and it is prevented or makes barely a peep.
I have never been so disgusted than when so much praise was piled on Tillman for his miraculous decision to sidestep a seven figure game contract and join the fight.
I guess the hundreds of thousands that left their children, parents, spouses and loved ones was a minimum sacrifice comparatively to fine dining and cheers.
The best idea is to keep people who see Cheney or John "boots on the ground" McCain as idols out of places where decisions are made that involve the life or death of others.
2
MR. BROOKS, THIS COMMENT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TOPIC
I saw you on Brian Lamb's "Q and A" program on C-SPAN last week. It was so interesting and informative that I DVR'ed and viewed it twice. It is a shame that the word "conservative" (both lower and upper case) is now devoid of meaning.
Also that the crazies in the GOP have usurped it and used it to convince the country that everything Big Industry wants it should get.
As a result, for the first time in my life, the right (as they call themselves "Conservatives") have denied science. Begin with Darwin and create a nation where all of science become verboten.
They seem to be following the ISIS folks in bringing back Christianity to a pre Enlightenment phase. And the greatest danger is the labeling of global climate change as mere natural undulations in weather patterns.
Persons who label l themselves as Conservatives have taken a viable philosophy and turned it upside down. I'm curious: how does these clown car residents or just plain liars (who just want to get reelected) react to your rational form of conservatism?
As they get more monies from the wealthy as not considering the future of human life on this Earth... As if there were no limit to the positive correlation of wealth to fulfillment in life. Once a certain degree of wealth is achieved, more money is likely to have no effect or act in a negative manner.
[email protected]
I saw you on Brian Lamb's "Q and A" program on C-SPAN last week. It was so interesting and informative that I DVR'ed and viewed it twice. It is a shame that the word "conservative" (both lower and upper case) is now devoid of meaning.
Also that the crazies in the GOP have usurped it and used it to convince the country that everything Big Industry wants it should get.
As a result, for the first time in my life, the right (as they call themselves "Conservatives") have denied science. Begin with Darwin and create a nation where all of science become verboten.
They seem to be following the ISIS folks in bringing back Christianity to a pre Enlightenment phase. And the greatest danger is the labeling of global climate change as mere natural undulations in weather patterns.
Persons who label l themselves as Conservatives have taken a viable philosophy and turned it upside down. I'm curious: how does these clown car residents or just plain liars (who just want to get reelected) react to your rational form of conservatism?
As they get more monies from the wealthy as not considering the future of human life on this Earth... As if there were no limit to the positive correlation of wealth to fulfillment in life. Once a certain degree of wealth is achieved, more money is likely to have no effect or act in a negative manner.
[email protected]
3
At the heart of Brooks' column is the essential insight on the need for the sufferers of PTSD to feel the heartfelt empathy of their fellow citizens based on one-to-one dialogue. Critical to this kind of dialogue is the capacity and desire of a fellow citizen to listen with one's heart, the sort of listening one's partner in dialogue can feel, even when s/he's not talking. I believe this is how the common garment of a moral life is really woven and becomes a cloth infinitely scalable as the network of this type of dialogue expands. Both parties in this dialogue benefit, especially the listener who becomes very happy at the unexpected joy s/he experiences in the process. Going beyond the necessary reparative work of therapy for PTSD sufferers dialogue when engaged in this manner offers the opportunity for human transformation on the part of both parties. Based on its widespread practice to address the sufferings all of us face as part of the human condition, the 12 million worldwide members of the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI) have felt the outlines of that most powerful of human capacities-- the ability to empathize with those we don't know half way around the world. Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist philosopher and activist, has termed this capacity Imaginative Empathy. For all of us, regardless of our philosophical or religious beliefs or commitments, it is a force we should aspire to wield and the only one I am aware of which can blunt the designs of war.
Not just Mr. Brooks grabs the moral issue answer for PTSD - our own government does as does the VA and so many who just don't have any real answers for this condition that not only soldiers suffer from but many others.
Most soldiers have not done anything morally wrong - please stop putting that out there. They did their job - and is what our government wanted them to do. If any immorally is to be assigned to anyone it is not the solider it is our government.
I would suggest a solider upon return from war suffers from anxiety - as any of us would. He is at the mercy of those above him, he is not safe, there is chaos and the solider is not in control of his or her own life.
I would use this example: a parent should take care of a child and the child will feel safe and secure and not anxious. Now substitute government for parent and solider for child and that solider does not have very good parents - guess what happens when he is sent to an immoral war by his government.
Let's start addressing anxiety in soldiers - yes it is expensive and takes time - BUT please take the moral issue of his shoulders and assign the moral issue where it belongs - not the solider but the government.
Most soldiers have not done anything morally wrong - please stop putting that out there. They did their job - and is what our government wanted them to do. If any immorally is to be assigned to anyone it is not the solider it is our government.
I would suggest a solider upon return from war suffers from anxiety - as any of us would. He is at the mercy of those above him, he is not safe, there is chaos and the solider is not in control of his or her own life.
I would use this example: a parent should take care of a child and the child will feel safe and secure and not anxious. Now substitute government for parent and solider for child and that solider does not have very good parents - guess what happens when he is sent to an immoral war by his government.
Let's start addressing anxiety in soldiers - yes it is expensive and takes time - BUT please take the moral issue of his shoulders and assign the moral issue where it belongs - not the solider but the government.
5
Brooks essentially believes that U.S. military interventions and the policies that direct them have, for the most part, played positive role in the seventy years since our country became the world's police force. This perhaps explains his reluctance to explore whether the character of many wars our soldiers have fought in this time in any way impacts the PTSD they have experienced. He's also not interested in comparing American suffering in places like Iraq to that of the people who live there. Nor does he consider the influence of the social fabric to which veterans return. My father and several of the men in my family enlisted after Pearl Harbor. Only my uncle and one of our cousins saw extended hand to hand combat. The cousin was, by the standards of our upwardly mobile family, an unsuccessful man who likely suffered symptoms of what we now call PTSD. However, my father and uncles' support for him was unwavering and they regularly acknowledged the sacrifices he'd made. Neither he or they were ever spoke of the killing itself as anything other than a horror, but they remained proud to have served in war against Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo and the ills they represented. I'm not sure that many returning veterans today have similar feelings, which may well color how they, our government and the nation at large manage their lasting wounds.
2
i found the novel "Preparation for the Next Life" by Atticus Lynch a profound depiction of the terrible consequences of post-Iraq PTSD.
1
As a '68-'69 Vietnam vet, this is the most insightful piece on PTSD I've ever read. Thank you, Mr. Brooks.
1
In the 60s, I attended a college party and observed a student leaning against the wall -- I didn't know him, but observed that he was merely observing, not participating. I approached him and told him he was welome here -- it's an open party to anyone.
He said he just came back from Viet Nam, and that he couldn't, just yet exposse his back from the wall. I went and got him a beer.
He said he just came back from Viet Nam, and that he couldn't, just yet exposse his back from the wall. I went and got him a beer.
4
Brooks says, "There has to be a moral reckoning..." Ah ha! As Ophelia's honey said, "There's the rub." Now I put it to you David, give us a column which holds Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, Rice and the rest of the team of slam- dunkers and flower maidens up to the mirror of "moral reckoning". As a supporter of those war mongers you might start the much needed process of moral reckoning by looking at yourself in the same glass.
4
Dear David,
Your columns of late (and maybe it's always been the case) have been a stream juxtapositions things that just don't go together.
In today's case: moral and injury...Morals are what they are. You don't injure them.
Previous column: Larry vs. Marco, a false equivalence. Lawrence Summers, like him or not, is an intellect. Marco is a tea-party hack. But you wrote he's most intellectually creative. Nonsense.
Rigorous and Forgiving don't have anything to do with one another -- the column was about lax standards. We don't need no lax standards.
Conflict and Ego, do go together as Ego precipitates conflict vs Counter Ego. But instead of embracing Ego vs Counter-Ego Conflict as means to sharpen ideas and character you, using parallel logic, call your commenters trolls and instigators/haters who need to be risen above, to 'reassert the primacy of pluralism, freedom and democracy', what the Tea Party and the Neocon Party SAY they are about. The Tea and Neocon folks wrap themselves in high talk but actually don't give a rat's about dialogue; their behavior is about disastrous foreign policy, money for rich manipulators, shafting the middle and lower class, and shutting down the gov.
This 'clever' juxtaposition is just upfront smoke before delivering the Republican payload you really want to get to later in the columns. Fox in sheep's clothing.
Your columns of late (and maybe it's always been the case) have been a stream juxtapositions things that just don't go together.
In today's case: moral and injury...Morals are what they are. You don't injure them.
Previous column: Larry vs. Marco, a false equivalence. Lawrence Summers, like him or not, is an intellect. Marco is a tea-party hack. But you wrote he's most intellectually creative. Nonsense.
Rigorous and Forgiving don't have anything to do with one another -- the column was about lax standards. We don't need no lax standards.
Conflict and Ego, do go together as Ego precipitates conflict vs Counter Ego. But instead of embracing Ego vs Counter-Ego Conflict as means to sharpen ideas and character you, using parallel logic, call your commenters trolls and instigators/haters who need to be risen above, to 'reassert the primacy of pluralism, freedom and democracy', what the Tea Party and the Neocon Party SAY they are about. The Tea and Neocon folks wrap themselves in high talk but actually don't give a rat's about dialogue; their behavior is about disastrous foreign policy, money for rich manipulators, shafting the middle and lower class, and shutting down the gov.
This 'clever' juxtaposition is just upfront smoke before delivering the Republican payload you really want to get to later in the columns. Fox in sheep's clothing.
3
"People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities."
The last thing we need is disinformation on PTSD. I see many patients with symptoms of PTSD following car accidents, including accidents that are their own fault. There may be a variant that involves certain circumstances that Brooks describes as having some moral bearing, but PTSD is certainly not limited to those situations.
PTSD is a frequent concomitant to head injury from assault, motor vehicle and bike accidents etc., and the PTSD is under-diagnosed in these populations which limits the prospects for effective rehabilitation.
I think Brook's ill-advised venture into the topic merits a correction by the NY Times.
The last thing we need is disinformation on PTSD. I see many patients with symptoms of PTSD following car accidents, including accidents that are their own fault. There may be a variant that involves certain circumstances that Brooks describes as having some moral bearing, but PTSD is certainly not limited to those situations.
PTSD is a frequent concomitant to head injury from assault, motor vehicle and bike accidents etc., and the PTSD is under-diagnosed in these populations which limits the prospects for effective rehabilitation.
I think Brook's ill-advised venture into the topic merits a correction by the NY Times.
1
Although it would occur on a "macro" level, bringing the the high government officials responsible for the invasion of Iraq to trial would help heal the individual soldiers who were cynically and dishonestly sent into battle on the pretext of lies and falsifications.
4
Recently I’ve worked construction in the ghetto and listened to youth tell me about their lives navigating bifurcated moral codes – ‘hood vs. workplace, family violence vs. school codes. I’ve heard from them much of what I’m reading here: “Fear was a constant…we hated being there…I saw death and suffering – the worst things I would ever see. And yet… I risked my life for those around me, over and over again, and saw them do the same for me…I found in myself qualities that I would likely have never known that I had. And I experienced life with an intensity that will never be matched…There is no way to reconcile that world with this one…Disconnect – put it behind you. The best advice I can offer.” “...a number of the people I’ve known…have suffered from feeling intensely guilty about the death or other suffering of a loved one or loved ones.” ”People who were children during the war, developed a suspicious attitude toward people…Men are unpredictable. A person who appears sensible and calm at first sight may turn out to be a savage, and sometimes a murderer.” “Those who have seen the wider world are often shunned, ignored or belittled by mainstream society.” And very potently, “Non-war trauma also leads to exile, to shame, to self-disgust.” All of this I’ve heard from American civilian children and young adults.
Special thanks to Rich in Atlanta. Please consider writing and publication.
Special thanks to Rich in Atlanta. Please consider writing and publication.
And how about a moral repentance and admission of moral guilt from our then-elected officials who initiated and perpetuated these wars and ask for forgiveness for sacrificing a generation of our young citizens to this debilitating living experience, as a part of their healing process?
3
Just like Bill Clinton who could feel the pain of those his policies had harmed, you support policies that cause countless trauma and pain to thousands upon thousands of people. Most of it in the service of greed and power. Thus providing an endless supply of subject matter for future columns.
3
Many vets who returned to Vietnam long after that war have experienced the moral healing that is an important aspect of PTSD. Despite the atrocities of that war most vets have been greeted warmly by their former enemies and many have been forgiven, even by families who lost loved ones. A friend even visited the special center for the children who were born deformed because of our use of agent orange. He reported it as a very moving experience.
I'm no expert in this area, but I imagine the healing on an individual level might be aided by similar gestures of understanding and compassion from those who sent them to war and by the nation as a whole.
We might do our vets a real service by atoning as a nation for what we asked them to do on our behalf. And we didn't ask them to sacrifice for our defense. We failed them, our system of laws and our basic sense of morality by sending them out to fight meaningless and totally unnecessary wars of opportunity for control of oil resources under the lie of WMD's. They say the truth can heal. Let's put that idea to the test.
I'm no expert in this area, but I imagine the healing on an individual level might be aided by similar gestures of understanding and compassion from those who sent them to war and by the nation as a whole.
We might do our vets a real service by atoning as a nation for what we asked them to do on our behalf. And we didn't ask them to sacrifice for our defense. We failed them, our system of laws and our basic sense of morality by sending them out to fight meaningless and totally unnecessary wars of opportunity for control of oil resources under the lie of WMD's. They say the truth can heal. Let's put that idea to the test.
1
We, the people, leave our Vets to carry the moral injuries instead of participating in the reckoning that is rightfully ours. We, the people, fail to take adequate responsibility for asking or demanding that our Vets deform themselves for our benefit and perceived need. The moral injury left to our Vets intensifies when the reason for their deformation is false in the first place; the authorities are untrustworthy and we, the people, are also, e.g.: Why did we require repeated tours of duty when we should have had a draft? Until there is full responsibility taking and sharing of the burdens of warfare by the people and the authorities we elect, our Vets are left in an impossible situation. In addition, we have a highly developed process to deform them into warriors but have no process for reversing that when their service is finished. We use them. The shame of that is ours.
2
David, first I want to thank you for your thoughtful columns. Although I don't always agree with your opinion, I respect (and enjoy) your attempts to broaden the discussion regarding the moral issues facing society.
Reading this piece on PTSD brings to my attention the work I perform as an inner-city middle school teacher. Of course, soldiers are not the only victims of trauma and thus I find it useful to apply the ideas expressed in this column to many of the students I work with in the classroom. The violence they experience in their everyday lives is transmitted to others, producing a cycle that is perpetuated. In some ways, many of my inner-city students occupy a moral universe that is just as confusing and frustrating, often filled with physical and sexual abuse. Like soldiers returning from battle, they need to be reassured of their moral potential.
Reading this piece on PTSD brings to my attention the work I perform as an inner-city middle school teacher. Of course, soldiers are not the only victims of trauma and thus I find it useful to apply the ideas expressed in this column to many of the students I work with in the classroom. The violence they experience in their everyday lives is transmitted to others, producing a cycle that is perpetuated. In some ways, many of my inner-city students occupy a moral universe that is just as confusing and frustrating, often filled with physical and sexual abuse. Like soldiers returning from battle, they need to be reassured of their moral potential.
1
I would like to see this discussion include what I call the neurology of creating a warrior. It informs and expands understanding . Two resources I would recommend; The Teenage Brain - France's E. Jensen MD and What It Is Like To Go To War- Karl Marlantes. Between the two you can clearly connect the dots of morality, neurology and the brain training of a soldier.
A journalist reads a book and uses its content to amplify his preconceived notions. He writes a column about it. All in a day’s work.
1
How about starting with intelligent, informed, and honorable foreign policies? It is absolutely sickening and disgusting how the United States has selected societies to be savagely attacked. Vets with PSTD are merely Americans who were awakened the hard way. The very hard way. They were asked to go do our capital harm for us, for the clueless and/or mean members of the unclean herd.
5
And here's another thing: PTSD gets handed down to the kids who suffer from their father's rage and disfunction and substance abuse. Something that gets little if any recognition.
55
And the fact is never mentioned what explosively violent and dangerous parents combat vets can be. PTSD is visited on the children who are far more vulnerable in their innocence than men are in combat.
Mr. Brooks is incorrect in his depiction of PTSD as primarily being associated with the trauma of war. I am a physician who specializes in pain management and as a result have treated many patients who have been injured in accidents resulting in severe pain and who have also suffered PTSD. Most of these people don't suffer the guilt he describes. Generally they view themselves appropriately as victims of events mostly out of their control.
It is sad that we are still at a time when a columnist at The Times can see a mental illness as having a significant moral aspect. This is a throw back to less enlightened time when essentially all mental illness was considered to stem from some moral failing.
It is sad that we are still at a time when a columnist at The Times can see a mental illness as having a significant moral aspect. This is a throw back to less enlightened time when essentially all mental illness was considered to stem from some moral failing.
115
I think you completely misunderstood Brooks' article. His main point is that we are by nature moral creatures and it is our sense of damage of our moral character that makes the trauma of war so especially hard to bear.
Perhaps we should more closely recognize exactly who it is who fights today’s wars and allow them to make more informed decisions before enlistment. If we did so, perhaps combat arms enlistment quotas would diminish to the point where those who would send troops into dubious combat would be forced to more carefully measure their options. In the absence of either a compelling moral imperative to serve and/or the draft, we have created a “warrior class” the “new blood” (figuratively and all too often literally) consists primarily of usually naive young enlistees seeking the adventure, glory, community approval or, often, continuance of family tradition or mere escape from boredom or lack of opportunity. Ironically, this youth are raised amid safe playgrounds, protective car seats and myriad warning labels and cautionary injunctions of every sort. Yet we do nothing to graphically expose and educate them as to the graphic horrors and realities quite beyond the romance of dress blues, special ops heroism and even the glory of an Arlington-style burial which might await the few among the many in the flush of a youthful sense of invulnerability. How about that before heading to a recruiting office, these young men and women undergo the required reading of some of the literature Brooks notes - before they become another author’s subjects.
1
Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for addressing a highly charged subject that needs public recognition, although we'd all prefer to forget it. Speaking as a long time professional in the field, I would say that of course morals are involved, just as they are involved in many kinds of emotional upheaval. There are few easy answers in the things that really matter in life. Pretense that such answers exist, especially in war, makes recovery and resolution harder. Psychological damage done in battle is not just a matter for the military, or for people trained to deal with trauma to the psyche; it is something all citizens must address seriously, without denial, defense, or rancor. Anyone who pays taxes in the U.S. contributes to warfare, like it or not, and we all bear equal responsibility. Acknowledgement of that, and a sharing of the grief, horror and guilt inevitably involved in destruction of life, even when necessary for survival, might go a long way in helping soldiers heal. It might also help us think longer and harder about the many costs of war.
This separating of morals and therapy is so reductive for whoever has worked with traumatized people. Probably more a reflection of naivety and a lack of understanding of what's at stake in treating deep trauma. A philosopher suggests conversations between veterans and civilians. That could only be helpful only when traumatic symptoms subside substantially. For whoever has tried to help a severely traumatized person - as opposed to reading a bit, taking what suits you and philosophizing about it - it is quite obvious these "conversations about individual facts" with "civilians" are just not possible out of the clinical frame at that stage, as it would be too traumatizing. Severe PTSD includes intense anxiety: dissociation, recurrent flashes of memories, avoidant behavior, strong emotions often assuaged through alcohol, and often comorbid with depression. Please dont minimize what it entails, in terms of time and clinical skills, to help a deeply traumatized person share and process such horrors of war. Talking with civilians, support groups, social sharing can help when reasoning about "facts" dont trigger such intense emotions. Quite incoherent, citing therapists about the reckoning with their own morals patient go through in treatment, and finally opposing "morals" to therapy. Your own "morals" include an implicit bias against therapy, probably for you a pampering of individualism dangerous for morals. Lets abolish all psys, converse about morals and become reasonable.
Not all PTSD is moral exile. There ARE people who suffer this condition, who have had other traumas, not war. That does not make their suffering any less notable. But, thank you for this article. Understanding is key
Pervasive gun violence, courtesy of the NRA and Brooks' pals in the GOP has traumatized not only those closest to it, but affects us all. My PTSD may not be made in war, but I shall never get over Sandy Hook. Our cities, shopping malls, schools, theaters, etc., etc., are all war zones now. Our immoral culture has tainted us all. We survive in a wasteland of violence and waste, veterans are not the only ones who feel lost.
1
"Settled and measured conclusions about how responsibility for terrible things should be apportioned".... How about such "conclusions " for the politicians and opinion writers and reporters who helped lead us into the Iraq War?
3
Our thoughts are chemical/electric reactions. When and to what degree an event affects us is simply a reflection of how we, as individuals, are wired. We can use external (medications/therapy) and/or internal (meditation) methods to attempt to “rewire”. Morals are irrelevant.
Many more of us than veterans suffer from PTSD, and this is a timely column. Moral resolution can be found in psychotherapy however, but is not as like;y in cognitive behavior therapy as in the old-fashioned talking cure.
