April 7, 2008
by Robert W. Barker
Suicides among US troops are increasing at a higher rate than at any time in history, as we demand that people repeat tours in Iraq. Vast increases of violent crimes by returning Iraqi- Afghanistan veterans within the USA signify the culture of violence spreading. The cost of this Iraqi war is borne in massive death and physical injury, as well as increasing monetary loss. Yet it may be that the cost in psychological damage to the American troops and our collective psyche is the most vastly under-estimated negative factor.
Psst, America did you forget about Iraq?
We hate to interrupt this Hillary-Obama-McCain fixation, your focus on an economic down turn, high health care costs, exorbitant gas prices, death of the dollar or your latest dance team...or worse yet...American Idol, but put down the beer and chips or Ice cream and tune in. We are being driven to ruin daily by a war that is virtually ignored.
Measuring the damage suffered as a nation in this dark Iraqi conflict is a vast undertaking of numerous variables that all speak of failure and future cost. We are aware of the over four thousand American servicemen deaths, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, millions displaced and refuges created in surrounding countries. Weapons lost or stolen, billions literally misplaced, strategies failed, torture allowed and mercenaries encouraged.
Billions of interest loaded cash is thrown into the desert pit monthly and the Chenyburton war with no real agenda goal or reason and we ignore it like an embarrassing distant cousin.
All this is obvious, yet the hidden cost to our neglected infrastructure and the psychological impact of returning injured, over worked, battled fatigued, homicidal or suicidal people is vastly underrated.
Military personal placed in occupied areas, with insurgents that sneak attack their comrades in arms with guerilla tactics, roadside bombs, suicide bombers, creates extreme prejudice and hatred in the minds of the occupying troops.
Soon, the locals are no longer viewed as humans, and the general population becomes suspect, those circumstances place these military people in an, "Atrocity Producing Zone."
In this hostile environment surrounded by people that may or may not be the enemy, everyone is potentially dangerous. A simple act of walking into a place of business to purchase cigarettes or a soda could result in ones death - this anxiety breeds mental anguish and that turns into violent or depressive reactions. Military Service people in Iraq serve in constant defensive postures, tension breeds animosity and death of one's service mate's produces intense reactions and off hand revenge.
The Green Zone in Baghdad is the safety base and outside is viewed as enemy territory and all civilian people as possible enemies; creating an acute trepidation that can verge on or become paranoia. Atrocities of rape, mass murder and other dark scenarios have been laid at the feet of our own people both in Iraq and now in the USA, and as the bellum goes on and the tensions ebb and flow we will see additional atrocities on all sides.
Death and violence follow the troops home.
The result of all this wanton violence and unnecessary conflict is additional misery for the USA, in sociological terms we pay for the mental anguish produced by poor policy.
In January 08 the New York Times reported that at least 121 Iraq, Afghanistan veterans have committed homicide in the USA, or facing charges in crimes involving murder, after returning from combat. The Times tells us it also logged 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel or new veterans in the six years since US military invasion commenced in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. That statistic represents an 89% increase over the previous six-year period, according to the N.Y.Times. About three-quarters of these homicides involved Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, a pattern starts to develop here and it is not good.
Neither the Pentagon nor the federal Justice Department keeps up with such murder or crime statistics by returning vets, and they are generally prosecuted in local or state civilian courts, so few people follow the bouncing ball.
The NY Times did just that and the ball is bouncing to a violent beat.
Are we socializing or conditioning people to create violence in indiscriminate ways and when they return they continue to live out this reality?
"Socialized for atrocity" is the phrase that seems to fit this convoluted and sad scenario, and in Iraq and it is all for nebulous reasons at best. Some will bring this attitude home and become violent, others internalize it and grow suicidal and both are ticking time bombs of danger to the civilian population of both Iraq and the USA.
When bellum has a perceived and agreed on clear agenda, when ground is gained, people freed from oppression, political lessons learned, moral platitudes sought, war {while never desirable} can have some positive attributes that one can point out, and in general far less psychological damage is wrought upon the combatants. Conflict in that light makes some sense, and provides the psychological lift that plain old "purpose" gives the human spirit.
When reasons for bellum are vague and justification changed on altering circumstance, the platform of moral grounds crumbles beneath the combatants feet leaving psychological conflicts within the individual soldiers mind. Conflict based on prevarication's, distortions, political or financial gain for a limited few; begins to produce an attitude of compromised moral platitudes. An intrinsically immoral war becomes a personal Hell for those that wage it, and they bring this attitude home.
Let me make one thing clear this is not the typical American in Iraq, most of our people operate with morals and conduct themselves in a fashion we can be proud of, yet there are many exceptions and this conflict breeds psychological weariness and sociopathic or depressive conditioning.
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A suicide epidemic is underway like never before in military history.
More veterans from the desert wars take their own lives per capita then in any war in American history. Just last year CBS did a News investigation found that in 05 there were at least 6256 suicides among those that served in the armed forces recently. It comes out to 120 suicides per week and the majority was serving in Iraq. Suicide is epidemic among Iraq veterans and the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is often left untreated or ignored leaving a potential time bomb ticking.