Mr. Brooks I do not agree that PTSD cannot come from other traumatic events i.e. car accidents, tornados etc. I was diagnosed with PTSD because of a sexual assault. For years I disengaged from the world, I felt nothing, no pain, no happiness only anger and even that eventually was numbed out as well by the therapists and medications and the not so traditional therapies. I realized that most people are simply apathetic & don't REALLY want to listen to you, they'd rather direct your to the next therapist as really listening means feeling uncomfortable for them. It means that life happens, war happens, rape happens and it isn't like it is in the movies it has no happy ending after an 'X amount' of time. For me the only that has brought me out of limbo was the birth of my son, I know that I simply cannot skew his views of the world to the negative because of my experiences. I have to show him that there are good things in this life and I have to do what any good parent would & swallow the pain to try and increase the voltage on the light that has been barely lit for so long. After trauma you begin to see people for who they are, that's the real tragedy. You lose friends, family members & those who you thought would be your support system & then there are those who you least expected that truly come to your rescue. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Wishing Mr. Morris luck in his recovery.
In the "coverage" of the war, the actual physical injuries, and deaths, and mutilated bodies of Americans that "involves accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong," etc., is never shown to those who are paying for the wars. Is it to spare the American tax payers PTSD, too?
2
Until the war leaders who concocted the invasion are clearly adjudicated the warriors themselves are left holding the bag of that immorality. The constant drumbeat of "patriotism" from Fox, Limbaugh, et. al., created an overlay of false legitimacy that leaves the soldiers themselves feeling responsible for the dirty results.
4
I disagree with David when he asserts that war is always a crime. The rich tradition of just war theory makes clear that some wars are just, not crimes. Nonetheless, all wars are tragic because they involve death and destruction, harm to individuals and even to whole societies. WW II, the US Civil War, and the first Gulf War to remove Saddam's army from Kuwait were all just wars that produced better postwar conditions than existed before the war. But the participants and many innocents suffered during and even long after war, and the destruction was widespread and horrific.
11
I read and understood Mr. Brooks assertion as this: that in any war, including those which are indeed just, there inevitably occur countless actions which are by any standard crimes against humanity and human dignity - as well as, for what they may or may not be worth, the Geneva Conventions and the situational ethics of those ever changing, wink and a nod “rules of engagement.”
All wars have always been a crime. In the cases you mentioned, the US entered those wars in response to a crime, but the war was still a crime. Prosecuting a war also always involves the crime of murder. For one human to take another humans life is always a moral catastrophe. It doesn't matter if it was justified. Ask any hero who saved lives by killing another human. If they did not lose their humanity (sanity), they will tell you how it feels.
War may at times be unavoidable and necessary. But, "just war" is an oxymoron. For the individual participants it's killing and chaos.
And after all is said, we realize that we have said so little it amounts to nothing. That a philosopher would suggest a case by case response to a moral dilemma is like saying we have no answer for what ails you, moral or otherwise. That much of society is complacent about our returning vets is nothing new since Korea, and of course has become even less on the minds of society because there is no draft. With the draft more people paid attention because the possibility of war and its concurrent tragedy could affect everyone. As an ex-marine I, too, hate the notion of war in all of its moral complexities. And philosophically, I am not convinced of our need to invade Iraq, or any other Mid-East place. We have made too many of our young pay for our political leaders' morally questionable decisions. I remember the faces of those leaders when they were about to send our young into the moral labyrinth looking as if they were sending a collection of psycho and socio paths to do our killing when in fact it was our children who were sent. Now our kids come home and we still fail to pay attention because some idiot or other in congress thinks it costs too much money? Our first priority ought to be to damn the rule book and the money and get the job of helping our vets done!
3
David Brooks writes:
"People who have been to war have left this universe [the moral fabric of civilian life] behind. That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime."
As a Vietnam combat veteran, I find this statement repugnant. I (reluctantly) went to war in 1970, when serving in the military was condemned by intellectuals like Mr. Brooks who had the wherewithal to avoid the draft. Mr. Brooks implies by extension that the current generation of war veterans, like Vietnam "baby killers," are criminals. War is about killing, yes, but when your country sends you to war, the killing is sanctioned. I wonder how David Brooks would view warfare if he had ever been there. (And, no, I'm not issuing my own blanket condemnation of intellectuals. After my war, I was a college professor for 36 years.)
"People who have been to war have left this universe [the moral fabric of civilian life] behind. That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime."
As a Vietnam combat veteran, I find this statement repugnant. I (reluctantly) went to war in 1970, when serving in the military was condemned by intellectuals like Mr. Brooks who had the wherewithal to avoid the draft. Mr. Brooks implies by extension that the current generation of war veterans, like Vietnam "baby killers," are criminals. War is about killing, yes, but when your country sends you to war, the killing is sanctioned. I wonder how David Brooks would view warfare if he had ever been there. (And, no, I'm not issuing my own blanket condemnation of intellectuals. After my war, I was a college professor for 36 years.)
11
Does former President Bush have PTSD? Does John McCain have PTSD. Were they ever "morally overcome"? What about all of those congressmen who felt it was the right moral thing to do to send our children to fight other children in worlds apart? What are you, in your two piece suit, talking about DB?
10
McCain and Bush served in a different war. The enemy was sharply defined.
Nothing similar exists today. Women, children, the elderly are all potentially
lethal objects. Also who are you to talk about a man in a two piece suit? At least
he identifies himself.
Nothing similar exists today. Women, children, the elderly are all potentially
lethal objects. Also who are you to talk about a man in a two piece suit? At least
he identifies himself.
I will go a further and suggest: They do not need to feel trusted, respected or understood.
We all have duality. They just need to accept even good people do bad things.
They can never go back to their original selves of feeling trusted, respected and understood but they can be taught to accept compassion and empathy and it is OK to did what you did and go on to do better and still fail sometimes.
I know sounds like a broken record...but no erasing or cognitive works for this.
Acknowledging and accepting as things are is much easier than trying to regain where one left before the war.
We all have duality. They just need to accept even good people do bad things.
They can never go back to their original selves of feeling trusted, respected and understood but they can be taught to accept compassion and empathy and it is OK to did what you did and go on to do better and still fail sometimes.
I know sounds like a broken record...but no erasing or cognitive works for this.
Acknowledging and accepting as things are is much easier than trying to regain where one left before the war.
I think the best (and only) solution to PTS is to STOP sending young men and women to war. It's a simple as that.
"My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth."
-- George Washington
"My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth."
-- George Washington
18
And yet, we have legislators in the US Congress insisting that we must immediately put more "boots on the ground" in the Middle East. Senator Lindsay Graham even said the reason for his demand was that it would make him feel better to know that his country had responded in this way to the crisis.
1
In the past, "shirkers and cowards" were executed, or if they made it home, were ostracized. (Paths of Glory, by Cobb, with Kirk Douglas in the movie; The Four Feathers--1939 and 2002 versions).
The recognition of PTSD is at least some advance, even if it is often mischaracterized. Whatever can be done for its victims should be done. But what philosophy or moralizing do we use to gloss over the lies and distortions that unfurl the flags and beat the drums?
Quite apart from the filth of war, and the constant fear and uncertainty, soldiers have to contend with Tennyson's notion: "not ours to reason why/ours but to do AND die." Or with Horace's "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." But soldiers have forever had to discover the emptiness of the rhetoric that sent them to war, and that their sacrifice was for someone's bottom line..
We build again towards a wider war, when we need decades to show the world a more honest face, one not hiding the greed of our real masters.
The recognition of PTSD is at least some advance, even if it is often mischaracterized. Whatever can be done for its victims should be done. But what philosophy or moralizing do we use to gloss over the lies and distortions that unfurl the flags and beat the drums?
Quite apart from the filth of war, and the constant fear and uncertainty, soldiers have to contend with Tennyson's notion: "not ours to reason why/ours but to do AND die." Or with Horace's "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." But soldiers have forever had to discover the emptiness of the rhetoric that sent them to war, and that their sacrifice was for someone's bottom line..
We build again towards a wider war, when we need decades to show the world a more honest face, one not hiding the greed of our real masters.
2
Mr. Brooks's basic point is that All wars are bad. All wars may be undesirable but on this earth , individuals must and have the right to defend themselves from cultures and nations out to wipe them off the land. Against these murderers, one must stop them!! What is your solution Mr.Brooks ? There are "good folks" and " very bad folks" on our planet and they are NOT the same!!! It is Morally Right to combat evil and save lives and if someone does not see a difference, why join the army. Moral exile occurs when the so called "Wonderful folks" as spoken out in the media see injustices are committed but are silent as is happening today!!
The myth of good and evil, black and white is the kind of naive belief system that allows super powers to pre-emptively attack smaller nations when it serves their purpose.
Naturally, for Brooks anyway, therapy does not solve a war wounded vet's psyche. THAT costs money and resources from the government and we can't have money spent on sniveling vets. Those weaklings should spend more time in a quiet room thinking about how to heal themselves instead of asking for free medical help.
I just gave you the free Readers' Digest version of what the Times paid a lot of money for - a David Brooks' column.
I just gave you the free Readers' Digest version of what the Times paid a lot of money for - a David Brooks' column.
3
While Brooks's concern for the soldiers is swell -- even if his argument is obscure and probably not much help to anyone --the Beltway yakkers and 'thinkers' like Mr. Brooks who were so sure that the Iraq War was righteous should at least get off their perches for a year or two and clean bed pans at Walter Reed before they write another word.
4
How I believe I could avoid PTSD if I were sent to war?
I believe I would be best equipped psychologically for war if sent from a society I could trust, one that would just be square with me. I would be prepared to die if it truly meant it was for society's sake and not some deceptive minority within society or for really any deceptive reason period. Just tell me the truth along the lines of "you need to go there and probably will not return and we ask this of you because it's necessary for our way of life".
My belief at present day is that America gives little dignity to a person. In other words, the more lies have to be stated, the more deceptive means used, the more propaganda is required for citizens to perform difficult tasks, the more corrupt society is in the first place and the more likely to inspire disgust. I just saw on television I believe a portion of statement by the man (Routh?) who killed sniper Chris Kyle. He has been declared psychotic, stating things along the lines of "people are eating my soul, expecting it for free", etc.
Well, I would just like to state I might as well be declared psychotic as well because I believe American society often asks a heck of a lot of people--if honest about it in first place--without giving anything in return, and often all that is asked by a person such as myself is basic decency, to "just be square with me". Society is polluted with phonies and nonsense. There is no morale, trust, for extended and difficult conflict.
I believe I would be best equipped psychologically for war if sent from a society I could trust, one that would just be square with me. I would be prepared to die if it truly meant it was for society's sake and not some deceptive minority within society or for really any deceptive reason period. Just tell me the truth along the lines of "you need to go there and probably will not return and we ask this of you because it's necessary for our way of life".
My belief at present day is that America gives little dignity to a person. In other words, the more lies have to be stated, the more deceptive means used, the more propaganda is required for citizens to perform difficult tasks, the more corrupt society is in the first place and the more likely to inspire disgust. I just saw on television I believe a portion of statement by the man (Routh?) who killed sniper Chris Kyle. He has been declared psychotic, stating things along the lines of "people are eating my soul, expecting it for free", etc.
Well, I would just like to state I might as well be declared psychotic as well because I believe American society often asks a heck of a lot of people--if honest about it in first place--without giving anything in return, and often all that is asked by a person such as myself is basic decency, to "just be square with me". Society is polluted with phonies and nonsense. There is no morale, trust, for extended and difficult conflict.
The real problem with our culture is that we live in a War Culture that sees the soldier as a warrior and hero. So, we cannot understand how such brave, self sacrificing individuals can return home so broken. I would argue that the people who need therapy the most are those in our society who are so willing to send our sons and daughters off to this fate for almost any slight or provocation.
8
Well said. Mr Netanyahu will be here soon to set the drumbeat in congress for another avoidable war.
Two superb books that should be mentioned are not mentioned -- both by a VietNam marine veteran who is now a psychotherapist, Lawrence Winters.
The Making and Un-making of a Marine
and
Brotherkeeper
The first is an autobiography that explores what happened, the second is a novel.
Best,
Ossining Bob
The Making and Un-making of a Marine
and
Brotherkeeper
The first is an autobiography that explores what happened, the second is a novel.
Best,
Ossining Bob
1
About a month ago, Michiko Kakutani gave a list of really good recent books that explain war and its aftermath. One I read was "Thank You for Your Service," by David Finkel. It's all about veterans and their families. There is one program that seems to work for some vets, called "Pathway Home." The founder and group leader, Fred Gusman, "had started the country's first residential treatment program devoed to those vets and, after treating thousands of them, had come to believe that their best hope depended on their having enough time to understand their illness in the context of an entire life, that what mattered wasn't just who they became after a traumatic event, but also who they had been the moment before."
.., individual conversations' are the two key words in this essay. With PTSD if you don't try to let it out by talking there is a good chance it will try to eat you alive.
18
My brother was a medic in Vietnam and did two tours of Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol – LRRPS (LERPS). He carried his medical bag and the standard issued military weapon. His job was to save American soldiers and kill whatever enemy he encountered along the way. He said he never felt more alive than when being shot at but will also be forever haunted at the Vietnamese lives he stole. Every day is a constant struggle for him since returning to the US in 1970. He rarely speaks of those horrid years. The guilt he feels from killing Vietnamese is insurmountable. He does not know how to forgive himself for the actions he took in order to stay alive and tend to wounded soldiers. Miraculously he survived the war without a scratch; however, his permanently scarred conscience is probably the tradeoff. Neither he nor we, his family, need some psychologist or author describing what PTSD is. Those books and editorial columns are largely written for the benefit of the non-veteran readers or people who never encountered a vet on a personal level. It’s good that people understand what PTSD is. But the following key issue will always remain for many vets who fought and saw combat – their emotional and psychological damage never diminishes. At best, they learn to cope and survive and possibly forgive themselves one day.
64
It is the lack of and the over emphasis on morals in the United States that is its own quandary. Society does not provide the proper framework for the understanding of any venture apart from the social norm. It would be best to throw off the shackles of moral self righteousness and simply accept who you are and what you have done, for better or worse, and then move on. We over generalize not really knowing why the same event effects many differently, which suggests that what you bring or don't bring into the experience is the controlling factor. Trauma is awful, and the mind does everything possible to come to grips with it, but no going over it changes anything in most cases. The repetition makes things more familiar, giving one the chance to deal with it or be overwhelmed, but unless a person has strategized differently, the outcome will always be the same. At the bottom of the quagmire is a sea of guilt and the flip side is anxiety and fear, bound together by anger, a natural byproduct of going to war and trying to survive. We do not do enough to allow people time to acclimatize themselves before reentering or being dumped back in to society. We should have standards of readiness, just like we have for going to war. As well, we need to face the facts that some people will never be able to return, even though they survived the war. These are hard conclusions to draw, but they reflect reality better than mere wishful thinking and a thank you.
4
And your qualifications are? You are a neurologist? A psychologist?
On what basis do you comment on the body of empiirical evidence Mr Brooks related to in his commentary?
On what basis do you comment on the body of empiirical evidence Mr Brooks related to in his commentary?
Thoughtful comment, Reuben, but where would these people go to "acclimatize?"
War, David Brooks accurately states, is a crime. There's a logical next step to this proposition, however, which Brooks is not willing to take.
By focusing on the difficult choices soldiers have to make in the heat of battle, we vacate their clear responsibility for making the choice to be engaged in a criminal enterprise in the first place. There were no human shields or IEDs at the recruitment office, or on the day they signed their papers, or on the day they were deployed.
"But they were innocent, then!" we cry.
As James Baldwin pointed out in a different context, "It is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.”
If war is a crime, then warriors -- our warriors -- are criminals. This presents no problems for those who seek to love the criminals as much as the just, and the broken as much as the whole. We are all deserving of love, and grace, redemption and understanding. We don't have to lie to ourselves, or each other, to get there. That's the "moral reckoning" Brooks is talking about, and I wish he had had the courage to speak the full truth about it.
By focusing on the difficult choices soldiers have to make in the heat of battle, we vacate their clear responsibility for making the choice to be engaged in a criminal enterprise in the first place. There were no human shields or IEDs at the recruitment office, or on the day they signed their papers, or on the day they were deployed.
"But they were innocent, then!" we cry.
As James Baldwin pointed out in a different context, "It is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.”
If war is a crime, then warriors -- our warriors -- are criminals. This presents no problems for those who seek to love the criminals as much as the just, and the broken as much as the whole. We are all deserving of love, and grace, redemption and understanding. We don't have to lie to ourselves, or each other, to get there. That's the "moral reckoning" Brooks is talking about, and I wish he had had the courage to speak the full truth about it.
3
When one reads this Brooks column, the inescapable question that arises is "how could Brooks have wholeheartedly supported the 'crime' that was the Iraq invasion, and why does he *still* stand by it?" Perhaps he should not be talking about morality.
2
"We live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but trauma often has to be overcome morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case."
This is so true. Therapy has fallen the way of scientism in many respects. What the latest research shows, no matter how poorly designed, contaminated with research bias, or lacking on so many other levels, becomes doctrine. If someone didn't research it or it can't be researched, it is deemed outside of "best practices." Reality be damned.
This is so true. Therapy has fallen the way of scientism in many respects. What the latest research shows, no matter how poorly designed, contaminated with research bias, or lacking on so many other levels, becomes doctrine. If someone didn't research it or it can't be researched, it is deemed outside of "best practices." Reality be damned.
There has never been a strong link between combat, battlefield atrocitiesand neuropsychiatric disorders. During World War II, more than half of the one million soldiers treated for mental breakdowns that would now be diagnosed as PTSD were hospitalized before deploying overseas. Among deployed soldiers, soldiers exposed to combat were only slightly more likely to suffer mental breakdowns than rear echelon soldiers. A recent study shows that the most reliable indicator of which soldiers will develop PTSD is not exposure to combat or battlefield atrocities but childhood mental and physical trauma.
4
My father, a veteran of WW2, was at Schofield Barracks, on his way back to the States to be discharged from the Army when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was then sent to the Pacific and and fought in the front lines until the end of the war. He was a gentle man and the horrors of war affected him greatly but he coped with it. He did have "flashbacks" and occasional nightmares but the country welcomed him back and thanked him for his service in words and deeds. He never felt the need to defend his actions because this was a just war and changed the world for the better and he was proud to have served.
On the other hand my late brother served in the Navy and my late husband was in the Seabees in Vietnam. They were not welcomed home with gratitude. Although they were both volunteers and not draftees they were never sure what they were fighting for and both, by the time they were discharged, realized that they were fighting in a stupid war and neither felt they were defending their country. They felt shame, not pride. This affected the rest of their lives in a detrimental way.
They both had PTSD to some extent and I am certain that their lives were shortened by the way this effected their behavior as civilians. Now we are sending young men and women to fight wars started and encouraged by people like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield who never served a day in the military. There is a big difference between WW2 and Vietnam and the
stupid wars we are now involved in.
On the other hand my late brother served in the Navy and my late husband was in the Seabees in Vietnam. They were not welcomed home with gratitude. Although they were both volunteers and not draftees they were never sure what they were fighting for and both, by the time they were discharged, realized that they were fighting in a stupid war and neither felt they were defending their country. They felt shame, not pride. This affected the rest of their lives in a detrimental way.
They both had PTSD to some extent and I am certain that their lives were shortened by the way this effected their behavior as civilians. Now we are sending young men and women to fight wars started and encouraged by people like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield who never served a day in the military. There is a big difference between WW2 and Vietnam and the
stupid wars we are now involved in.
184
This is truth well spoken. There are many of us who experienced exactly what you describe and are quietly going about our lives; fearful of the path our nation is on. Thank you for your voice.
25
factually incorrect but we get your point. GWB was in the Air National Guard,..... did it to get out of Vietnam. Rumsfeld was an active duty Naval Aviator for 3 years, then a Reservist.
3
The only way to prevent the scourge of soldiers' PTSD in the future is to
end U.S. militarism in defense of the empire.
end U.S. militarism in defense of the empire.
4
The moral injury rests in repeatedly relying on .75% of Americans to volunteer to put on a military uniform in order to resolve by military means ethnic sectarian socioeconomic political civil conflict and war. The objective of the military is to kill and wound enough of an enemy fighter's to get them to stop in order to talk.
Conflicts based upon lies about WMD's and a connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. War by kidnapping, torture and indefinite detention that are contrary to American values and harm American interests. Wars without end over non-existential threats to the American home land or any vital American interests. Repeated deployments in such an environment are inhuman and inhumane. If our leaders are inconsistent, confused and unclear what should they expect from their troops?
Rather than just treating our veterans and service personnel much better when they return with PSTD we should focus on not putting them in harms way to sacrifice life, limb and blood in the first place.
Too many clucking war hens with no sense of the ethnic sectarian history of foreign countries. No reasonable strategies nor objectives that can end conflict. No thoughts of diplomacy, commerce or aid. No humility nor empathy nor useful effective tactics. Legislators too cynical, cowardly and corrupt to take a stand against folly are immoral.
Conflicts based upon lies about WMD's and a connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. War by kidnapping, torture and indefinite detention that are contrary to American values and harm American interests. Wars without end over non-existential threats to the American home land or any vital American interests. Repeated deployments in such an environment are inhuman and inhumane. If our leaders are inconsistent, confused and unclear what should they expect from their troops?
Rather than just treating our veterans and service personnel much better when they return with PSTD we should focus on not putting them in harms way to sacrifice life, limb and blood in the first place.
Too many clucking war hens with no sense of the ethnic sectarian history of foreign countries. No reasonable strategies nor objectives that can end conflict. No thoughts of diplomacy, commerce or aid. No humility nor empathy nor useful effective tactics. Legislators too cynical, cowardly and corrupt to take a stand against folly are immoral.
6
No mention of helping soldiers get jobs or providing adequate funding for veteran's medical care. Typical Brooks, substituting philosophical doublespeak for a real discussion of consequences of the policies and people he supported.
6
After making several interesting comments, Rich in Atlanta said, "Sorry, but I think this whole column is largely a piece of uninformed projection. I'll shut up now."
I would also apply that sentiment in spades to the many comments submitted by readers who have no clue about PTSD. Those commentors should consider the old adage that it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and provide proof.
I would also apply that sentiment in spades to the many comments submitted by readers who have no clue about PTSD. Those commentors should consider the old adage that it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and provide proof.
1
There can never be enough healing of our veterans until the politicians who sent them off to fight a senseless war acknowledge their mistake (and, to be accurate, crime) and apologize for their actions.
8
Maybe Mr. Brooks should translate his "concerns" into actions through his wallet. Mr. Brooks was a die-hard supporter of the Iraq invasion. Seems to me Mr. Brooks has forgotten his calls for jihad in 2002 up to the Surge in 2006-2007. We have more than 50000 Americans soldiers’ victims of PTSD from Iraq war alone. 90% of them under 35 years old. Meaning they will live the rest of their life in trauma and endless pain. Lest we forget those who committed suicide.
Mr. Brooks should ask his son to enlist next time he calls for war.
Mr. Brooks should ask his son to enlist next time he calls for war.
11
Brooks makes a very strong case - inadvertently - for a US army of robotic soldiers and AI operated drones. Just as we'll always have Paris - we'll always have wars - it's just part of human nature. With our war with Islam the US can expect duration ongoing into generations. Should we thus accept masses of PSTD affected veterans as collateral damage?
For the present, weather we fight these battles with hired hands or drafted youth (most unlikely) the wars will have to be fought. Doesn't have to be that way. We're close - very close - to give battle remotely, surgically, and with non-human surrogates. The generals may not appreciate this as fair - after all they enjoy shouting "charge". This will remove all the fun and promotional value of war from the ranks of executive officers. Sad.
But - so what? Let's spend the billions into R&D needed to make this "new" army a reality and end the scourge of PTSD once and for all.
For the present, weather we fight these battles with hired hands or drafted youth (most unlikely) the wars will have to be fought. Doesn't have to be that way. We're close - very close - to give battle remotely, surgically, and with non-human surrogates. The generals may not appreciate this as fair - after all they enjoy shouting "charge". This will remove all the fun and promotional value of war from the ranks of executive officers. Sad.
But - so what? Let's spend the billions into R&D needed to make this "new" army a reality and end the scourge of PTSD once and for all.
1
Of course, drones won't feel a thing on the battlefield and won't suffer from PTSD, because they will be repaired and stored in the warehouse should they come back in one piece. As simple as that. Not really. This idea is as preposterous and dangerous as sending our human troops to the battlefield: humans on the other side - military or civilian - would still be killed or injured and their livelihood destroyed. They would go through severe PTSD and hopelessness all the same as the US military. Besides, the technicians and other military personnel with a remote control behind a computer will still suffer from PTSD. Wasn't there already a research finding or two on that? Please, please. We now know much more about the wrongs in the past and the consequences we're still coping with today and in the future. Remember our enemies are not behind the front lines wherever you plan to engage in drone wars. We're breeding them on our streets and neighborhoods. We can have a far better and more productive use of the AI and drone technology - agriculture, forestry, firefighting, building, and so on.
David- can you apply your concept of PTSD and moral injury to the persistent racism in America? Imagine walking down the road simply going to work or wherever and you are stopped not once but repeatedly for a supposed. Rime you have not committed except the crime of being male and black or brown.
You ever read or listened to black males on the reason so many suffer from high blood pressure? It is not all due to poor eating habits believe me. Being constantly on the alert is extremely stressful. Painfully black males are not just constantly alert while walking the streets but on their jobs being careful not to appear as a "threat" and then of course irony of ironies they have to be alert from their own kind.
You ever read or listened to black males on the reason so many suffer from high blood pressure? It is not all due to poor eating habits believe me. Being constantly on the alert is extremely stressful. Painfully black males are not just constantly alert while walking the streets but on their jobs being careful not to appear as a "threat" and then of course irony of ironies they have to be alert from their own kind.
6
The time to think about all of this, Mr. Brooks, is before you commit men to war. Thank goodness we have a Congress that really engages these moral issues of war and of personal decisions and talks about them out loud so that the nation can hear their discussions. . . . . right.
3
Mr. Brooks, I think you did a good job with the sad subject. Well done.
1
In previous wars, we had the draft, which meant that the entire country participated in the war in one way or another. Today we are defended by a relatively small group of volunteers. Where before there was a sense of shared danger, and therefore shard guilt, now the majority of the population is insulated from the carnage, linked only tenuously by messages from the media. Returning soldiers are inevitably divorced from the mainstream. Much as I hate to say it, if we are to continue to be "the world's policemen," we must reinstitute the draft.
4
The moral take away to this journey into understanding the workings of the mind is stop starting, or getting into, or ending wars. The damage we have done to the minds and bodies of young men and women over the last four decades is unforgivable---and for what? Was our ventures into Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, really worth the cost of what we see in Walter Reed Hospital or sitting homeless under bridges. And now, new polls out, see our nation and political class regaining their taste for another venture into the Middle East. Please Mr. President hold firm on your resolve not to be dragged into another middle east fiasco. Let's try to get a generation of young people through a life without losing their mind or a limb in endless taste for shock and awe.
9
"We live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but trauma often has to be overcome morally...."
This dichotomy makes it sound as if therapy and an exploration of morality are separate or incompatible. I'm not sure if that was Mr. Brooks' intent, exactly, given that he mentions new therapies based on repairing the "moral injury" that plays a part in many cases of PTSD. Still, I think if fair to point out that therapy (if done well) is based on the needs of the individual -- that could be addressing their fear, examining the moral dimension of their experience, reconnecting with their support system, etc.
This dichotomy makes it sound as if therapy and an exploration of morality are separate or incompatible. I'm not sure if that was Mr. Brooks' intent, exactly, given that he mentions new therapies based on repairing the "moral injury" that plays a part in many cases of PTSD. Still, I think if fair to point out that therapy (if done well) is based on the needs of the individual -- that could be addressing their fear, examining the moral dimension of their experience, reconnecting with their support system, etc.
6
I believe that 100% of all surviving soldiers experience PTSD.
4
Bingo nailed it Mr. Brooks. Having lived with scarred veterans, Viet Nam, WW II, yes it is what they DID and what they saw. So glad we, US Gov/citizenry, got over our hesitations to battle, our "Viet Nam Syndrome", and we are able to go into bloody war again.
4
"We live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but trauma often has to be overcome morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case."
Well, if we still had the draft, and if the well bred, superbly educated sons of gentlemen were on the front lines, Brook's prescription might be effective for some of them. Treating PTSD would then be a rigorous intellectual exercise along the lines of a really tough senior thesis. You'd literally be sweating bullets as you worked through your trauma with your Ivy-League educated spiritual and philosophical advisors.
But the veterans of today's volunteer military don't need help resolving moral and philosophical crises. They need something more primal to purge the sight, sound and smell of sudden, violent bloody mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and irreparable disfigurement out of their minds. Warfare is quite literally about blood and guts, profoundly shocking things we are never meant to see. Blather about blame, guilt and forgiveness can't begin to treat injuries of this kind.
Well, if we still had the draft, and if the well bred, superbly educated sons of gentlemen were on the front lines, Brook's prescription might be effective for some of them. Treating PTSD would then be a rigorous intellectual exercise along the lines of a really tough senior thesis. You'd literally be sweating bullets as you worked through your trauma with your Ivy-League educated spiritual and philosophical advisors.
But the veterans of today's volunteer military don't need help resolving moral and philosophical crises. They need something more primal to purge the sight, sound and smell of sudden, violent bloody mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and irreparable disfigurement out of their minds. Warfare is quite literally about blood and guts, profoundly shocking things we are never meant to see. Blather about blame, guilt and forgiveness can't begin to treat injuries of this kind.
20
Mr. Brooks seems always compelled to introduce morality as cause and cure for all ills. But perhaps it's just the thing he always grasps at for self-comfort.
A disembodied, theoretical morality serves only its smug practitioners, and is no more help to sufferers of PTSD than the Pluck and Bootstrap lectures soldiers received in earlier wartimes.
It is hard indeed to witness the suffering we inflict on those who fight our oil, minerals and territorial wars. Let us not inflict further cruelty with lectures about morality.
A disembodied, theoretical morality serves only its smug practitioners, and is no more help to sufferers of PTSD than the Pluck and Bootstrap lectures soldiers received in earlier wartimes.
It is hard indeed to witness the suffering we inflict on those who fight our oil, minerals and territorial wars. Let us not inflict further cruelty with lectures about morality.
5
How moral was it for Brooks to not only have supported the false pretense of the Iraq invasion, but to have doubled down only last year in making the nonsensical claim that in 20 years (nine years from then), the Bush "crime"-Brooks' own characterization of war here-would be vindicated? To paraphrase George Wallace: wrong today, wrong tomorrow, wrong forever.
2
The column as a whole was well done. The gratuitous dismissal of therapy, therapists, and those seeking growth through therapy was decidedly unfortunate.
3
The therapy slight was unnecessary and seemed more fitting in a scientology handout. If anything DB topical understanding of PTSD serves as exemplar why therapy may offer something Brooks cannot - expertise. At what point in an op-ed should the writer have an expertise in the area they are writing about before their legitimacy is confronted? Because picking up a Psychology book or recounting another's experience does not qualify DB to speculate with certitude and yet he does this often in the field of Psychology. Brooks is fortunate Psychology is often viewed by the layperson as something everyone is an expert in, and he is unfortunate enough to believe that its true.
"Most discussion about PTSD thus far has been about fear and the conquering of fear." Who believes that? Even as metaphor or broad-brush claim, it's untenable. Maybe DB is thinking of his friends & fellow conservatives who applaud the rich while vilifying the proletariat. The 'just pick yourself up by your boot-straps' constituency that, largely, cheered for War while watching 24-hour 'news' from their La-Z-Boys. Many of this ilk do not have the moral integrity to adequately fund mental health care for those who suffer 'it's all in your head - get over it'.
Lets be clear, the morality scars were forced upon soldiers via an immoral cabal who lied us into war, many who draft dodged, promoted torture, and now live above the law. We should overcome this rank moral turpitude by throwing those people in prison.
"Most discussion about PTSD thus far has been about fear and the conquering of fear." Who believes that? Even as metaphor or broad-brush claim, it's untenable. Maybe DB is thinking of his friends & fellow conservatives who applaud the rich while vilifying the proletariat. The 'just pick yourself up by your boot-straps' constituency that, largely, cheered for War while watching 24-hour 'news' from their La-Z-Boys. Many of this ilk do not have the moral integrity to adequately fund mental health care for those who suffer 'it's all in your head - get over it'.
Lets be clear, the morality scars were forced upon soldiers via an immoral cabal who lied us into war, many who draft dodged, promoted torture, and now live above the law. We should overcome this rank moral turpitude by throwing those people in prison.
27
On June 17, 2014 in the Wall Street Journal, Dick and Liz Cheney had the unmitigated gall to write an article subtitled: "Rarely has a U.S. president (Obama) been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many". Now that is Post (retired?) Traumatic Sociopathic Disorder. And Mr. Brooks writes "trauma often has to be overcome morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case"….. The sound of one far right hand clapping.
8
I'm confused. The military in the US is voluntary, isn't it? We have known about PTSD since the 1960s. I am not so sure I have sympathies for those who willingly leap into the military without considering the costs.
I think I know the way to cope with it best. We have experience with it.
The DRAFT. Reinstate it today. There is something very sane about building an army of citizens who are reluctant warriors, but who do so for their country.
I think I know the way to cope with it best. We have experience with it.
The DRAFT. Reinstate it today. There is something very sane about building an army of citizens who are reluctant warriors, but who do so for their country.
3
As long as the service requirement is universal and applies to all genders. Say everyone serves 1 year, and year between the ages of 18 and 26, to serve their year. No exemptions. Then it would be fair. People could re-up and work their way up to officer level, or serve their year and go home.
I was subject to the draft from age 18-26. It was horrible. It was during the Vietnam war. I was fired from a high paying job as computer system development manager for taking part in a demonstration to shut down the Oakland, CA, induction center for Northern California. I was lucky and my number never came up, but I was prepared to go to Canada rather than serve in the military in that war. Living with the uncertainty of not knowing if you will be called or not is like drip water torture. It really affects you psychologically.
I was subject to the draft from age 18-26. It was horrible. It was during the Vietnam war. I was fired from a high paying job as computer system development manager for taking part in a demonstration to shut down the Oakland, CA, induction center for Northern California. I was lucky and my number never came up, but I was prepared to go to Canada rather than serve in the military in that war. Living with the uncertainty of not knowing if you will be called or not is like drip water torture. It really affects you psychologically.
Spot on. The only thing to add is that that moral injury is not about exile from a world that tries to "practice kindness." That's sugar coating the harm that war exacts from our warriors. The exile is from the deeper and more ingrained values of the Ten Commandments--those moral transcendent guidelines, regardless of faith or religion, that bind us to all humanity.
4
In WWII, my uncle "did" N. Africa, Sicily, Anzio, S. France, and up the Rhone to Paris and into Germany. He may have been under fire for 20 days all that time. He moved with his unit and stood down with his unit.
When my time came in Vietnam, they had figured out ways to maximize our utilization in the field, and we had multiple staffs planning how to use us. There wasn't a lot of standing down. Now, they've perfected how to squeeze out every ounce of fight in our "volunteer army." And these guys do multiple tours.
Whether it's psychological, neurological, bio-chemical, or a mixture of all three, these traumatized solders come home to a "society" where everyone sort of sticks to themselves and watches TV, where we see violence as entertainment, not real horror, and where the voters elect "chicken hawks" like Bush and Cheney who do not even have the moral fiber to ask us to pay for these wars up front. Now we are reaping the whirlwind as our volunteer army tries to heal itself while we camp out in front of the TV.
PTSD is not a disease. It's a natural reaction to horror. It's the rest of us who don't get it.
When my time came in Vietnam, they had figured out ways to maximize our utilization in the field, and we had multiple staffs planning how to use us. There wasn't a lot of standing down. Now, they've perfected how to squeeze out every ounce of fight in our "volunteer army." And these guys do multiple tours.
Whether it's psychological, neurological, bio-chemical, or a mixture of all three, these traumatized solders come home to a "society" where everyone sort of sticks to themselves and watches TV, where we see violence as entertainment, not real horror, and where the voters elect "chicken hawks" like Bush and Cheney who do not even have the moral fiber to ask us to pay for these wars up front. Now we are reaping the whirlwind as our volunteer army tries to heal itself while we camp out in front of the TV.
PTSD is not a disease. It's a natural reaction to horror. It's the rest of us who don't get it.
30
The irony, of course, is that those in Congress who voted to send troops to Iraq on false pretenses never suffered one whit of PTSD in the aftermath that unfolded.
Blithely they go on, collecting their paychecks or doing the segue dance to a lobbying post, while some of our men and women in arms live in a post-traumatic hell.
As for the crew that cooked up the Iraq War II, from Bush to Cheney to Rumsfeld to Rice, they, too are immune from nightmares. It seems to be a unwritten rule that anyone who runs for president in America has to make a fervent profession to believing in God, however phony or self-serving. I'd like to see another unwritten rule: that anyone running shall have served in the military or in some capacity in a war zone so that it might not be so easy for him or her to commit troops willy-nilly next time to bully the world.
Blithely they go on, collecting their paychecks or doing the segue dance to a lobbying post, while some of our men and women in arms live in a post-traumatic hell.
As for the crew that cooked up the Iraq War II, from Bush to Cheney to Rumsfeld to Rice, they, too are immune from nightmares. It seems to be a unwritten rule that anyone who runs for president in America has to make a fervent profession to believing in God, however phony or self-serving. I'd like to see another unwritten rule: that anyone running shall have served in the military or in some capacity in a war zone so that it might not be so easy for him or her to commit troops willy-nilly next time to bully the world.
12
Let's have a written rule that all Congressmembers who vote for war have to have all adult relatives in their immediate families -- spouses, kids, siblings, parents -- go to the front lines.
The Military-Industrial Complex has a cost. This is it.
8
That's not the only cost. Our tax dollars are diverted from making America a better place, to the military, defense contractors and the makers of weapons and the extractors and purveyors of fossil fuels.
I want to live where he's living. Shangri-La. Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Mayberry. Lake Woebegone.
I suffered from depression for many years. My mother's advice was "Straighten up and fly right."
When Prozac appeared and quite literally saved my life I still wondered if the new enthusiasm for life was the "real" me, wasn't I dodging a moral failure, a weakness of will. The compassion of my therapist led me to understand and really believe that it wasn't all my fault.
So to hear Mr. Brooks come up with a ridiculous Ivy-League WASP statement about "rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case," I don't see a heck of a lot of difference from the prescription of my high-school educated mother.
No one suffering the anguish of PTSD needs to hear this kind of irresponsible nonsense which is available in the hallowed halls of the paper of record.
I suffered from depression for many years. My mother's advice was "Straighten up and fly right."
When Prozac appeared and quite literally saved my life I still wondered if the new enthusiasm for life was the "real" me, wasn't I dodging a moral failure, a weakness of will. The compassion of my therapist led me to understand and really believe that it wasn't all my fault.
So to hear Mr. Brooks come up with a ridiculous Ivy-League WASP statement about "rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case," I don't see a heck of a lot of difference from the prescription of my high-school educated mother.
No one suffering the anguish of PTSD needs to hear this kind of irresponsible nonsense which is available in the hallowed halls of the paper of record.
18
When The Men On Top realize that all of this is all their fault - and that all organizations where men outnumber women should be banned - then we might see a shift in approach. But until then, war rules. Everywhere.
4
It is interesting that such an important and universal subject (PTSD) from David Brooks' pen (or keys) will bring cynical scrutiny by "scrutinous" cynics. While I admit to being one who gives the "cheap grace of 'thank you for your service'" comment, in passing, at times....the depth of the subject was first and best given for me by Millie Balzarini in "The Lost Road Home", DeForest Press, 2008. Ms. Balzarini's husband served in Viet Nam. In giving the "cheap grace", in passing, there is, at least, an acknowledgement which may lead to further discussion. Brooks seems to be going beneath PTSD, as a condition, with sociological repercussions, not only to the life of the individual....but to the society in which he or she lives. I would go so far that I believe such 'repercussion" could affect the "Soul" of that community.
Having spent so much time in "wartime", this discussion has value for us.
Having spent so much time in "wartime", this discussion has value for us.
5
I don't get it. Not to seem callous but everyone volunteered. Most were sucker punched into volunteering because of Dubbya's international war on terror or hustled into military service due to a lack of opportunity in The Bush Ownership Society. What seemed lacking was the williness of parents to sit their kids down and convince them that it wasn't their war to fight. If the rich people who ran/run the country want to go defend their assets or acquire more they should have let them hire mercenaries. Know this will be an extreme opinion and not sit well with most, but it is what I said to my son at the time and what I would say today.
15
Oh, but the rich *did* hire mercenaries, no? They would be our all-volunteer military. There's a reason why they and the politicians they bought wouldn't want to see the draft return, and I'm pretty sure you can imagine what that reason is.
Personally, and I say this as one who was 1-A and did serve: bring back the draft. Let the people, not the politicians, decide what war is worth fighting.
Personally, and I say this as one who was 1-A and did serve: bring back the draft. Let the people, not the politicians, decide what war is worth fighting.
1
Paul, while I agree with much of what you say, saying it in response to this article is, I fear, quite callous.
Paul,
As a veteran, you reinforce the view of many of us who served in the 60's, that, had the draft been in effect in 2001, we never would have invaded Iraq. This is because nearly all member of Congress would have had sons/daughter or nieces/nephews serving in the military, and they would think twice about sending their own family members off to war. You may be aware that fewer than 1% of the population has any direct connection with the military today. So, we have deviated from "our fighting men and women" to "those who volunteered"--no longer a military representative of the US as a whole. When I was in the Air Force, people from all economic and social strata were serving; truly a "peoples' military.:" Now we are on the verge of creating a "warrior class." We did use mercenaries in the Iraq war to drive trucks and guard our supplies. Not being in the military, the truck drivers fled when fired upon, and some of the "guards" committed acts of violence which violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
As a veteran, you reinforce the view of many of us who served in the 60's, that, had the draft been in effect in 2001, we never would have invaded Iraq. This is because nearly all member of Congress would have had sons/daughter or nieces/nephews serving in the military, and they would think twice about sending their own family members off to war. You may be aware that fewer than 1% of the population has any direct connection with the military today. So, we have deviated from "our fighting men and women" to "those who volunteered"--no longer a military representative of the US as a whole. When I was in the Air Force, people from all economic and social strata were serving; truly a "peoples' military.:" Now we are on the verge of creating a "warrior class." We did use mercenaries in the Iraq war to drive trucks and guard our supplies. Not being in the military, the truck drivers fled when fired upon, and some of the "guards" committed acts of violence which violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
2
Dear David Brooks: You don't say where you got the idea that people suffer more from PTSD when there are "moral" outrages rather than after natural disasters. Is this your assessment or do you have some evidence? Perhaps a natural disaster has a beginning and an end, as opposed to the battlefields of war, which can go on and on. If a person suffered in natural disasters for several months or years on a daily basis I would posit (just a guess), that they might have PTSD comparable or greater than war veterans. This would not be due to moral outrage but because of the length of exposure to frightening and out-of-one's-control horrors. Yes, soldiers participate in killing but the fear of being killed or maimed over and over must take a toll, regardless of how one feels about the situation, justified or not. These soldiers need help not judgment or labels, IMO.