One sad example out of thousands is Jeffery Lucey son of Joyce and Kevin Lucey who committed suicide following his tour in Iraq in 2004. His mother Joyce was quoted as saying:" My son was betrayed first by a government who sent him to war and then by the Veterans Administration for not giving him the treatment he needed."
Many veterans and their advocate groups are reporting that the VA is ignoring Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or treating it in an unprofessional manner. Veterans Administration figures for certain age groups were studied and two seemed to jump off the page. Troops of the ages between 20 and 24 are those most likely to have served during the Iraq-Afghan wars, suicide attempts in this age group rose from 11 to 47 in one year. And for vets ages 55 to 59, suicide attempts jumped from 19 to 117, the older ones seem to have a harder time dealing with it.
Jeff and many others died from this shameless bellum but their names will never be on a memorial wall, no heroes burial and they are not considered casualties of war. Nonetheless the Iraq war killed them. Our people are burnt out psychologically in dismay and unappreciated and we wonder why they are suicidal or homicidal. And the injured face below standard recovery programs and a possible bill for medical services.
Outside the Green Zone
Dawn and the intense sun beckons morning in the hot sands of Iraq, another day in a war torn country and hope is thin for the average citizen. Trash heaps grow in the streets and electricity is intermittent at best. The surge that Baghdad really needs is an electrical surge, the escalation truly necessary is trash clean up and general police work.
Huddling together, families are praying they can have a secure nights sleep, while outside their doors the chaos and civil war rages on for years, Iraqis are sadly growing used to the chaos.
Death is common, morgues busy 24 hours a day, children disappear and families wiped out for the ethnicity or tribe affiliations. No one is sure who the real culprit is, for every sectarian group; each Iraqi soldier or American troop can fetch tragic consequences or complete downfall to anyone caught out at night, or at times even in broad daylight.
Sunnis blame Shiites, and vise a versa, Kurds stretch for power, Christians hide, and other groups grope for a place in this convoluted place. Millions have fled Iraq and fill refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and other Arab nations as well as the West. Murdering, raping, pillaging lifestyle that has no goals or positive conclusion for extended periods tends to leave human beings in a sociopathic depression. We read the stories of the confused people that return with horror accounts or shocked systems numbed by the violence and sense of frustration they experienced in Iraq.
The so called "Surge" was not the accurate basis for the short term drop in violence, it was the US buying off of tribal leaders and the neighborhood ethnic cleansing that has occurred since the war started. Now that the Sunni neighborhoods and the Shiite hoods are more homogeneous the tension has eased a little. And certain warlords and clerics have been cooperating for various favors and political clout. Yet they will resurge and this last few weeks the Shiite cleric al Sadr proved that his militia may be finished appeasing the Americans, and fights broke out ironically as John McCain claimed we were winning. Al Sadr later told his Mahdi to back off and tensions eased so one is not being a genius when we say Sadr is the de facto Shiite leader in Iraq.
Rape and murder by our own
Our homes, laws and infrastructure provide a modicum of safety and security here in the West - in Iraqi dwellings laws or lost infrastructure are no guarantees of comfort or refuge, occupants may be rudely awakened in the middle of the night and rousted or worse.
One of the most tragic of all the crimes perpetuated on the Iraqi people is the rape of their daughters and the deaths of witnesses to cover sexual crimes; this has been laid at the feet of Americans as well as insurgents.
Witness the rape of a fourteen-year-old girl and the murder of her family carried out by four US soldiers in Mahmoudiya, Including one PFC Steven D. Green. in March 06. These young Americans planned her rape as they observed her from a checkpoint they manned, she was young and even though dressed modestly she became a focus of violent lust. Later these four young men raped the child, killed her family, and burned her home down; all to cover the heinous crime of rape. And rape has become all too commonplace in the Iraq conflict, most rapes are never reported due to the stigma it brings.
Marine Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza gave sworn testimony and evidence he was ordered to execute civilians under the command of Sergeant Frank Wuterich, and Mendoza refused to carry out said order. This is an everyday possibility in this conflict, and statistics prove it is underreported. This case is rare in that Mendoza refused an order and it was reported, most such incidence are hidden in deep dark corners of our peoples minds.
Crimes against the Iraqi people are carried out by Insurgents that place bombs in crowded areas for maximum impact, or execute a busload of people for their ethnicity, yet we are not much better.
Meanwhile our tax dollars go towards the torture, maiming, raping and killing of Iraqis to bring "peace" to Iraq - minute nuances in perception are all that separate Coalition troops or Blackwater mercenaries from "Terrorists."
Examples of the psychological damage this conflict has had on many citizens serving in Iraq are numerous, the few sited here are a small number of the atrocities blamed on US military or the Blackwater thugs.
Murder rates and suicide epidemics by returning veterans are smothered in the birth canal of corporate media, few people are even aware of this psychological cost of Chenyburton's Iraq. And as we remain distracted by entertainment, economic and political issues the war for Cheny-Burton's profit's drags on - every day our costs rise, both morally and fiscally we are drowning in the blood of Iraq.
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Robert W. Barker [send him email] is a writer, professional photographer and travel aficionado from Eureka Ca. His work is carried on many web sites around the globe, a first novel recently copyrighted in the library of Congress, is soon to be published.
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