9
"to make clear how limited choices are when one is caught in a random, tragic situation, to arrive at catharsis and self-forgiveness about what was actually blameworthy and what wasn’t"
But if we view this morally & philosophically, it would be dishonest not to note that nothing could be more pre-meditated & orchestrated than war as we practice it today. We don't grab our weapons in response to an immediate threat; rather we sometimes spend months debating, conducting diplomatic & PR campaigns to rally support for a proposed war. We spend billions of dollars to build weapons & train people, and to move them by the thousands half way around the world. We devote a huge portion of our economy to the preparation for (& advocacy of) war. We join or initiate conflicts that have no possible unambiguous outcome, at the same time suppressing knowledge of our own involvement in creating the situation to which we respond.
From a strictly moral or philosophical point of view, the PTSD victims may have as much to teach us as we them. Perhaps they feel irrationally guilty about specific situations in proportion to the degree that we all feel irrationally innocent about the ways our country uses its power?
But if we view this morally & philosophically, it would be dishonest not to note that nothing could be more pre-meditated & orchestrated than war as we practice it today. We don't grab our weapons in response to an immediate threat; rather we sometimes spend months debating, conducting diplomatic & PR campaigns to rally support for a proposed war. We spend billions of dollars to build weapons & train people, and to move them by the thousands half way around the world. We devote a huge portion of our economy to the preparation for (& advocacy of) war. We join or initiate conflicts that have no possible unambiguous outcome, at the same time suppressing knowledge of our own involvement in creating the situation to which we respond.
From a strictly moral or philosophical point of view, the PTSD victims may have as much to teach us as we them. Perhaps they feel irrationally guilty about specific situations in proportion to the degree that we all feel irrationally innocent about the ways our country uses its power?
2
Is there perhaps a difference in the PTSD experienced by those who serve as volunteers, as opposed to those who were drafted? We heard in the media of an enlistment increase after 9/11 as a response to the attack on the nation, and so presumably that patriotic defense of the nation was, I guess you could say, squandered in a fairly pointless conflict. So these veterans had a stake in something that turned out to be empty.
This in contrast to Vietnam (and Korea) in which case many were drafted, had no stake or expectations in the outcome (other than to get out). The world wars were similar to Vietnam in the sense that there was a draft, but there was a cause.
This in contrast to Vietnam (and Korea) in which case many were drafted, had no stake or expectations in the outcome (other than to get out). The world wars were similar to Vietnam in the sense that there was a draft, but there was a cause.
The reason for all the moral ambiguity, all the emotional numbness troops are experiencing today is because, as if it could not be possible, conservatives have managed to pervert war, right down to even its declaration.
We see today the body responsible for declaring war, the People's House, abdicating that responsibility. They refuse to instruct the CinC as to who we are to fight, where and for how long. In fact, they've so perverted war that they actually want the CinC to make these decisions for them.
Conservatives have perverted the role of the soldier. They speak glowingly of the troops when they are all clean and shiny, even dress up like them and fly onto aircraft carriers, but when they come home beat and broken then they are considered just another sub category of takers. In fact, a leading conservative spokesperson, Bill O'Reilly, has publicly denied the existence of homeless vets.
The lack of certainty is what is behind much of what ails theses troops. Endless years of fighting with only vague, politically motivated mission statements. No end in sight. No idea of what victory looks like. No idea who is the enemy.
All of this, a direct function of conservative perversion of even this "crime."
We see today the body responsible for declaring war, the People's House, abdicating that responsibility. They refuse to instruct the CinC as to who we are to fight, where and for how long. In fact, they've so perverted war that they actually want the CinC to make these decisions for them.
Conservatives have perverted the role of the soldier. They speak glowingly of the troops when they are all clean and shiny, even dress up like them and fly onto aircraft carriers, but when they come home beat and broken then they are considered just another sub category of takers. In fact, a leading conservative spokesperson, Bill O'Reilly, has publicly denied the existence of homeless vets.
The lack of certainty is what is behind much of what ails theses troops. Endless years of fighting with only vague, politically motivated mission statements. No end in sight. No idea of what victory looks like. No idea who is the enemy.
All of this, a direct function of conservative perversion of even this "crime."
4
If war is a "crime" and morally indefensible, leaving soldiers traumatized because of its inherent violence, then we should look not only find the best ways to help the psychological recovery for all those who have suffered "war", but we must acknowledge that war is a viciously antiquated means for solving disputes of any kind.
3
A lovely piece. Thank you, Mr. Brooks.
I guess we need to have the FCC require warnings on all those really cool military ads we have on TV. Similar to the warnings we hear in the background for all the new drugs big pharma pushes.
Like the ad now where the dad is so proud of his daughter for joining the army. They should be required to have the warning in the background. Something like "sending you child off to war in some cases may lead to severe physical injury, and in rare cases even death, there sis a slight chance they will be captured and tortured, in some cases they will be required to kill innocent human beings even women and children, long term studies have shown a high percentage will end up homeless after they return, joining the service often leads to a high degree of alcoholism and drug addiction. female members have been known to be raped and sexually abused, and the people that send your child off to war never send their own, the rest of the population will put ribbons on their cars stating they support your injured child but they really don't."
Like the ad now where the dad is so proud of his daughter for joining the army. They should be required to have the warning in the background. Something like "sending you child off to war in some cases may lead to severe physical injury, and in rare cases even death, there sis a slight chance they will be captured and tortured, in some cases they will be required to kill innocent human beings even women and children, long term studies have shown a high percentage will end up homeless after they return, joining the service often leads to a high degree of alcoholism and drug addiction. female members have been known to be raped and sexually abused, and the people that send your child off to war never send their own, the rest of the population will put ribbons on their cars stating they support your injured child but they really don't."
12
Slippery slope, David: When we "overcome morally" an individual veteran's experience of a war, aren't we justifying that particular war, hence all wars? Just sayin' . . . , you know, American-Sniper-saving-lives type of justification?
'By some estimates 22 military veterans a day commit suicide....'
This, from the Times just last week.
That's over 8,000 young men and women per year.
Why aren't American's outraged by this? Why aren't we having a national discussion about this?
Why do we tolerate the likes of Senators McCain and Graham with their non-stop cheerleading for putting boots on the ground at every perceived opportunity to 'sort out' the problems in the middle east.
We haven't won a war in over seventy years.
We can barely define what 'winning' a war would even look like.
When are we going to accept that the war paradigm no longer works?
This, from the Times just last week.
That's over 8,000 young men and women per year.
Why aren't American's outraged by this? Why aren't we having a national discussion about this?
Why do we tolerate the likes of Senators McCain and Graham with their non-stop cheerleading for putting boots on the ground at every perceived opportunity to 'sort out' the problems in the middle east.
We haven't won a war in over seventy years.
We can barely define what 'winning' a war would even look like.
When are we going to accept that the war paradigm no longer works?
8
I'm a 77 year old physician who served as an MD in Viet Nam (1967-68). I was stationed in a MASH, and aside from being surviving a few incoming mortar shells was never in any real danger. Yesterday I saw "American Sniper." When discussing it later with friends I broke into tears and couldn't exactly say why.
It stunned me to realize that more than 45 years after "my war" I was still carrying package I was unaware of. PTSD comes in many shapes and sizes but it is very real.
It stunned me to realize that more than 45 years after "my war" I was still carrying package I was unaware of. PTSD comes in many shapes and sizes but it is very real.
8
One wonders if soldiers of earlier wars suffered from PTSD. It seems clear that soldiers from WW I (for instance, read Hemingway), Vietnam, and Iraq have (or had) problems with PTSD. But what about soldiers from the Civil War or WW II? Perhaps the context of the war and its conclusion has something to do with the subsequent mental suffering.
Veterans of earlier wars did suffer from PTSD. My father, in WWII, was one of them. He tried to hide his affliction, and it made him a very angry man, until the end of his life.
37
Go 'way back: Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, both by Jonathan Shay. PTSD is a lot more complex and a lot
less "moral" than Brooks thinks.
less "moral" than Brooks thinks.
1
There are at least two reasons why it appears that there's more PTSD in recent wars. One, because of medical advances more soldiers survive serious injuries. Two, because of increasing societal acceptance, more soldiers report having, and more caretakers diagnose, PTSD.
2
David Brooks is a well-meaning man who has to write a column, and he pastes some philosophical idea onto a currently relevant problem. Here today he mashes up the meaning of "moral" and applies it uselessly. The comments here from gemli are spot-on, and Mr. Brooks would benefit from reading them.
6
Instead of morality when speaking explicitly about post traumatic stress disorder with veterans, I would speak about spirituality. There is a big difference in concepts and the super ego's integration of feelings of guilt, shame, hurt, sadness and anger transformed into acceptance and self respect. Using the term 'morality' so flippantly implies that some inside or outside third person is judging you under the auspices of helping to cure you. This is the last thing that a veteran needs upon reintegrating into society.
War is madness, camaraderie, raw savagery and piqued chaos which, when interwoven, creates the most honest and visceral emotions that one will ever experience in their lifetime. Spiritually, the psychological id, or unconscious, is stripped of its multiple blankets of societal expectations, niceties and platitudes. One becomes a living, breathing incarnation of raw energy reacting on a split second's notice based on intuitive and visceral cues. This is the spiritual coffee for the wounded warrior. What's difficult is returning to a society that labels itself as moral while at the same time sending young men and women off to die in order to fulfill an undefined mission. The big societal lie is the elephant in the room issue for returning veterans which contributes to PTSD. Reintegration into "moral" society is a farce as we all know that the world is turned upside down when the immoral folks at the top tell the rest of us that we are inherently damaged.
War is madness, camaraderie, raw savagery and piqued chaos which, when interwoven, creates the most honest and visceral emotions that one will ever experience in their lifetime. Spiritually, the psychological id, or unconscious, is stripped of its multiple blankets of societal expectations, niceties and platitudes. One becomes a living, breathing incarnation of raw energy reacting on a split second's notice based on intuitive and visceral cues. This is the spiritual coffee for the wounded warrior. What's difficult is returning to a society that labels itself as moral while at the same time sending young men and women off to die in order to fulfill an undefined mission. The big societal lie is the elephant in the room issue for returning veterans which contributes to PTSD. Reintegration into "moral" society is a farce as we all know that the world is turned upside down when the immoral folks at the top tell the rest of us that we are inherently damaged.
6
There is this other option, one we've never tried, and I know it's a radical one so please bear with me: we could, maybe, give peace a chance.
6
our miss brooks just hasn't got a clue what is or is not PTSD.
he does not have PTSD. Is deeply prejudiced about people with PTSD. has no clinical, medical, psychological training related to PTSD or any other illness. all he does is keep peddling the same prejudiced moralism denigrating demeaning belittling and denying PTSD in military, in sexual abuse, child abuse and orthopedic injury.
he even reported that chinese people in major earthquakes did not get PTSD or adjustment disorder, based on political operatives acting as government spokesmen charged with denying trauma or PTSD.
his agenda is some sort of moralism bent on denying the moral characters and moral conscience of PTSD sufferers and why he haa this cruel godless perverted agenda is a mystery to me.
People with PTSD are not morally deficient. nor weak charactered. not lazy.
his agenda against people with PTSD is cruel ugly and unloving. Immoral. he just lies. and the New York Times should be ashamed.
he does not have PTSD. Is deeply prejudiced about people with PTSD. has no clinical, medical, psychological training related to PTSD or any other illness. all he does is keep peddling the same prejudiced moralism denigrating demeaning belittling and denying PTSD in military, in sexual abuse, child abuse and orthopedic injury.
he even reported that chinese people in major earthquakes did not get PTSD or adjustment disorder, based on political operatives acting as government spokesmen charged with denying trauma or PTSD.
his agenda is some sort of moralism bent on denying the moral characters and moral conscience of PTSD sufferers and why he haa this cruel godless perverted agenda is a mystery to me.
People with PTSD are not morally deficient. nor weak charactered. not lazy.
his agenda against people with PTSD is cruel ugly and unloving. Immoral. he just lies. and the New York Times should be ashamed.
4
Did we read the same article? I saw none of the hatefulness in MR. Brook's column that jumped out at you. Strange.
1. he lies. he reports outright lies as facts.
2. he deliberately misrepresents facts, research, and researcher conclusions.
3. he implies in some opinions, outright says so in others, that PTSD is a moral ethical and cgharacter deficiency not an illness.
4. for well over ten years he has been demeaning denigrating and just plain denying PTSD while claiming it is a moral and ethical issue not a medical one.
5. he has an agenda which is consistently expressed thrpough falsification, misrepresentation, disinformation and moralistic accusation.
his characterization of people with PTSD is hate speech. propaganda.
quote"Most discussion about PTSD thus far has been about fear and the conquering of fear. But, over the past few years, more people have come to understand PTSD is also about exile — moral exile.
We don’t think about it much, but in civilian life we live enmeshed in a fabric of moral practices and evaluations. We try to practice kindness and to cause no pain.
People who have been to war have left this universe behind. That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime. It involves accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong."
that simply is not true. it is moralism: it blames veterans for "feelings" of guilt. feelings of guilt are not the issue. changes in the brain are the issue. feelings of guilt are symptoms.
2. he deliberately misrepresents facts, research, and researcher conclusions.
3. he implies in some opinions, outright says so in others, that PTSD is a moral ethical and cgharacter deficiency not an illness.
4. for well over ten years he has been demeaning denigrating and just plain denying PTSD while claiming it is a moral and ethical issue not a medical one.
5. he has an agenda which is consistently expressed thrpough falsification, misrepresentation, disinformation and moralistic accusation.
his characterization of people with PTSD is hate speech. propaganda.
quote"Most discussion about PTSD thus far has been about fear and the conquering of fear. But, over the past few years, more people have come to understand PTSD is also about exile — moral exile.
We don’t think about it much, but in civilian life we live enmeshed in a fabric of moral practices and evaluations. We try to practice kindness and to cause no pain.
People who have been to war have left this universe behind. That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime. It involves accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong."
that simply is not true. it is moralism: it blames veterans for "feelings" of guilt. feelings of guilt are not the issue. changes in the brain are the issue. feelings of guilt are symptoms.
If we are going to talk about morality in this context, the question that must arise is: How "moral" is it for a society to send people into war given the crimes they will witness and commit?
91
DB's column starts out with PTSD, finishing with overcoming trauma by moral judgement, rigorously applied. So here is yet another Brooks trope-- rigorousness. Does he throw himself in a frozen pond each morning after translating 10 pages of Plato?
Why would he assert that people with PTSD "feel morally tainted" and that people are more likely to suffer PTSD after "moral atrocities." That is a generalization that leaves me without polite adjectives to describe my reaction.
If he wants to draw moral questions from trauma then the simpler explanations are better-- why did I survive and a friend did not; why wasn't I more careful so as to avoid a predator; why did the child die or the person with the most giving heart? We can forgive the survival of others but not our own.
PTSD is separate from morality except that in living through a trauma, there are triggers for the memories and the feelings of fear , dread, and helplessness and knowing that through some set of circumstance, some people died and some people did not. There is no morality in the death or the survival but it can feel like there should be.
How does DB know how people feel who have lived through 9/11 or Oklahoma City or tornadoes or mudslides when they see that the skies are getting yellow green, the air smells like a storm or broken burning building materials, or that its been raining for days and days and the wet smell of mud is everywhere?
He should stick to writing about congress.
Why would he assert that people with PTSD "feel morally tainted" and that people are more likely to suffer PTSD after "moral atrocities." That is a generalization that leaves me without polite adjectives to describe my reaction.
If he wants to draw moral questions from trauma then the simpler explanations are better-- why did I survive and a friend did not; why wasn't I more careful so as to avoid a predator; why did the child die or the person with the most giving heart? We can forgive the survival of others but not our own.
PTSD is separate from morality except that in living through a trauma, there are triggers for the memories and the feelings of fear , dread, and helplessness and knowing that through some set of circumstance, some people died and some people did not. There is no morality in the death or the survival but it can feel like there should be.
How does DB know how people feel who have lived through 9/11 or Oklahoma City or tornadoes or mudslides when they see that the skies are getting yellow green, the air smells like a storm or broken burning building materials, or that its been raining for days and days and the wet smell of mud is everywhere?
He should stick to writing about congress.
27
He's talking about war and he said all those things you say he didn't say. You should read it. How do you know he never smelled mud. If he writes about mud, you should read that too.
While I do not agree with Mr. Brooks about quite a bit in the political realm or frankly a lot of his columns. I do enjoy his style of writing and his variety of topics, I think he has earned the right to have an 'opinion' (as that is his job) on things other than congress. If we all only read or discussed things we agree on life would get boring pretty fast.
1
There is no morality in the death or the survival of others? Really? Being in the military and complicit in the death of others has to be one of the greatest morality moments in anyone's life. David's article is a thoughtful examination of the moral issues associated with PTSD and I greatly appreciate his writing about it.
Given that the horrible after effects of war on all those involved and the horrific costs associated with it, one might wonder why we so readily seem to opt for participating in them so expansively.
17
Excellent comment. We see ads for Wounded Warriors 24/7 on TV. Yet Bibi Netanyahu is going to address our Senate and House from the well of "our" Congress in a couple of weeks doing all in his power to torpedo Obama's attempt to avoid war with Iran. Instead of a diplomatic solution, Netanyahu will do all in his power to fire up "our" representatives to oppose Obama's peace efforts, and move us towards the war with Iran Likud Israel is so hungry for us to fight for it, using only OUR blood and massive new national debt, of course. As Dylan wrote fifty years ago, "If God is on our side, he'll stop the next war."
This is dangerous territory. When I was younger, I knew a number of older men who had been in combat in Europe and none of them seemed to suffer the same way as today's war veterans. Perhaps it was due to two things: the war they fought had little or no moral ambiguity and as Jews they knew perhaps better than anyone else what they were fighting for and who the enemy was.
The Iraq War has no such clarity. But one has to ask, if one approaches the terrible problem of war trauma from a moral perspective, what is one to judge of the men who chose to make this war? An honest moral reckoning would include at the very least a mea culpa for being so badly misled about such matters as WMD by people who had their own agendas (e.g. "Curveball" and Ahmed Chalabi). But there are good reasons to believe that, even absent these shady characters, certain of our own leaders misled us into this futile endeavor, and that they are due great opprobrium (at the least) for the damage both to our soldiers and the Iraqis killed and displaced by their actions, not to mention the destabilizing effects on the entire ME which plagues the world today.
The horrors of war are such that a decent society will have recourse to it only as a last resort. Are we going to forget this so quickly and allow ourselves to be pushed into more of it in Iran by irresponsible people whose moral compasses are so badly off of the true?
The Iraq War has no such clarity. But one has to ask, if one approaches the terrible problem of war trauma from a moral perspective, what is one to judge of the men who chose to make this war? An honest moral reckoning would include at the very least a mea culpa for being so badly misled about such matters as WMD by people who had their own agendas (e.g. "Curveball" and Ahmed Chalabi). But there are good reasons to believe that, even absent these shady characters, certain of our own leaders misled us into this futile endeavor, and that they are due great opprobrium (at the least) for the damage both to our soldiers and the Iraqis killed and displaced by their actions, not to mention the destabilizing effects on the entire ME which plagues the world today.
The horrors of war are such that a decent society will have recourse to it only as a last resort. Are we going to forget this so quickly and allow ourselves to be pushed into more of it in Iran by irresponsible people whose moral compasses are so badly off of the true?
191
The soldiers from the Iraq war's experiences are similar to those Viet Nam soldiers' experiences. Both were illegal and immoral wars. So of course they grieve and suffer because of the choices they and their government made.
@jprfrog - very thoughtful comment, thank you. I notice a lot of attention paid to the veterans of the Iraq war leading up to the Hollywood Oscar ceremony, and how much attention the movie, "American Sniper," will receive by measurement of Oscar wins. Even on the news there is coverage of the true "American Sniper," Navy Seal, Chris Kyle's murder trial. I wonder how the defendant, Eddie Routh," who is pleading insanity, will be viewed in the eyes of history. How can society entirely blame an Iraqi War veteran for going insane in an insane war? How would "moral" therapy have cured Mr. Routh from his dark inner demons (PTSD on steroids?) which drove him to murder Mr. Kyle? I'm glad that the movie is bringing attention to the difficult journey back to recovery for American wounded warriors and their families. Also, Texas is enacting into law the "Chris Kyle Bill," which allows military experience to qualify veterans to receive Texas state licenses. The sooner these brave young men and women return to the workforce and productively contribute to society, the sooner they will be able to regain their moral footing and sense of purpose in a civilian society.
After 9/11, one can make an argument that the Afghanistan War was more necessary than the Iraq War. What are the relative rates of PTSD coming from those two wars? I am not convinced that a careful study of those two populations will show a material difference between the two.
"We live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but trauma often has to be overcome morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case." Mr. Brooks implies that psychotherapy is fairly faddish but a good old-fashioned moral inventory (prayer included?) is all that is needed. In fact, any good psychotherapy of PTSD has to focus on the issue of guilt. Any therapy that doesn't grapple with the guilt experienced by trauma victims will be unsuccessful. This is actually well-known among trauma professionals. I'm glad that Mr. Brooks and other members of the public are recognizing this now, but just because you recently found out about it doesn't make it new. And it certainly doesn't make this a new and different treatment. It's simply the way effective psychotherapy needs to be done.
10
Born in 1957, I came of age after the draft was ended so missed Vietnam. So no firsthand experience of war. But clearly the amorality of war is one constant from generation to generation. So how to explain the current epidemic of PTSD?
I suspect that some of it comes from the hopelessness our Iraq veterans find themselves in when they return to this peculiar Economy we have built while they were away. All soldiers are young when they enlist and adults when they return. And adults need work to anchor their lives. Work, meaningful work, the kind it takes to raise a family, is vanishing in America.
No wonder they don't have a distraction from their demons
I suspect that some of it comes from the hopelessness our Iraq veterans find themselves in when they return to this peculiar Economy we have built while they were away. All soldiers are young when they enlist and adults when they return. And adults need work to anchor their lives. Work, meaningful work, the kind it takes to raise a family, is vanishing in America.
No wonder they don't have a distraction from their demons
78
What makes the Bush era different than America's other wars is that soldiers were sent on multiple tours of duty.
This is the result of congress cowardly relying on the limited number Army reserve and National Guard vounteers than an unpopular ,but fairer, universal draft.
The Neocons learned that a draft invoves too many voters who have the nasty habit of questioning why their children are being sent in harms way.
This is the result of congress cowardly relying on the limited number Army reserve and National Guard vounteers than an unpopular ,but fairer, universal draft.
The Neocons learned that a draft invoves too many voters who have the nasty habit of questioning why their children are being sent in harms way.
1
There's been an "epidemic" of PTSD during and after every war. We know it occurred after all our major wars including the Civil War, WW I, and WWII. And certainly after the last, there was the greatest expansion of the U.S. economy and probably employment opportunities of anytime in our history.
1
Maybe this is the conundrum of our times, or of our species - good people compelled to do bad things, or things that are morally haunting later.
3
I cringe every time I hear what Mr. Brooks calls "the cheap grace of 'thank you for your service.'" It seems almost dismissive in its lack of complexity. It's as if after Vietnam the public has done an about face simply to atone for our poor treatment of veterans back then.
I won't presume to speak to the complexity of emotions any veteran might be experiencing, but it seems to me "thank you" is not an appropriate response to the hell they and all the victims of war have been put through. We should be apologizing instead for laying the burden of world problems on them--for not even taking the time to understand the wars currently being fought--for not even looking at a map of the far-flung, war-torn places that are all too real to them.
A thank you does not acknowledge the kind of moral exile or confusion Mr. Brooks describes. An apology at least communicates more of an understanding of the complexity of the situations veterans find themselves in and acknowledges that those of us who are not in their situations bear some (and in some cases even more) responsibility for whatever goes wrong.
I won't presume to speak to the complexity of emotions any veteran might be experiencing, but it seems to me "thank you" is not an appropriate response to the hell they and all the victims of war have been put through. We should be apologizing instead for laying the burden of world problems on them--for not even taking the time to understand the wars currently being fought--for not even looking at a map of the far-flung, war-torn places that are all too real to them.
A thank you does not acknowledge the kind of moral exile or confusion Mr. Brooks describes. An apology at least communicates more of an understanding of the complexity of the situations veterans find themselves in and acknowledges that those of us who are not in their situations bear some (and in some cases even more) responsibility for whatever goes wrong.
24
American veterans are not "victims" of war. They are the perpetrators. The people they kill and maim in the service of our foreign policy objectives are the victims.
They, our veterans, are of course human and the subject of complicated forces, as are we all. I don't mean to suggest that soldiers are beyond redemption, forgiveness, or understanding. Quite the opposite. But those processes start from recognizing the bare facts of the situation, not obfuscating them.
They, our veterans, are of course human and the subject of complicated forces, as are we all. I don't mean to suggest that soldiers are beyond redemption, forgiveness, or understanding. Quite the opposite. But those processes start from recognizing the bare facts of the situation, not obfuscating them.
As a returned veteran of a long ago war I find the "thank you's for your service" that I receive a little embarrassing. I don't feel I deserve them. I was a volunteer because I felt a moral imperative, as Mr Brooks says, to defend against what I considered to be and evil alternative. I was young, naive, and woefully uninformed.
When I returned home my feeling was thatist had all all being in vain, some kind of a vicious cosmic joke. haved lost friends and comrades, had seen and done what in my hindsight, were terrible thingsofor which I could find no justification other than the most babsic: the survival of me and my friends I had no justification or explanation for my terrible acts. My response, my attempt to deal with the awful negative karma that I had acquired, was to devote myself to service as an educator and volunteer. I was fortunate that I was able to acquire the skills to do so. Not all that they do. There is a terrible debt to be paid and we are beginning to realize with the installmentsdatethat debt are.
When I returned home my feeling was thatist had all all being in vain, some kind of a vicious cosmic joke. haved lost friends and comrades, had seen and done what in my hindsight, were terrible thingsofor which I could find no justification other than the most babsic: the survival of me and my friends I had no justification or explanation for my terrible acts. My response, my attempt to deal with the awful negative karma that I had acquired, was to devote myself to service as an educator and volunteer. I was fortunate that I was able to acquire the skills to do so. Not all that they do. There is a terrible debt to be paid and we are beginning to realize with the installmentsdatethat debt are.
35
"I'm sorry for your service" hardly seems the appropriate response to a returned veteran!
The niceties of language and the shorthand of day-to-day communication seem to be lost on you, Ms. Fuller. When one casually encounters a veteran, it's usually inappropriate to discuss the dishonor and injustice of the Bush-Cheney administration and the politics of oil, military-industrial corruption, and the connections of Jim Baker, GHW Bush, Don Rumsfeld, and others to the power-brokers in the M[oriddle East. It's far more appropriate to say, "Thank you. I appreciate that you were willing to sacrifice so much as a serviceman [or woman]. How are things going for you now that you're back home?"
If the veteran wants to talk about the injustice of the wars he served in, let it be a subject he or she brings up; because believe me, if you do so first, you'll be insulting him or her.
Yes, I'm sure you mean well, but your naivete and Pollyanna political stance is inappropriate.
The niceties of language and the shorthand of day-to-day communication seem to be lost on you, Ms. Fuller. When one casually encounters a veteran, it's usually inappropriate to discuss the dishonor and injustice of the Bush-Cheney administration and the politics of oil, military-industrial corruption, and the connections of Jim Baker, GHW Bush, Don Rumsfeld, and others to the power-brokers in the M[oriddle East. It's far more appropriate to say, "Thank you. I appreciate that you were willing to sacrifice so much as a serviceman [or woman]. How are things going for you now that you're back home?"
If the veteran wants to talk about the injustice of the wars he served in, let it be a subject he or she brings up; because believe me, if you do so first, you'll be insulting him or her.
Yes, I'm sure you mean well, but your naivete and Pollyanna political stance is inappropriate.
1
War is hell, Mr Brooks. Whether it is PTSD or Shell Shock, it can affect returning soldiers and rippling out to the rest of society.
While it was not right for soldiers in the WWI and WWII era to suffer silently - perhaps it was the macho thing of the time - it is possible that those were more legitimate wars, if there is such an idea. Vietnam was questionable but society placed the blame on the wrong people.
Perhaps moral beings always set themselves up too. The more moral one is, the more one is to take responsibility on one's action. In a way, it is commendable. However, we also need to place the ultimate responsibility on the people in charge. In a way, people do feel better if the decision is a moral one. People looked up to leaders like Churchill and FDR because they weighed their decision heavily. The question is what if you have amoral leaders whose blind hatred is the ultimate cause of the soldiers' affliction, physical and otherwise. History may have a special place for former VP Cheney. Too bad that so many people have lost their innocence because of his decision when he and President Bush used the legitimacy of 911 to sell a phoney war to the American people
While it was not right for soldiers in the WWI and WWII era to suffer silently - perhaps it was the macho thing of the time - it is possible that those were more legitimate wars, if there is such an idea. Vietnam was questionable but society placed the blame on the wrong people.
Perhaps moral beings always set themselves up too. The more moral one is, the more one is to take responsibility on one's action. In a way, it is commendable. However, we also need to place the ultimate responsibility on the people in charge. In a way, people do feel better if the decision is a moral one. People looked up to leaders like Churchill and FDR because they weighed their decision heavily. The question is what if you have amoral leaders whose blind hatred is the ultimate cause of the soldiers' affliction, physical and otherwise. History may have a special place for former VP Cheney. Too bad that so many people have lost their innocence because of his decision when he and President Bush used the legitimacy of 911 to sell a phoney war to the American people
21
I am a veteran of the Korean war, but saw little combat, however I wonder at the traumas vets of the current wars suffer from.
Mind sets in the past seemed to be much different from the present in that wars then seemed to be legit, killing was not only expected, but encouraged, while nowadays deep, deep in the psycho are the thoughts that killing is wrong, it's not fighting for freedom or the savings of people; rather it's killing innocents, killing accidently, or randomly. This is not war, per se, but actions which appear to be against everything one has learned and had been taught by teachers, parents and churches. SUCH MENTAL CONFUSION! No wonder PTSD is so prevelent.
(Just some thoughts.)
Mind sets in the past seemed to be much different from the present in that wars then seemed to be legit, killing was not only expected, but encouraged, while nowadays deep, deep in the psycho are the thoughts that killing is wrong, it's not fighting for freedom or the savings of people; rather it's killing innocents, killing accidently, or randomly. This is not war, per se, but actions which appear to be against everything one has learned and had been taught by teachers, parents and churches. SUCH MENTAL CONFUSION! No wonder PTSD is so prevelent.
(Just some thoughts.)
It almost seems sacrilegious to discuss PTSD having never been to war. But I relate to your essay, including this: " They find themselves unable to communicate their condition to those who remained at home, resenting civilians for their blind innocence." I went to college with returning Vietnam Vets. I heard several horror stories, in private. And really, it's because I asked. The subject can seem like just another political issue on the political issue list, maybe that's a civilian's screen against the feelings. But for minutes at a time, I can put myself in those boots mentally. Just want to reach out sometimes and say, "I get it, welcome home." In my case, it makes me sensitive to my late father.. We battled through the generation gap and he didn't speak of his experiences but I've learned that ball turret gunners on B-24s with no fighter escort had to kill people up close and personal at altitude. I wish I could welcome the old man home.
7
A better strategy regarding PTSD is prevention. Certainly, all veterans should be screened after service. It is dishonest to await symptoms. PTSD must be understood like radiation. If one is exposed necessary screening is required. PTSD treatment must be factored into the cost of war, along with neurological examinations and all probable injuries. When waving Morality flags, I would insist that our leaders, especially the hawks McCain and Graham demand a tax increase for all new interventions and wars and a tax to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Morality demands mindfulness. We cannot afford to spend money on defense that has not been paid for. Democracy demands that all Americans participate in war either by joining in the armed services or by paying taxes that not only fund weapons, transport, and personnel but also fund medical/psychological treatments, disability costs, and occupation costs.
In Iraq, the defense industry, and the oil industry profited from the war. No, we did not steal oil from Iraq, but we disrupted supplies, destabilized the region and drove up prices. It is reasonable for taxpayers to expect these industries to pay their fair share of taxes to heal our soldiers and manage the chaos that Bush created by attacking Iraq. That is, if we are a Moral society. American Society has been traumatized by these wars.
Morality demands mindfulness. We cannot afford to spend money on defense that has not been paid for. Democracy demands that all Americans participate in war either by joining in the armed services or by paying taxes that not only fund weapons, transport, and personnel but also fund medical/psychological treatments, disability costs, and occupation costs.
In Iraq, the defense industry, and the oil industry profited from the war. No, we did not steal oil from Iraq, but we disrupted supplies, destabilized the region and drove up prices. It is reasonable for taxpayers to expect these industries to pay their fair share of taxes to heal our soldiers and manage the chaos that Bush created by attacking Iraq. That is, if we are a Moral society. American Society has been traumatized by these wars.
10
May I add to Joseph Hubben's excellent comment that the best way to prevent PTSD is to not send our troops into harm's way unneccesarily. The U.S. invasion of Iraq has generated decades of enmity to many in that region, in giving them an equivalent to our "remember the Alamo, remember Pearl Harbor".
Thanks. Now can we have an article on the physical injuries and moral harm corporations and their hired politicians and lobbyists do to the American people, please?
9
I heard Morris himself say in an interview that by far the most common victims of PTSD are rape victims, and he doesn't know what makes it so horrible for them exactly, but thinks it's something to do with the even more absolute violation of control. There is moral injury here too but it is not because the rape victim committed a crime. Or is it because they think they in fact did, that they deserved it? Maybe rather than feeling responsible for a crime per se, it has to do with your sense of the moral balance of the world in general being destroyed.
15
I suspect when the rapist is a fellow soldier it must completely up-end any notions one had held regarding "sides" in a war.
As a former victim of extreme sexual, physical and psychological violence, all I can tell you is that it's a shameful thing to be hurt on purpose by other people, and somehow the more gratuitous the injury, the more shameful it seems to be.
2
Why is it the civilian doesn't question his / her moral injury? If only I had voted, marched, written to my representative? If only I had advocated peace initiatives, investments in foreign countries of need, nonviolent intervention. In a democracy, civilians cannot resign themselves to the powers that be, or the status quo, or to wars, as if by resigning themselves they might excuse themselves. Civilians are not excused. No denial or avoidance or ignorance can alter the civilian responsibility for substantially contributing to the cause of a veteran's PTSD (as you say "moral injury") and not only injury to the veteran but the injury to the family and not only injury to the family but injury to the community and not only the communities in our own country but all those in the countries where "we" decided to shoot our guns and drop our bombs.
6
While reading with interest the comments from others, a country called War is being placed on the side here. 'Trauma' is the title of a novel I may write one day; a short one.
It is about a single woman of a certain age who has lived in a small building in the City. Now retired, and on returning from London after placing her elderly parent to rest in a state of grace; keeping an eye on those who are grieving, she will mourn on her return to her comfort zone; quietly with the shutters closed.
Something has happened in her absence. She has room-mates who live above her ceiling and for the next four years, they keep up a racket, which eventually becomes deliberate. This is enough to make a man weep, the woman ponders, and having a strong constitution she starts making plans to move, only to find that things have changed over the last two decades. Not so easy, and she's going to pay for getting out of jail.
She goes into denial when her hair starts falling out when she is only allowed to sleep for three hours a night; a side of her face feels numb when she hears the thunder and pounding of foot-steps above; she is alone. Her friends are concerned: run before it is too late! By now exhausted and drained; her judgement is impaired.
It's boot-camp, she thinks. This is what it must be to be at war, always on the alert, always wired, always waiting for the next crash, she thinks. What a way to live, and finally she dies from the stress of it all for crying out loud.
It is about a single woman of a certain age who has lived in a small building in the City. Now retired, and on returning from London after placing her elderly parent to rest in a state of grace; keeping an eye on those who are grieving, she will mourn on her return to her comfort zone; quietly with the shutters closed.
Something has happened in her absence. She has room-mates who live above her ceiling and for the next four years, they keep up a racket, which eventually becomes deliberate. This is enough to make a man weep, the woman ponders, and having a strong constitution she starts making plans to move, only to find that things have changed over the last two decades. Not so easy, and she's going to pay for getting out of jail.
She goes into denial when her hair starts falling out when she is only allowed to sleep for three hours a night; a side of her face feels numb when she hears the thunder and pounding of foot-steps above; she is alone. Her friends are concerned: run before it is too late! By now exhausted and drained; her judgement is impaired.
It's boot-camp, she thinks. This is what it must be to be at war, always on the alert, always wired, always waiting for the next crash, she thinks. What a way to live, and finally she dies from the stress of it all for crying out loud.
1
I do hope you will write that novel!
1
It would be easier to read Mr. Brooks' columns on PTSD after the Iraq war if I didn't have the memory of reading the many, many columns of his making a strong case for it in the first place, and defending Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. To my knowledge Mr. Brooks, unlike Andrew Sullivan, has never repented or explained his use of his influential column to encourage that war. Until he explains his own role in creating that moral atrocity I can not take him seriously.
152
The "Moral Injury" is caused by the lack of moral certainty in the reasons why we have gone to war as a nation. It can be argued that since WWII there has been no moral justification for the numerous wars and engagements fought by the United States, despite the chest thumping by our politicians and their followers in the press.
17
One thing I will say as to the war and what our guys were forced to endure --- does anyone remember the story of our guys taking fire and casualties from a mosque, and someone issued the statement we wouldn't harm the mosque? I thought to myself, "what?" I think I would give them all about five seconds to get their fannies out, hands-up, or I would blow the thing to smithereens, and I don't care if it was inlaid with gold and the history of ancients. None of our men should have to fight with their hands tied behind their backs. That's baloney.
2
Doesn't that make you an Israeli? They are routinely expected to defend themselves with their hands tied.
1
Look back at the history of the behavior of U.S. troops during the I & II World Wars. This question came up multiple times. By and large,the policy was(and remains) to spare houses of worship and historically significant buildings if at all possible. This would not be the first time an enemy has taken advantage of this policy. But given the political realities on the ground,where a show of disrespect( unintentionally or not) to a copy of a holy book can provoke murderous reprisals,can you imagine the response to the intentional destruction of a beloved house of worship? How many more lives would that cost us in the end?
"People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities."
I just checked information from NIH regarding this statement which strikes me as odd. Yes, of course, more PTSD occurs in war than in civilian life, but anyone can develop signs of lingering trauma from events in which they don't play a direct part: personal accidents, abrupt loss of loved ones, and observations of horrific crimes.
For victims, part of the horror of PTSD are all the ancillary side effects that develop in the long aftermath, in addition to survivor blame and guilt: depression, antisocial behavior, physical complaints, and personality changes.
Unlike other ailments that result in depression, PTSD covers such a wide range of horrors: physical, mental, and moral.
I'm not sure what Mr. Brooks is aiming at when he cites the philosophical approach to helping vets overcome the overwhelming effects of moral guilt. All these "individual conversations" that can lead to catharsis--who will develop them, and more importantly, who will pay for them? Heck, vets can't even get a psyche appointment without long waits in our over-extended VA system.
In my opinion, the real tragedy of PTSD is both individual (the victims themselves)s well as societal: America's abandonment of its veterans. And I wonder how much PTSD symptoms get aggravated by the vets' instinctive sense that nobody really "gets" their plight.
I just checked information from NIH regarding this statement which strikes me as odd. Yes, of course, more PTSD occurs in war than in civilian life, but anyone can develop signs of lingering trauma from events in which they don't play a direct part: personal accidents, abrupt loss of loved ones, and observations of horrific crimes.
For victims, part of the horror of PTSD are all the ancillary side effects that develop in the long aftermath, in addition to survivor blame and guilt: depression, antisocial behavior, physical complaints, and personality changes.
Unlike other ailments that result in depression, PTSD covers such a wide range of horrors: physical, mental, and moral.
I'm not sure what Mr. Brooks is aiming at when he cites the philosophical approach to helping vets overcome the overwhelming effects of moral guilt. All these "individual conversations" that can lead to catharsis--who will develop them, and more importantly, who will pay for them? Heck, vets can't even get a psyche appointment without long waits in our over-extended VA system.
In my opinion, the real tragedy of PTSD is both individual (the victims themselves)s well as societal: America's abandonment of its veterans. And I wonder how much PTSD symptoms get aggravated by the vets' instinctive sense that nobody really "gets" their plight.
121
I was finally diagnosed with PTSD after finding my husband dead in the garage, one morning. No moral issue there, just an enormous shock, and continuing anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness for several years. It was not war. I can't imagine suffering through that.
I think Christine, David is trying to prepare us for the ongoing Global War On Terrorism.
A recent episode of This American Life showed that young men in poor, violent neighborhoods in the U.S. suffer the same symptoms as vets returning home from our moral atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The difference is the soldiers get to leave while the young men are stuck in the ghettoes. Few people understand this situation, as well. Moral atrocity is a good word.
1
"That’s because war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime."
Indeed. Let those very words be chiseled into the stone portals of the Pentagon and every military cemetery, every town square memorial. There is no glory; only pain and destruction. Let us at last be rid of the myth of the soldier as heroic warrior and embrace the reality of the soldier as victim. And let us treat leaders who never knew war who beat a martial drum of lies and send others to struggle and die be treated as the war criminals they are.
Indeed. Let those very words be chiseled into the stone portals of the Pentagon and every military cemetery, every town square memorial. There is no glory; only pain and destruction. Let us at last be rid of the myth of the soldier as heroic warrior and embrace the reality of the soldier as victim. And let us treat leaders who never knew war who beat a martial drum of lies and send others to struggle and die be treated as the war criminals they are.
5
I can't stand the empty"thank you for your service". The majority of Americans can't even name their own representatives & senators but can name all the Kardashians. It's a disgrace. These men & women don't need us to buy them breakfast, they need us to start funding heavily the VA and veterans programs. A few of my family members are currently serving & I get so mad when people pat themselves on the back when they grab them a cup of coffee. One, it sort of embarrasses them & two you would be doing them a much better service by simply voting & holding your politicians feet to the fire. The most dangerous part of their service is that they have a bunch of old, white guys in washington holding the hats of their super PAC & big oil donors & acting like the military lives are some sort of RISK or BATTLESHIP game.
Who wouldn't have PTSD? Your deployment includes a first half in Africa fighting a horrific disease & your second half is fighting ISIS. WWII had horrors, yes, but this is wildly different for these guys today. WWII vets came home to parades & all were in it together, home & abroad, & then came home to the GI Bill which educated & gave them a path to the Am. Dream. These guys have a spoiled populace that is too lazy to educate themselves, wont raise taxes, & simply "went shopping" & they are facing foreclosure, divorce, etc. Maybe the PTSD starts when they get home to their ungrateful fellow citizens & leaders.
Who wouldn't have PTSD? Your deployment includes a first half in Africa fighting a horrific disease & your second half is fighting ISIS. WWII had horrors, yes, but this is wildly different for these guys today. WWII vets came home to parades & all were in it together, home & abroad, & then came home to the GI Bill which educated & gave them a path to the Am. Dream. These guys have a spoiled populace that is too lazy to educate themselves, wont raise taxes, & simply "went shopping" & they are facing foreclosure, divorce, etc. Maybe the PTSD starts when they get home to their ungrateful fellow citizens & leaders.
6
Amen!
I'm surprised David Brooks in no way incorporated the very high rate of PTSD in rape victims into this article, which the author of this book considers a situation as bad or worse than the high numbers of veterans suffering from this illness. Perhaps it would have made the brief article too long and complicated.
In an interview on Public Radio recently, Morris expressed extreme concern about this particular group of PTSD sufferers because their high numbers dwarf those of veterans and very little is being said or done in our country to support them.
In an interview on Public Radio recently, Morris expressed extreme concern about this particular group of PTSD sufferers because their high numbers dwarf those of veterans and very little is being said or done in our country to support them.
4
Nice essay Mr. Brooks. Someone who experiences an attack on their soul has very deep wounds. This is especially true for someone to encounter this at twenty years old. They have hardly left childhood. Intense, focused therapy is a route to take.
Another solution is to require all warring nations to sign a treaty requiring armies to be populated with soldiers no less than 40 years old. That sure would make the therapy more effective. The older and wiser bunch that they are. At least veterans wouldn't be blamed for seeking a "thrill".
Another solution is to require all warring nations to sign a treaty requiring armies to be populated with soldiers no less than 40 years old. That sure would make the therapy more effective. The older and wiser bunch that they are. At least veterans wouldn't be blamed for seeking a "thrill".
1
I find it galling that our Mr. Brooks is so aloof and analytic about the violation of basic human empathy and morals which, perforce, occurs when human does violence to human in moments of war, fueled by fear and adrenaline.
If only he, and others, who were so blithe and sure about the matter of Iraq, had more thought and empathy about such predictable effects, when they advocated for a war that sent reservists into the Iraq nightmare without preparation and appropriate numbers. Of course, no draft for their sons (Dav id's son chooses his own military conflict), just as those who had no military experience. subjected so many reservists to tour after tour (remember "stop loss" ?)
Mr. Brooks' had no moral quandary then, and does not now, else he would also be waking up screaming. The awfulness of PTSD here, and the horror of atrocities abroad, are daily waking this country to the consequences of playing with the middle east and its peoples so carelessly -- so inhumanely.
Please do not lecture others about the need to come to a moral self-reckoning, Mr. Brooks.
If only he, and others, who were so blithe and sure about the matter of Iraq, had more thought and empathy about such predictable effects, when they advocated for a war that sent reservists into the Iraq nightmare without preparation and appropriate numbers. Of course, no draft for their sons (Dav id's son chooses his own military conflict), just as those who had no military experience. subjected so many reservists to tour after tour (remember "stop loss" ?)
Mr. Brooks' had no moral quandary then, and does not now, else he would also be waking up screaming. The awfulness of PTSD here, and the horror of atrocities abroad, are daily waking this country to the consequences of playing with the middle east and its peoples so carelessly -- so inhumanely.
Please do not lecture others about the need to come to a moral self-reckoning, Mr. Brooks.
9
"The victims of PTSD often feel morally tainted by their experiences, unable to recover confidence in their own goodness, trapped in a sort of spiritual solitary confinement". --could this be why people can be so willing and remorseless when they kill in the name of their religion? Religion helps atrocity fit into a moral universe.
Could this be why soldiers defending their homes and families against existential threats have so few qualms, but soldiers who fight in foreign lands for more distant objectives remain savaged by the experience?
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Could this be why soldiers defending their homes and families against existential threats have so few qualms, but soldiers who fight in foreign lands for more distant objectives remain savaged by the experience?
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
3
It is worth pausing for a moment to note that by far the most common origin of PTSD in this country is not combat but sexual assault.
17
"The victims of PTSD often feel morally tainted by their experiences, unable to recover confidence in their own goodness, trapped in a sort of spiritual solitary confinement, looking back at the rest of the world from beyond the barrier of what happened. They find themselves unable to communicate their condition to those who remained at home, resenting civilians for their blind innocence."
Surely we cannot expect our opinion writers to limit their attention to topics they have experienced. Hopefully we don't set aside quality writing because we have different political views from the writer. Thank you Mr. Brooks for the powerful, clear, illuminating words and images above.
Surely we cannot expect our opinion writers to limit their attention to topics they have experienced. Hopefully we don't set aside quality writing because we have different political views from the writer. Thank you Mr. Brooks for the powerful, clear, illuminating words and images above.
I once told a girlfriend I thought I was suffering from some form of PTSD, after having endured, pretty much on my own, a ten year period of crisis after crisis.
And, I know my troubles compare nothing to our men in military, but my symptoms were kind of the same, only milder.
For years, and only now, has it started to subside, but I was always on edge, waiting for the next thing to happen. It was as if, I stayed filled with adrenalin, just waiting, for I knew it was around the corner, the next challenge, and I had to be prepared or I wouldn't make it. The adrenalin refused to leave and sudden, unexpected movement would make me believe the moment had arrived --- I guess, my death?
Often when I get tired and weary I will flip open my bible --- I am scared to death of the line, "gird up your loins for I will demand of you"! I have reached the point like Job ---- somebody other than me does everything --- I'm not speaking on the rhymes and riddles of life. Even, today, some will ask, "why, are you so tense?" I tell them, I think I was wound too tight, but I'm not sure if once you have tightened a spring, you can untighten it?
And, I know my troubles compare nothing to our men in military, but my symptoms were kind of the same, only milder.
For years, and only now, has it started to subside, but I was always on edge, waiting for the next thing to happen. It was as if, I stayed filled with adrenalin, just waiting, for I knew it was around the corner, the next challenge, and I had to be prepared or I wouldn't make it. The adrenalin refused to leave and sudden, unexpected movement would make me believe the moment had arrived --- I guess, my death?
Often when I get tired and weary I will flip open my bible --- I am scared to death of the line, "gird up your loins for I will demand of you"! I have reached the point like Job ---- somebody other than me does everything --- I'm not speaking on the rhymes and riddles of life. Even, today, some will ask, "why, are you so tense?" I tell them, I think I was wound too tight, but I'm not sure if once you have tightened a spring, you can untighten it?
1
David Brooks correctly notes that ". . . . war — no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble — is always a crime. "
And that is why civilian administrators need to be extra extra circumspect before declaring a war.
And that is why the media must be ever vigilant and not be a puppet to any administration.
And that is why civilian administrators who plant fake stories to support their decision to go to war must be brought to justice.
And that is why we must not listen to foreign leaders who urge our Congress to wage war.
And that is why civilian administrators need to be extra extra circumspect before declaring a war.
And that is why the media must be ever vigilant and not be a puppet to any administration.
And that is why civilian administrators who plant fake stories to support their decision to go to war must be brought to justice.
And that is why we must not listen to foreign leaders who urge our Congress to wage war.
22
As odd as this may sound, in the moral dimension that Brooks describes, it may be better to return the nation to a draft system for national service. The citizenry has become much more attuned to false premises for sending American lives into battles. While the entry into wars for false reasons may again occur, with a draft system that includes everyone's children, the entire nation would share the obligation to accomplish what Brooks describes as overcoming trauma "....morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case." That's because we would all be complicit in the trauma endured by our service men and women. As it is now, too many Americans regard our troops as hired hands who got paid for their service and who only deserve the phony patriotic rhetoric on national holidays!
7
But you can't fight wars of discretion with drafted soldiers. We couldn't have wars, because American mothers won't get fooled again.
2
There is at least one expert on PTSD, Daniel Grossman. I have treated many hundreds of individuals with PTSD, in civilian and military settings. My child is a decorated combat veteran. To mix morality into this is make PTSD just like every other bad thing that happens to people. Mr. Brooks always likes to moralize, but in this case he is no more helpful than when fellow soldiers turn against a soldier who develops PTSD. Or the police department that turns against a cop who develops PTSD. Or the combat veteran who is disciplined because some one up the chain of command is protecting their career. You speak blithely of philosophers and psychologists, and you go where you always end up - lofty words signifying nothing.
12
The suffering of PTSD by our War veterans is viewed as nothing more than collateral damage by those who send them into harms way. We are sold the idea that we have moved on from the days of post Vietnam, but I wonder...
I wonder about the identification of need for treatment, I wonder about the availability of treatment, I wonder about the efficacy of treatment, I wonder why all of this is even necessary. Most of all, I wonder about the decision making that leads to War or the putting of our few in harms way.
We live in barbaric times, history will show just how unenlightened we really are. We are little more than children playing at being adult in evolutionary terms- that we War with each other is evidence enough.
We need to understand and treat the source, not the symptom. War is the symptom, the reasoning behind decisions leading us to conflict and War are the source. We actively chose to go to War in Iraq, we chose to go to Afghanistan, we chose to go to Vietnam, ad infinitum et ultra... these were decisions made on our behalf by leaders we elected. Maybe we are electing the wrong leaders.
We should absolutely reinstate the draft to bring some degree of balance to decisions made to enter into conflict and War, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Anyway, history shows that those we elect have a strange habit of avoiding the draft for themselves and their nearest and dearest.
I look to my fellow man and dream of hope, and I look to the future and fear.
I wonder about the identification of need for treatment, I wonder about the availability of treatment, I wonder about the efficacy of treatment, I wonder why all of this is even necessary. Most of all, I wonder about the decision making that leads to War or the putting of our few in harms way.
We live in barbaric times, history will show just how unenlightened we really are. We are little more than children playing at being adult in evolutionary terms- that we War with each other is evidence enough.
We need to understand and treat the source, not the symptom. War is the symptom, the reasoning behind decisions leading us to conflict and War are the source. We actively chose to go to War in Iraq, we chose to go to Afghanistan, we chose to go to Vietnam, ad infinitum et ultra... these were decisions made on our behalf by leaders we elected. Maybe we are electing the wrong leaders.
We should absolutely reinstate the draft to bring some degree of balance to decisions made to enter into conflict and War, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Anyway, history shows that those we elect have a strange habit of avoiding the draft for themselves and their nearest and dearest.
I look to my fellow man and dream of hope, and I look to the future and fear.
17
Perfect. Thanks
The moral exile you talk about starts with those civilian leaders that send young men and women off off to die for some obscure reason most of them don't even understand but have been propagandized into excepting as necessary and even glorious.
The glorification of war is all to prevalent in our "entertainment industry" today. The real thing is a whole different story. The men and boys that went off to fight in the second world war were a generation that lived the great depression and had known hard times the like of which todays kids know nothing. Is it any wonder that todays warriors suffer more PTSD than their grand fathers did?
The glorification of war is all to prevalent in our "entertainment industry" today. The real thing is a whole different story. The men and boys that went off to fight in the second world war were a generation that lived the great depression and had known hard times the like of which todays kids know nothing. Is it any wonder that todays warriors suffer more PTSD than their grand fathers did?
14
One more. Sorry for posting so much but this is a subject of considerable interest to me.
Many of our medics in Vietnam were conscientious objectors, so they never harmed anyone or even carried a weapon, but they risked their lives just as the rest of us did, sometimes running into the line of fire to rescue a wounded soldier. The first time I was wounded (minor) one of our medics was wounded at the same time. They print out 'orders' for your award of the purple heart and there are usually several other recipients on the same page. If you get a second award of any medal they don't give you two of them, they give you an 'oak leaf cluster.' The medic's award was on the same page as mine and read: purple heart (4 oak leaf clusters). He'd been wounded 5 times. I found out later that he was on his third tour, all voluntarily. I can't imagine that kind of courage or selfless devotion.
So, I'm curious - have any conscientious objector medics ever suffered from PTSD? I would be surprised if the answer is no; they experienced the same things that all the rest of us did. And if so, exactly what moral imperatives did they violate?
Sorry, but I think this whole column is largely a piece of uninformed projection. I'll shut up now.
Many of our medics in Vietnam were conscientious objectors, so they never harmed anyone or even carried a weapon, but they risked their lives just as the rest of us did, sometimes running into the line of fire to rescue a wounded soldier. The first time I was wounded (minor) one of our medics was wounded at the same time. They print out 'orders' for your award of the purple heart and there are usually several other recipients on the same page. If you get a second award of any medal they don't give you two of them, they give you an 'oak leaf cluster.' The medic's award was on the same page as mine and read: purple heart (4 oak leaf clusters). He'd been wounded 5 times. I found out later that he was on his third tour, all voluntarily. I can't imagine that kind of courage or selfless devotion.
So, I'm curious - have any conscientious objector medics ever suffered from PTSD? I would be surprised if the answer is no; they experienced the same things that all the rest of us did. And if so, exactly what moral imperatives did they violate?
Sorry, but I think this whole column is largely a piece of uninformed projection. I'll shut up now.
101
Please don't shut up, I have learned a lot from your comments, which clearly are well-informed and thoughtful -- you have a lot of information on this topic, have analyzed it well, and raise a lot of significant issues, it seems to me (and apparently to others, too).
3
Don't ever shut up Rich, shout it out...
1
After describing "therapy programs like the one on moral injury found at the San Diego Naval Medical Center." and how "writers and therapists suggest that there has to be a moral reckoning", David Brooks somehow concludes by turning this into a sneering dismissal of therapy, writing "We live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but trauma often has to be overcome morally", as if the programs he just described weren't actually therapy.
Is there any more tiresome, predictable, and disingenuous columnist than David Brooks? This is a classic example of his taking a subject that has nothing to do with whatever moralizing, conservative talking point he wants to deliver, then twisting his conclusion to serve that purpose at the last moment. In this case the message is basically "science, schmience. We don't need your fancy therapy, just good old fashioned morals". The fact that this isn't what the research, writing, or (most importantly) clinical practices that he cites would have you conclude doesn't ever seem to faze him, though I can't say the same for the rest of us.
Is there any more tiresome, predictable, and disingenuous columnist than David Brooks? This is a classic example of his taking a subject that has nothing to do with whatever moralizing, conservative talking point he wants to deliver, then twisting his conclusion to serve that purpose at the last moment. In this case the message is basically "science, schmience. We don't need your fancy therapy, just good old fashioned morals". The fact that this isn't what the research, writing, or (most importantly) clinical practices that he cites would have you conclude doesn't ever seem to faze him, though I can't say the same for the rest of us.
205
This is unbelievable, Mr Brooks wanted to talk about PTSD and people like David J Morris and readers love posts that choose to attack Mr Brooks
This is not a defense of the columnist and indeed Mr Brooks's perspective can be flawed. However, this post didn't mention once PTSD or Mr Morris. Instead, it goes right to how wrong the columnist is and insinuates he is a conservative lackey. It is really sad to read it with so many others cheering it on. Right or wrong, Mr Brooks deserves at least the recognition of bringing the seriousness of PTSD and how it affects people coming back from the war.
This is not a defense of the columnist and indeed Mr Brooks's perspective can be flawed. However, this post didn't mention once PTSD or Mr Morris. Instead, it goes right to how wrong the columnist is and insinuates he is a conservative lackey. It is really sad to read it with so many others cheering it on. Right or wrong, Mr Brooks deserves at least the recognition of bringing the seriousness of PTSD and how it affects people coming back from the war.
1
Jeo, I think you are absolutely right about Brooks. And, only some good old fashioned therapy could help Brooks, who, despite considerable reasoning capabilities, does not know that he is ultimately controlled by his unexamined biases, and that he really isn't an objective or fair person. Needless slamming of therapy, is just conservative ideology.
7
Bos,
The column that I responded to was about PTSD. The specific passages that David Brooks wrote that I referred to were about PTSD. The entire conversation was about PTSD, including my comments. If you have difficulty grasping that I'm not sure it's my fault.
Your criticism seems to imply that what I wrote was simply an ad hominem attack. If I'd simply written "Oh David Brooks a conservative lackey, so what does he know? then your criticism would be valid. Except I wrote nothing of the sort, I included exact quotes from him and criticized them, then more broadly complained that it's a tactic that Brooks often uses.
David Brooks is not being informative, his main purpose is moralizing. This is my opinion, and I gave concrete examples of where I see him doing it. Others seem to agree.
The column that I responded to was about PTSD. The specific passages that David Brooks wrote that I referred to were about PTSD. The entire conversation was about PTSD, including my comments. If you have difficulty grasping that I'm not sure it's my fault.
Your criticism seems to imply that what I wrote was simply an ad hominem attack. If I'd simply written "Oh David Brooks a conservative lackey, so what does he know? then your criticism would be valid. Except I wrote nothing of the sort, I included exact quotes from him and criticized them, then more broadly complained that it's a tactic that Brooks often uses.
David Brooks is not being informative, his main purpose is moralizing. This is my opinion, and I gave concrete examples of where I see him doing it. Others seem to agree.
5
PTSD. I won't speak for everyone, but I think there are elements that are completely misunderstood. When I was in Vietnam, fear was a constant. I remember waking up one morning and being aware that I was afraid before I remembered where I was. We hated being there. When I found my best friend wounded and it was clear he had lost an eye, my first reaction was relief that he was going home. I saw death and suffering - the worst things I would ever see.
And yet... I risked my life for those around me, over and over again, and saw them do the same for me. I experienced incredible joy at simply seeing the morning light after a battle, or having two days in a rear area. I found in myself qualities that I would likely have never known I had. And I experienced life with an intensity that will never be matched.
I experienced some depression and anxiety in the years after I got back but no serious symptoms of PTSD. No flashbacks, no nightmares. If I told stories, they were devoid of emotion. I can tell you what happened but I can't explain what it 'was like' and I think that is at the heart of the problem.
I once told my wife that Vietnam seemed like 'something I dreamed' and I think that may be what 'saved' me. There is no way to reconcile that world with this one and I think that those who struggle to do so may be those most likely to suffer. Disconnect - put it behind you. The best advice I can offer.
1500 characters is not enough. I'll have to trust readers to FITB.
And yet... I risked my life for those around me, over and over again, and saw them do the same for me. I experienced incredible joy at simply seeing the morning light after a battle, or having two days in a rear area. I found in myself qualities that I would likely have never known I had. And I experienced life with an intensity that will never be matched.
I experienced some depression and anxiety in the years after I got back but no serious symptoms of PTSD. No flashbacks, no nightmares. If I told stories, they were devoid of emotion. I can tell you what happened but I can't explain what it 'was like' and I think that is at the heart of the problem.
I once told my wife that Vietnam seemed like 'something I dreamed' and I think that may be what 'saved' me. There is no way to reconcile that world with this one and I think that those who struggle to do so may be those most likely to suffer. Disconnect - put it behind you. The best advice I can offer.
1500 characters is not enough. I'll have to trust readers to FITB.
305
I know the above is way too sketchy, but as I said I'll trust the reader. I have to add one brief thing, also without analysis.
Occasionally - very occasionally - as I'm falling asleep and more or less half way there, a 'vision' of sorts flashes into my mind. It's always exactly the same. It's dusk and I'm standing at a path leading into a forest. I have a sword in my hand and I know that at the end of that path is some kind of a 'war.' I step forward and start to walk and I am at peace. I know that I'm going to the one place I belong. I'm going home.
Occasionally - very occasionally - as I'm falling asleep and more or less half way there, a 'vision' of sorts flashes into my mind. It's always exactly the same. It's dusk and I'm standing at a path leading into a forest. I have a sword in my hand and I know that at the end of that path is some kind of a 'war.' I step forward and start to walk and I am at peace. I know that I'm going to the one place I belong. I'm going home.
40
Thank you, Rich in Atlanta, for your deep honesty.
2
Welcome home, Rich in Atlanta, and it is impossible to understand what it is like to be in Hell, unless one has visited and returned from the Dead. While others will say it better, it reminded me of a Japanese belief that the most dark sufferings in life are 'nightmares', while the rest is about living and being humane to others; to continue to lend a helping hand to others, and to pull through together, with some endurance mixed with some mirth in one's heart. At times on darker days, one might feel that it is about joy and certain sorrow; on others, it might be there is something of beauty in this existence of ours. But should this person ever hear again 'Make lemon juice out of a lemon', they will get clocked soundly on their head.
1
I have never met someone suffering from clinically significant distress, and unfortunately I've known quite a few well, who was helped by moral reasoning, and in a number of cases I (not as a professional but as a family member or friend) actually tried that approach. They were not reachable that way. In the long term, some of these people found help through medication, some have never found relief despite medication and therapy, some have self-medicated and developed further problems, some are able to function superficially despite ongoing distress. These people did not suffer from war PTSD but they did suffer from clinically significant emotional distress, enough to warrant hospitalization or inpatient experience in other facilities. I would be surprised if war PTSD is amenable to moral reasoning when these other conditions are not, regardless of the precipitating factors of war PTSD. My sense is that once people get pushed out their normal zone of emotional equilibrium, something much more fundamental is needed. Do we actually know that this moral approach works?
8
Let me add that a number of the people I've known in the straits I described above have suffered from feeling intensely guilty about the death or other suffering of a loved one or loved ones, but as I said, they seemed inaccessible through moral reasoning about their supposed guilt.
8
Diana Moses,
One may find the answer to what you raise in Somerset Maugham's little known novel, written at an early age, entitled 'The Hero'. He is trapped either way, and morality plays a large part in this story.
One may find the answer to what you raise in Somerset Maugham's little known novel, written at an early age, entitled 'The Hero'. He is trapped either way, and morality plays a large part in this story.
1
Doesn't it seem strange that although war has been a recurring phenonoma ever since the dawn of human history there appear to be no recorded intances of PTSD prior to our time?
7
That's because they didn't call it PTSD then. They called it shell shock. One of my uncles who fought in WW1 suffered from it. Apparently he never got over the things he experienced in the war, and never quit talking about it,
I say apparently because we children were not allowed to talk to him. Our parents said he would scare us.
68
It was called "shell shock" after WW1 and was extremely common.
8
There were no recorded cases of schizophrenia before "our time" either. Depending on what period you look at, they just thought that people were possessed by evil spirits.
In the case of virtually any identified disease you can go back to a time before it was identified. Pointing to that as proof that it doesn't exist is fairly ridiculous.
In the case of virtually any identified disease you can go back to a time before it was identified. Pointing to that as proof that it doesn't exist is fairly ridiculous.
6
I'm not sure a journalist should be prescribing or even speculating how to overcome a serious mental illness. The cutting edge of neuroscience is barely close to even understanding the basics of PTSD much less prescribing treatment. I'm not sure they would receive well Mr Brooks suggestions such as "trauma often has to be overcome morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case.". I'm wondering why Mr Brooks would think he has the expertise to comment on such a topic?
177
I don't think Mr. Brooks was specifically prescribing treatment as much as he was bringing up an aspect of PTSD that is often overlooked.
1
Mr. David Brooks writes the essay, leaving the comments to us.
One of the dangers with pop-science is when it strays into fields where it can do harm. Writing about space-travel and advances in wearable technology is one thing. Speculating on whether there is a "moral" treatment for a poorly understood illness is quite another.
4
The PTSD of soldiers is discussed more freely in the media because it is a man's problem. Like men who return home from war, rape victims and child sex abuse victims have suffered from PTSD also. I'm not sure they struggle with the moral aspect of their suffering, because they are often silenced before they can even speak a word of their suffering. Perhaps for a true understanding of PTSD to take place, it needs to be examined in a less gender based light.
57
I'm sure the victims you mention have problems that need to be discussed and truly hope that those issues are discussed. However, every time an issue is discussed it's not necessary to turn it into a discussion of gender. This is an op/ed abt a specific aspect of a problem and applies to female veterans as well as male.
1
In 1992 a friend on a humanitarian mission in Egypt was in the desert with three other colleagues, and she relayed long afterwards what had happened in this near fatal story. On entering the backseat of a van, for no reason, she switched places with a journalist, who shortly on their journey took a bullet through the heart and fell across her, dead while she was covered in blood.
She got out, took the driver's seat and drove her colleagues back to safety. Then she collapsed when alone, and sat against a cold wall in a state of trauma and shock.
All this a long time ago, while she continues to hop a plane to the red zone countries of the world. But when she visits here in this apartment, I notice that she is highly sensitive to any noise; the most mundane, and this most likely never change, while she goes forth on her chosen destiny.
It is in her compassionate nature to take up a challenge with fever in her blood (and five large rescue dogs to stave off loneliness, and set up an alarm when strangers come visiting).
She got out, took the driver's seat and drove her colleagues back to safety. Then she collapsed when alone, and sat against a cold wall in a state of trauma and shock.
All this a long time ago, while she continues to hop a plane to the red zone countries of the world. But when she visits here in this apartment, I notice that she is highly sensitive to any noise; the most mundane, and this most likely never change, while she goes forth on her chosen destiny.
It is in her compassionate nature to take up a challenge with fever in her blood (and five large rescue dogs to stave off loneliness, and set up an alarm when strangers come visiting).
3
I can assure you that rape victims can struggle with a personal moral aspect. I was raised in the pre-Vatican II roman church, and was taught from quite a young age through story books of the saints that a 'good' girl dies rather than submit to rape. Defeating that idiocy took a while (and opened my eyes to just how devastating any authoritarian religion can be.)
2
David,
Please have GWBush/Dick Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz read this. The Moral Injury is done by those who sent our citizens to the trumped up wars in Iraq (and a generation earlier to Vietnam).
Please have GWBush/Dick Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz read this. The Moral Injury is done by those who sent our citizens to the trumped up wars in Iraq (and a generation earlier to Vietnam).
246
Please also read your own column. You were and are a supporter of the war in Iraq where America degenerated. We are not a Moral guide but an immoral torturer. We invaded a country for no good reason. America destabilized an entire region. America initiated a secular civil war in Iraq by supporting Allawi and finally Maliki.
Blaming Obama for Syria, ISIS, and for not keeping troops in Iraq, is also immoral. The only meaningful opposition in Syria that was not ISIS is the Shia. The elected government in Iraq refused to allow us to keep troops on the ground in Iraq. It is immoral to lie.
Blaming Obama for Syria, ISIS, and for not keeping troops in Iraq, is also immoral. The only meaningful opposition in Syria that was not ISIS is the Shia. The elected government in Iraq refused to allow us to keep troops on the ground in Iraq. It is immoral to lie.
4
Yet judging by the paintings of Barney and the snarling on-camera lack of contrition, they sleep well at night.
4
Mr. Fieselman; Please stay on topic. This is not about whether or not the United Sates should have fought wars in Vietnam or Iraq. Your recommendation to send this article to Former President Bush and his policy makers does nothing to resolve the issue of how we as a nation should treat combat veterans who suffer from PTSD from any war. Liberals and Conservatives should work together to insure that President Obama and the Congress provide funding to support military veterans who suffer physical and mental wounds as a result of combat. You would have impressed me more if you recommend that this article be sent to President Obama and the Congress as they debate whether or not we should enter a war against ISIS.
The Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex is all to eager to send our military into foreign wars of invasion lasting decades; but unwilling to take care of the vets who suffer from PTSD.
140
Correct. But there is always a supporters' club for that complex, flag wavers, column writers, song writers, all representing a slice of America that is taken to encompass us all.
One thing that might help: don't make preemptive wars on false pretenses. Killing people for no good reason does not work well on the conscience.
237
Your comment addresses your political position not the problems the vets face. If you address vets w the same condescending, self-righteousness, then you're part of the problem.
2
Susan: will you start a petition to Congress and Mr. Boehner, to provide adequate funding for Veterans Affairs?
3
Susan Brooks: You are right up to a point that the problems that the Vets face are now independent of the politics leading up to the Iraq invasion. I did not mean to suggest otherwise. But David Brooks is suggesting that discussions of the morality of the war should replace therapy as a means of ameliorating the conditions of the veterans. Yet that solution has a fatal law: a preemptive war waged on false pretenses cannot be made right, cannot justify what was done, and cannot cure PTSD. Moreover, the self-same Republicans who sent hundreds of thousands of men and women to Iraq are the ones who want to low ball the cost of adequately caring for the vets.
1
The heart of the trauma is perhaps the inability to trust people again.
In his autobiography Aharon Appelfeld, an Israeli author who was a child during the Holocaust, writes about his trauma: “I have notices that people of my generation, who were children during the war, developed a suspicious attitude towards people. During the war I also preferred to be next to objects and animals. Men are unpredictable. A person who appears sensible and calm at first sight may turn out to be a savage, and sometime a murderer”.
onourselvesandothers.com
In his autobiography Aharon Appelfeld, an Israeli author who was a child during the Holocaust, writes about his trauma: “I have notices that people of my generation, who were children during the war, developed a suspicious attitude towards people. During the war I also preferred to be next to objects and animals. Men are unpredictable. A person who appears sensible and calm at first sight may turn out to be a savage, and sometime a murderer”.
onourselvesandothers.com
21
The real trauma, is the avoidance one experiences when back int he USA, having lived in a developing country -- whether for war or foreign aid.
Americans are unable to imagine a world outside themselves, other than hand-outs.
Thus, those who have seen the wider world are often shunned, ignored or belittled by mainstream society.
That is the most injurious offense.
Americans are unable to imagine a world outside themselves, other than hand-outs.
Thus, those who have seen the wider world are often shunned, ignored or belittled by mainstream society.
That is the most injurious offense.
8
Post traumatic stress disorder caused by war a "moral injury", it's sufferers often feel guilt for atrocities of war, feel separated from the "moral universe of regular society"? Healing begins by conversation between regular, moral society--civilians--and veterans with their often "criminal, arbitrary experience of war"?
This sounds good on paper, but the serious problem is that first a veteran of war must have a moral society to return to after atrocity of war and not one which is ambiguous, often duplicitous--one which cons men into war for less than noble reason. In America we have seemingly two strong factions with complex message for veterans returning from war: The "no war at all" people (left wing); and the hawks (right wing) who sadly in so many cases seem to just use people for ignoble ends. The center, politically (left and right) is a mishmash and difficult to grasp coherently...
I feel sad for veterans. The America I know and experience hardly gives basic dignity to an average civilian, so I can hardly imagine a veteran living with atrocity when he knows it was if not in vain then for people who essentially have duped him. In my personal life I have tried to write, deal with truth. My American reward has been people spying on me, who knows how much compromise of my free speech, and even family manipulated to keep watch on my affairs. Of course I could just be suffering from madness...But there is no apparent "moral, regular society" in America for healing...
This sounds good on paper, but the serious problem is that first a veteran of war must have a moral society to return to after atrocity of war and not one which is ambiguous, often duplicitous--one which cons men into war for less than noble reason. In America we have seemingly two strong factions with complex message for veterans returning from war: The "no war at all" people (left wing); and the hawks (right wing) who sadly in so many cases seem to just use people for ignoble ends. The center, politically (left and right) is a mishmash and difficult to grasp coherently...
I feel sad for veterans. The America I know and experience hardly gives basic dignity to an average civilian, so I can hardly imagine a veteran living with atrocity when he knows it was if not in vain then for people who essentially have duped him. In my personal life I have tried to write, deal with truth. My American reward has been people spying on me, who knows how much compromise of my free speech, and even family manipulated to keep watch on my affairs. Of course I could just be suffering from madness...But there is no apparent "moral, regular society" in America for healing...
33
Non-war trauma also leads to exile, to shame, to self disgust. Childhood trauma, especially, is difficult to overcome because it's so easy for a child's memories to be discounted. Historically, combat injuries have stimulated physicians to push the boundaries of medicine. Our current focus on psychological, psychiatric, and brain combat injuries will, hopefully, stimulate all of us to push the boundaries of emotional, psychological, and moral understanding.
7
If PTSD is a moral injury, then it makes sense we would be seeing so much of it after the Iraq war. We had no moral justification for being there. It is the first war in which the Americans at home lived lives that were the antithesis of war. We were told to go out and shop. We partied hard. We were told it was over long before it even began. We were lied to and we lied to ourselves. The soldiers who fought in that war were the ones to experience first hand the particular horrors of starting a war and invading a country that did nothing to us....They were made to carry the pain and suffering and the moral injury of that war alone. we all need to find a way to carry that burden together.
89
The deliberate calculation of the country's leadership to "hide" and sanitize the war by encouraging the population to go about one's consumerist business combined with "feel good" tributes to the professional soldiers (no draft) while closeting their real needs post-deployment; and the brilliant but cynical process of "embedding" reporters with units to manipulate the message, all contributed to a almost sociopathic disconnect of the populace from the killing, mayhem and even our own casualties (no filming of caskets at Dover, warehousing of the wounded).
These wars will continue literally forever until we re-institute the draft and impose an immediate war tax plus other measures to give immediacy to the civilians, plus a disengagement of the strongly pro-war media from the military complex.
The enemy here has also made an enormous mis-calculation by not only denying independent media from access to their side of the conflict but also by outright targeting of reporters. The appalling photos from Viet Nam (napalmed civilians, e.g.) did more to fuel the anti-war movement than any other enemy measure. The US lost that war on the home front (although "winning" in Viet Nam in the traditional manner would turn out to be an elusive concept, even today). By keeping the reporters "pinned up" and enemy stupidity in preventing access to the areas devastated has allowed the :long war" to continue now for decades.
These wars will continue literally forever until we re-institute the draft and impose an immediate war tax plus other measures to give immediacy to the civilians, plus a disengagement of the strongly pro-war media from the military complex.
The enemy here has also made an enormous mis-calculation by not only denying independent media from access to their side of the conflict but also by outright targeting of reporters. The appalling photos from Viet Nam (napalmed civilians, e.g.) did more to fuel the anti-war movement than any other enemy measure. The US lost that war on the home front (although "winning" in Viet Nam in the traditional manner would turn out to be an elusive concept, even today). By keeping the reporters "pinned up" and enemy stupidity in preventing access to the areas devastated has allowed the :long war" to continue now for decades.
1
Can one go to war without compromising his or her value system? Do these volunteers understand the risk they are taking up front? Are they recruited as teenagers because their value systems are still maturing and can be manipulated by dehumanizing the enemy? The positive side of PTSD is the clear message it sends that "this" is not who I am! Much like an alcoholic who kills someone in a car accident can recover and heal by addressing their unacceptable behavior. Veterans with PTSD would benefit greatly by talking to each other, more so then traditional individual therapy.
19
Yes, they are recruited as teenagers because their value systems are still maturing. No one over the age of 30 loves war except non-combatants, which is why old men prey on young men and send them to fight their battles, and perfectly explains Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush.
By the way, if anyone reading this has a teenage son--keep a sharp eye out, military recruiters often don't observe the recruiting rules. They aren't supposed to solicit young men under the age of 16, but they do. And sometimes you have to write your congressman to make them stop.
By the way, if anyone reading this has a teenage son--keep a sharp eye out, military recruiters often don't observe the recruiting rules. They aren't supposed to solicit young men under the age of 16, but they do. And sometimes you have to write your congressman to make them stop.
4
"War is hell" said General Sherman many years ago. Most who have suffered through the horrors and atrocities of war somehow manage to lock the worst of the memories in a closet in the back of the mind. Sometimes though, some trifling event will bring back an isolated memory for a second or so and the horror will be experienced again...maybe a car backfiring or child screaming from terror. But we recover and try to cope with our lives the best we can...
8
All wars, perhaps, have produced veterans who suffered (often in secret) from psychic wounds. No government ever considered this, when the Zeitgeist demanded attack. Our own government is ... slow ... to remediate the women & men injured psychologically in its service (our service, really).
Thank you, David, for examining this at such length. These American veterans deserve better, from each of us individually, & from all of us as a government.
Thank you, David, for examining this at such length. These American veterans deserve better, from each of us individually, & from all of us as a government.
5
I would distinguish survivor guilt from moral guilt. Survivor guilt is not peculiar to war and can surface whenever there is a catastrophe and by chance or quirk you survive while your friend or brother does not. But the soldier who feels moral guilt over committing violent deeds that would be condemned not just by the community he returns to but by who he was before he went to war faces a double burden. If he feels remorse, he dare not express it for fear of betraying his comrades. There's a lot of pressure on veterans not to show remorse because that would be an admission that what they did was wrong. So some end up feeling that what they did was wrong and then feeling disloyal or like cowards for feeling that way. Can we as a community bear to hear what our veterans were ordered to do on our behalf and for what they now hate themselves for doing?
8
Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for a facile conclusion on something you've never experienced. I'm an infantry veteran of Vietnam and I saw a lot of combat. My company suffered at least 200 percent casualties over a 5 month period, including 41 killed in a company that rarely had 90 men in total. There were no civilians in our AO, so that never factored in.
I was a draftee as was most of the infantry by that time (1970), so none of us wanted to be there. There is a moral code in combat; it is of utmost importance in the circumstance and in retrospect I'm amazed at how almost all of us grasped it instinctively. Stand up and fight. Don't shoot yourself in the foot to get out of it. Respect the enemy - they're in the same boat and it's ok for them to be trying to kill you too. When someone is wounded or disarmed they're 'out of it' - when we took prisoners we treated them well. And we understood that all of that only applied to us as combatants. Kent State happened when I was there and we were uniformly angered at the actions of the National Guard. How could you shoot at unarmed people?
We learned the hard way that none of us were powerful enough to control the circumstances of our lives and that the best we could do was to be as moral as we could be in those circumstances. What's the moral code at Donner pass? In Nigeria or Syria? What's the moral code for a man in a boat with a 'tiger'? Tell me that and then judge our morality.
More about PTSD in another post.
I was a draftee as was most of the infantry by that time (1970), so none of us wanted to be there. There is a moral code in combat; it is of utmost importance in the circumstance and in retrospect I'm amazed at how almost all of us grasped it instinctively. Stand up and fight. Don't shoot yourself in the foot to get out of it. Respect the enemy - they're in the same boat and it's ok for them to be trying to kill you too. When someone is wounded or disarmed they're 'out of it' - when we took prisoners we treated them well. And we understood that all of that only applied to us as combatants. Kent State happened when I was there and we were uniformly angered at the actions of the National Guard. How could you shoot at unarmed people?
We learned the hard way that none of us were powerful enough to control the circumstances of our lives and that the best we could do was to be as moral as we could be in those circumstances. What's the moral code at Donner pass? In Nigeria or Syria? What's the moral code for a man in a boat with a 'tiger'? Tell me that and then judge our morality.
More about PTSD in another post.
301
I ask this not to be snide, or to condemn, but with an honest curiosity. Do veterans (or other combatants such as those of the 'other side') of other countries suffer PTSD. Or is PTSD unique to this country, or to other Western countries?
I ask because my curiosity extends to our country's morality and critical introspection. We are raised to be moral people, to care, to share our bounty. And shortly after all of that teaching, because soldiers are mostly very young, our soldiers are thrust into unjust wars that are given to encounters with adults and children whom are not alien to us. We can see in them people in our own families whom we should be protecting, not scaring them, breaking into their homes, and worse.
When these soldiers return, they are again confronted with series of encounters that they feel are judgmental, from the "cheap grace of 'thank you for your service,'" to the silence of others whom the soldiers must feel are judging them negatively.
They must also feel, rightly, that Americans are unfair to judge them, that having been raised to believe that our country is moral, why then were they put into an unending series of encounters that served no purpose other than to cause them physical and emotional harm?
The question remains: Do other combatants (such as those who are considered heroes for committing atrocities) suffer PTSD, or does our often hypocritical claim on moral superiority result in PTSD among our soldiers returning home?
I ask because my curiosity extends to our country's morality and critical introspection. We are raised to be moral people, to care, to share our bounty. And shortly after all of that teaching, because soldiers are mostly very young, our soldiers are thrust into unjust wars that are given to encounters with adults and children whom are not alien to us. We can see in them people in our own families whom we should be protecting, not scaring them, breaking into their homes, and worse.
When these soldiers return, they are again confronted with series of encounters that they feel are judgmental, from the "cheap grace of 'thank you for your service,'" to the silence of others whom the soldiers must feel are judging them negatively.
They must also feel, rightly, that Americans are unfair to judge them, that having been raised to believe that our country is moral, why then were they put into an unending series of encounters that served no purpose other than to cause them physical and emotional harm?
The question remains: Do other combatants (such as those who are considered heroes for committing atrocities) suffer PTSD, or does our often hypocritical claim on moral superiority result in PTSD among our soldiers returning home?
In many dark hours, I've been thinkin' about this,
that Judas Iscariot was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
If Judas Iscariot had God on his side.
Your story made those words by Bob Dylan come to my mind.
that Judas Iscariot was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
If Judas Iscariot had God on his side.
Your story made those words by Bob Dylan come to my mind.
2
Meaning no disrespect, but how can you have a casualty rate of 200 percent? Are you saying that all the soldiers were injured twice>
There is much irony in warmaking. The conscientious objector, if allowed to exist across society, eventually hits a wall of outrage as fellow citizens draw the line after which retribution is justified. It is a line drawn from judgment, and it is not an objective fact. So the objector, compelled to inaction, eventually crosses over to the line to villain.
So, too, with the warriors. Sent to fight WWII, permission is granted for the violence. "Hero's welcome" is the treatment upon returning home. That same soldier, returning from a war assigned to him, is ridiculed and ignored by his fellow citizens. The government is not the villain. It is the soldier, the pawn.
Your column reminds us that, as Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessup screams: "You want me on that wall; you need me on that wall".
We are uncomfortable with what we are when stripped down to our fears, and we realize too little and too late that we have sent others out to do our bidding.
Nobody should go to war. But we live amidst others who are or can be mortal enemies. And, in those times, the conscientious objector becomes a speed bump. Would that we remember that when each of our soldiers returns home to peace and safety.
So, too, with the warriors. Sent to fight WWII, permission is granted for the violence. "Hero's welcome" is the treatment upon returning home. That same soldier, returning from a war assigned to him, is ridiculed and ignored by his fellow citizens. The government is not the villain. It is the soldier, the pawn.
Your column reminds us that, as Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessup screams: "You want me on that wall; you need me on that wall".
We are uncomfortable with what we are when stripped down to our fears, and we realize too little and too late that we have sent others out to do our bidding.
Nobody should go to war. But we live amidst others who are or can be mortal enemies. And, in those times, the conscientious objector becomes a speed bump. Would that we remember that when each of our soldiers returns home to peace and safety.
19
Poor Stuart.
He seem think that pre-emptive strikes and endless wars are necessary to protect American's national security.
We really don't need that many men on the wall. This ain't no movie.
Haven't you learned that yet??
(When will you, Stuart? When everyone is dead, everywhere in the world??)
He seem think that pre-emptive strikes and endless wars are necessary to protect American's national security.
We really don't need that many men on the wall. This ain't no movie.
Haven't you learned that yet??
(When will you, Stuart? When everyone is dead, everywhere in the world??)
2
Maybe it is simply failed or unrequited heroics because people kept returning to battle thinking that they might achieve adulation and praise. A process of neurosis due to loud noises, injury and death. The immoral aspect is the false praise society directs at war makers that is essentially recruitment elixlers for the next batch of volunteers. Mr. Brooks, as a conservative, knows the process and understands war cost but also the need for the follow along recurits.
4
When a sense of morality for a person becomes a code of honor and duty, and hearing the echoes of the last words of the author Saki, a pacifist, who died in the trenches in 1916 shouting to his fellow soldiers 'Put that bloody cigarette out' followed by the sound of a rifle-shot.
War always a crime? Not so. While war may be all the things you describe, you miss the whole concept of a 'just war'. Were the US actions in WW II and I crimes? Of course not. Were crimes committed during those wars? Yes, that happens once a war starts. How did that generation of warriors overcome their PTSD? Did the our society suffer PTSD when we set off two nuclear bombs? It should have. David, you need to go 'deeper', by asking what in the culture has changed in the present generation from that of WW II. Go back and re-read the word 'blameworthy'. Just who is blaming who?
5
Um, that generation of veterans did not overcome their PTSD. My father didn't have a goodnight's sleep for sixty years before he died. Many Boomer children of WWII vets lived with fathers partially disabled by depression and nightmares, or worse, alcoholism and divorce.
7
" How did that generation of warriors overcome their PTSD? "
-----------------------
Some say, the bonding between soldiers on the loooong ship rides home allowed them to distance themselves. Some just shut up, and kept it inside. Also, a good percentage of America was affected by the wars. It was a very different homeland they were returning to after WWII.
Of course there was mental illness, but there was also more support services provided, a GI bill, and let's not forget: eventually, a booming postwar economy that provided a new routine, hope, and paychecks that helped build families.
Today's vets -- who fly back home within hours, and are often confronted by well-meaning armchair warriors and disaffected others -- face a very different reality.
-----------------------
Some say, the bonding between soldiers on the loooong ship rides home allowed them to distance themselves. Some just shut up, and kept it inside. Also, a good percentage of America was affected by the wars. It was a very different homeland they were returning to after WWII.
Of course there was mental illness, but there was also more support services provided, a GI bill, and let's not forget: eventually, a booming postwar economy that provided a new routine, hope, and paychecks that helped build families.
Today's vets -- who fly back home within hours, and are often confronted by well-meaning armchair warriors and disaffected others -- face a very different reality.
1
The great moral injury is the hijacking of America by self professed Christians and Conservatives who divorced themselves from the values and philosophies of Jefferson, Franklin and Adams.
America inherited an intellectual and philosophical tradition from the likes of Milton and Voltaire and chose to go with the facile and vile scoundrel Edmund Burke.
I cannot help when reading today's David Brooks of the Metaphysical Philosopher poet and artist who shared Jefferson's spiritual and religious beliefs and seems with the passage of time to have understood the angst and the confusion of 21st century America.
William Blake's Tyger seems the distillation of America's fight with PTSD. Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
America inherited an intellectual and philosophical tradition from the likes of Milton and Voltaire and chose to go with the facile and vile scoundrel Edmund Burke.
I cannot help when reading today's David Brooks of the Metaphysical Philosopher poet and artist who shared Jefferson's spiritual and religious beliefs and seems with the passage of time to have understood the angst and the confusion of 21st century America.
William Blake's Tyger seems the distillation of America's fight with PTSD. Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
60
I think the opportunity for reflection is lost when writers like you throw around Conservatives and Christians and terms or art for anyone who represents your intellectual (and moral) opposite.
Brooks writes columns that this readership claims are "convervative". I find him to be marginally conservative and more thoroughly thoughtful. It would be terrific if those writing could take his initiation of self-reflection and hold it up to all, rather than the hobby horses who supposedly represent your intellectual inferiors.
The sniffing arrogance of a Liberal is off-putting, as are the ten references to all of your supposed intellectual forebears.
Brooks writes columns that this readership claims are "convervative". I find him to be marginally conservative and more thoroughly thoughtful. It would be terrific if those writing could take his initiation of self-reflection and hold it up to all, rather than the hobby horses who supposedly represent your intellectual inferiors.
The sniffing arrogance of a Liberal is off-putting, as are the ten references to all of your supposed intellectual forebears.
1
Stuart,
Suffering from a lack of a common language and only 1500 characters I must use those terms. I would love to reflect on the Christianity I share with Jefferson, Adams and Franklin but in 20th century America they are Deists. I would like to again call myself a conservative but the correctly identified by Gore Vidal fascist William F Buckley Jr destroyed my ability to call myself conservative.
I have enjoyed more than my fair share of time for reflection and as I grow older I realize I have more to learn than anybody. I am no liberal and in our time of incredible technological advancement the opportunity to study Blake, Milton, Jefferson and Franklin should be open to all. so that the Borks and Scalias of this world would not have the opportunity to distort and corrupt the American birthright.
Suffering from a lack of a common language and only 1500 characters I must use those terms. I would love to reflect on the Christianity I share with Jefferson, Adams and Franklin but in 20th century America they are Deists. I would like to again call myself a conservative but the correctly identified by Gore Vidal fascist William F Buckley Jr destroyed my ability to call myself conservative.
I have enjoyed more than my fair share of time for reflection and as I grow older I realize I have more to learn than anybody. I am no liberal and in our time of incredible technological advancement the opportunity to study Blake, Milton, Jefferson and Franklin should be open to all. so that the Borks and Scalias of this world would not have the opportunity to distort and corrupt the American birthright.
4
Burke's writings give us a lens on an island at a time when its inhabitants struggled to throw off the oldest and heaviest colonial yolk that ever was. Within his lifetime the Irish patriots knew only failure, and Ireland missed its chance to be a 21st century European powerhouse with the wealth and population of Britain, France, or Germany. Today we see an island divided, still building up its own government out of colonial leftovers, still struggling with religious overreach, just beginning to enjoy its first taste of prosperity, and still nowhere close to its population of 1800. Irish diaspora live on around the world because their ancestors gave up on where they came from. That one man's writings would spark a pamphlet war is telling of the insecurity of his time. A quote from Burke's 'Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents' has been paraphrased as "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." This is an observation that will always and forever ring true in the ear of responsible governments. This man's life was not easy. But then again, maybe 'facile' and 'vile' are in the eye of the beholder. Voltaire wrote off sunny and beautiful Westpark as a 'few acres of snow' from the aristocratic parlours of pre-revolutionary Paris, and what happened? His world is no more, and Canada went its own way. And the philosophies of Jefferson?(SEE NEXT)
PTSD is a diagnosed mental illness. often taken to disabling levels. It's not a glamorous "soldier's disease". Mr. Brooks means well, but those truly suffering from the mental illness need more than well-meaning listeners can provide via talk therapy. Let's not glamorize PTSD, or the horrible moral choices that soldiers make. This is the collateral damage, the same as sawing off a limb, except so many more innocents are exposed (families, communities, strangers) here at home.
This is a costly expense -- paying for the disabled and mentally ill caused by our wars. It should not be shunted onto the public, who might mean well but cannot, and should not, be asked to "fix" these mental illnesses through talking or listening. Please be for real, or don't write on topics like this, which have real-world consequences for so many, Mr. Brooks.
True, trained professional help is needed. And it will cost, dearly.
NO! = "Sherman, a philosopher at Georgetown University, emphasizes that most of the work will have to be done at the micro level — through individual conversations between veterans and civilians that go beyond the cheap grace of “thank you for your service.” The conversations have to deal with the individual facts of each case. The goal is to get veterans to adopt the stance of a friendly observer, to make clear how limited choices are when one is caught in a random, tragic situation, to arrive at catharsis and self-forgiveness about what was actually blameworthy"
This is a costly expense -- paying for the disabled and mentally ill caused by our wars. It should not be shunted onto the public, who might mean well but cannot, and should not, be asked to "fix" these mental illnesses through talking or listening. Please be for real, or don't write on topics like this, which have real-world consequences for so many, Mr. Brooks.
True, trained professional help is needed. And it will cost, dearly.
NO! = "Sherman, a philosopher at Georgetown University, emphasizes that most of the work will have to be done at the micro level — through individual conversations between veterans and civilians that go beyond the cheap grace of “thank you for your service.” The conversations have to deal with the individual facts of each case. The goal is to get veterans to adopt the stance of a friendly observer, to make clear how limited choices are when one is caught in a random, tragic situation, to arrive at catharsis and self-forgiveness about what was actually blameworthy"
15
@Midway
I think what you are trying to say, in between insulting Brooks and inserting comments about "glamorized soldiers" is that you oppose war under all circumstances. Therefore, any effort to name or treat those morally/mentally in a compassionate way is disallowed.
As much as I share the ideal of a world without war, it seems that there are many who disagree; and they are not all Republicans nor are they Americans.
Could we talk about the existence of evil in the world or are humans inherently good-natured, absent the occasional Dick Cheney?
I think what you are trying to say, in between insulting Brooks and inserting comments about "glamorized soldiers" is that you oppose war under all circumstances. Therefore, any effort to name or treat those morally/mentally in a compassionate way is disallowed.
As much as I share the ideal of a world without war, it seems that there are many who disagree; and they are not all Republicans nor are they Americans.
Could we talk about the existence of evil in the world or are humans inherently good-natured, absent the occasional Dick Cheney?
1
David's a big boy, and a public figure to boot. I'm sure he can handle a little honest disagreement, in good faith, from others who perhaps know more with r/l experience about PTSD than some well-meaning philosopher.
As for your wanting "a world without war", it will never happen. That's why: once military force is committed, it should be a well-defined mission, capable of being carried out.
Not vague, ill defined, community building with guns posing as "war(s)".
The best thing we can do for soldiers (who do not have glamorized lives, nor for whom PTSD is a glamorized disease -- reread as you have misintepreted here) is to not downplay their mental illnesses, nor to expect their civilian support groups to provide the extensive professional/medical therapy they need.
Also, plenty of non-military vets suffer from PTSD. A world without war will not end this, so let's be honest about what can and cannot be solved by well-meaning columnists (who seem to neatly and cleanly solve two problems per week, on deadline.) ;-)
As for your wanting "a world without war", it will never happen. That's why: once military force is committed, it should be a well-defined mission, capable of being carried out.
Not vague, ill defined, community building with guns posing as "war(s)".
The best thing we can do for soldiers (who do not have glamorized lives, nor for whom PTSD is a glamorized disease -- reread as you have misintepreted here) is to not downplay their mental illnesses, nor to expect their civilian support groups to provide the extensive professional/medical therapy they need.
Also, plenty of non-military vets suffer from PTSD. A world without war will not end this, so let's be honest about what can and cannot be solved by well-meaning columnists (who seem to neatly and cleanly solve two problems per week, on deadline.) ;-)
1
In WW1 and WW11, there were way more tragedies of the sort Mr Brooks described but way less number of PTSD.
Why?
Why?
6
@In NY - PTSD was poorly recognized in WWI & WWII - and called by shaming names - 'shell shocked' and 'battle fatigue' - men were given pep talks and sent back into battle more readily as the reaction was viewed purely as weakness and/or moral failing... maybe not fewer cases, but less ability to see the problem in the first place.
37
In many cases, it was rather crudely called shell-shock, likely afflicting Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, to name one famous example. Until very recently, it was rather convenient to pretend that psychological injures were not "real" injuries.
25
Possibly because during WWI and WWWII most of the soldiers were drafted and therefore had at least an excuse (they made me do it).
Today we have an all volunteer armed forces. These young people decided to go to war. For whatever reason, money, job, bravado (the country does exalt them and make them heroes), they choose to go to war and then suffer the consequences of the choice they made to kill people.
This country glorifies war and when those vets come back they discover there is nothing glamorous about war only tragedy. Furthermore innocent young people, teenagers, in fact (we know the brain is not fully developed yet) are indoctrinated to be killers without really understanding the seriousness of what they are doing. It's like playing those violent war video games that they play all the time, the only difference being one is real and the other not so. (We do not allow teen agers to drink, get married, etc, yet we allow them to make the decision to join the Armed Forces.)
Today we have an all volunteer armed forces. These young people decided to go to war. For whatever reason, money, job, bravado (the country does exalt them and make them heroes), they choose to go to war and then suffer the consequences of the choice they made to kill people.
This country glorifies war and when those vets come back they discover there is nothing glamorous about war only tragedy. Furthermore innocent young people, teenagers, in fact (we know the brain is not fully developed yet) are indoctrinated to be killers without really understanding the seriousness of what they are doing. It's like playing those violent war video games that they play all the time, the only difference being one is real and the other not so. (We do not allow teen agers to drink, get married, etc, yet we allow them to make the decision to join the Armed Forces.)
43
The real trauma, particularly vis a vis the needless, trumped up waste of the Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, was that the intellectual authors, to a man, were Viet Nam dodging cowards.
Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Bolton either hid out in the National Guard or, miraculously avoided the draft. By comparison, my high school class has three names on the black wall in DC, and seven of us who survived, more or less intact.
Our two most disastrous yet gung ho pro war Presidents, Reagan and Bush the Lesser both actively dodged going to war. Blissfully ignorant of the horror of war they played tough guys with the lives of other people's children and the lives of innocent Iranians, Iraqis and Afghans.
An even better book than the ones mentioned is Christopher Shay's.
"Achilles in Viet Nam: Combat Trauma and The Undoing of Personality".
Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Bolton either hid out in the National Guard or, miraculously avoided the draft. By comparison, my high school class has three names on the black wall in DC, and seven of us who survived, more or less intact.
Our two most disastrous yet gung ho pro war Presidents, Reagan and Bush the Lesser both actively dodged going to war. Blissfully ignorant of the horror of war they played tough guys with the lives of other people's children and the lives of innocent Iranians, Iraqis and Afghans.
An even better book than the ones mentioned is Christopher Shay's.
"Achilles in Viet Nam: Combat Trauma and The Undoing of Personality".
371
Just to correct the record a bit, it was a veteran, President Kennedy, who sent the first advisors to Viet Nam. And it was President George H.W. Bush who first invaded Kuwait/Iraq against Hussein. Going to war is not the exclusive province of draft dodgers.
The world forgets the terror of seeing our own commercial airplanes fly into our most cherised buildings. While no one can argue that Iraq is a great success, it is always a long and blurred line from involvement to resolution. You would no doubt distinguish between Kennedy's impulse, in Viet Nam and in Cuba, and Nixon's move against Cambodia. So, too, you should draw a blurring line between removing Hussein, morally ambiguous, and Obama leaving countries to devolve into violence. In the months and years immediately following 09/11, there was not an American who was not awakened to mortal fear and the vulnerability that event triggered. If you disagree, perhaps you will join me in dismantling the TSA. Contemporary fear is disproportionate to the personal threat of harm in a world of suicide bombers and terrorists with American and European passports.
Walking from fights when you have all the power is never easy or forgivable. Ask the Sudanese, the Rwandans or the Nigerians how they feel about Americans.
I try never to call someone "stupid", "coward", "ignorant". Being right is a tough act to follow, so I have chosen to be "circumspect".
The world forgets the terror of seeing our own commercial airplanes fly into our most cherised buildings. While no one can argue that Iraq is a great success, it is always a long and blurred line from involvement to resolution. You would no doubt distinguish between Kennedy's impulse, in Viet Nam and in Cuba, and Nixon's move against Cambodia. So, too, you should draw a blurring line between removing Hussein, morally ambiguous, and Obama leaving countries to devolve into violence. In the months and years immediately following 09/11, there was not an American who was not awakened to mortal fear and the vulnerability that event triggered. If you disagree, perhaps you will join me in dismantling the TSA. Contemporary fear is disproportionate to the personal threat of harm in a world of suicide bombers and terrorists with American and European passports.
Walking from fights when you have all the power is never easy or forgivable. Ask the Sudanese, the Rwandans or the Nigerians how they feel about Americans.
I try never to call someone "stupid", "coward", "ignorant". Being right is a tough act to follow, so I have chosen to be "circumspect".
5
I'm glad someone mentioned that book, excellent!
4
Stuart, would that I could recommend your comment one hundred times.
1
The flashbacks of PTSD -- those recurring memories of a traumatic event that come to mind completely unbidden, crowding out normal thoughts and interrupting normal activities -- are a completely natural reaction to trauma.
Flashbacks are simply the mind's desperate, but futile, attempt to fix the past -- to change history, to repair what's been broken. The mind returns again and again to the events of the trauma to hunt for the missing way out, the overlooked escape route, the alternate path that would have prevented the trauma. ("What if I had done things differently, gone somewhere else, arrived there earlier -- or later, done this instead of that, avoided this or that, never said what I said, pursued a different career, lived a different life, been a different person altogether -- never been born....")
Flashbacks are the mind's ceaseless search for an Undo button.
As such, PTSD as a symptom of the first of the Five Stages of Grief: denial.
But, because we are powerless to change the past, the genuine fix that is needed -- the escape from the awful things being felt and thought -- will not be found in the past.
The fix lies only in the way forward -- through the remaining stages of grief.
Flashbacks are simply the mind's desperate, but futile, attempt to fix the past -- to change history, to repair what's been broken. The mind returns again and again to the events of the trauma to hunt for the missing way out, the overlooked escape route, the alternate path that would have prevented the trauma. ("What if I had done things differently, gone somewhere else, arrived there earlier -- or later, done this instead of that, avoided this or that, never said what I said, pursued a different career, lived a different life, been a different person altogether -- never been born....")
Flashbacks are the mind's ceaseless search for an Undo button.
As such, PTSD as a symptom of the first of the Five Stages of Grief: denial.
But, because we are powerless to change the past, the genuine fix that is needed -- the escape from the awful things being felt and thought -- will not be found in the past.
The fix lies only in the way forward -- through the remaining stages of grief.
45
War is like religion. It arises from primitive instincts that are incompatible with our intellect, which is a very recent human development. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly that we are half a chromosome removed from a chimpanzee. No matter how horrible war is, no matter the moral or physical injuries that will result, no matter how many towns are destroyed in order to save them, no matter that the seeds of the next war are sown in each victory, we are unable to extricate ourselves from its grip.
PTSD is not an illness. It's the natural consequence of the human mind rebelling against participating in the amoral cruelty of our more primitive selves. A being who can see the consequences of his actions and who can empathize with his enemy is poorly equipped to engage in war.
One of our other instincts is to follow the alpha male into battle. But these days, the alpha male doesn't usually lead the charge. He sits far removed from the conflict. Sometimes he lies us into wars that aren't justified by the facts, and that have far-reaching and ruinous consequences. Sometimes these leaders are called war criminals. Sometimes they retire peacefully and paint naked pictures of themselves, or wander the country with a borrowed heart and foment more misery.
When we mature enough as a species, we may outgrow our need for war. Until then, soldiers will have to suffer for the moral failings of their leaders.
PTSD is not an illness. It's the natural consequence of the human mind rebelling against participating in the amoral cruelty of our more primitive selves. A being who can see the consequences of his actions and who can empathize with his enemy is poorly equipped to engage in war.
One of our other instincts is to follow the alpha male into battle. But these days, the alpha male doesn't usually lead the charge. He sits far removed from the conflict. Sometimes he lies us into wars that aren't justified by the facts, and that have far-reaching and ruinous consequences. Sometimes these leaders are called war criminals. Sometimes they retire peacefully and paint naked pictures of themselves, or wander the country with a borrowed heart and foment more misery.
When we mature enough as a species, we may outgrow our need for war. Until then, soldiers will have to suffer for the moral failings of their leaders.
428
Plato once said that only the dead have seen the end of war and I'm afraid he was right. In all my study of history I've failed to see much maturing as a species.
18
5
@Peace,
Of course I meant that PTSD is "not an illness" in a purely rhetorical sense. It's a normal reaction that occurs to normal people are thrust into a grotesquely abnormal situation. Yet even knowing the staggering human, political and economic costs of war, we still find reasons to justify it. The real illness is our failure to imagine alternatives, and to think that war is somehow inevitable.
Of course I meant that PTSD is "not an illness" in a purely rhetorical sense. It's a normal reaction that occurs to normal people are thrust into a grotesquely abnormal situation. Yet even knowing the staggering human, political and economic costs of war, we still find reasons to justify it. The real illness is our failure to imagine alternatives, and to think that war is somehow inevitable.
18
edge for a big reason: That I was betrayed by our government and military heads because they would not let us win those wars because of political reasons.
As an example, after hard fought battles in Iraq where we suffered heavy casualities, we have now just abandoned those places to an enemy. We just sit on our hind end and watch the events in Iraq and everywhere else too. What a shameful President and Congress.