THE TRAUMA OF WAR

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21506

THE TRAUMA OF WAR
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2007-04-19 11:46. Media

By Linda G. Gochfeld, MD

I am speaking as a physician, a psychiatrist, a long-time member of the Coalition for Peace Action and Physicians for Social Responsibility. I want to talk about the medical and psychiatric consequences of this horrendous, inexcusable war.

Most Americans want the war to end, but President Bush wants to send 21,000 more young people to sacrifice for his failed policy. His plan would heap more disaster on disaster. The ongoing occupation has led to the deaths of over 650,000 Iraqui men, women and children as of last June-the report of a careful study by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.(1) 500 people are dying each day from the chaos caused by our invasion. The President won't tell you that.

We know there have been over 3000 American deaths. That's just the tip of the iceberg. We don't get official figures of the serious injuries, the maiming, the lost limbs, the permanent brain injuries. You have to search hard to find the 31,500 who have been airlifted out (2) 90% of the wounded survive due to modern medicine, many more than in other wars. But in what condition? Here is a description in the New England Journal of Medicine (3) “The airman lost one leg above the knee, the other at the hip, his right hand, and part of his face. How he and others like him will be able to live and function remains an open question.” The President won't tell you about that.

These men and women have experienced unimaginable trauma: repeated sudden deaths and injuries around them, seeing women and children killed, and guilt about their own participation. This has devastating psychological effects: PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, with flashbacks, nightmares, anger, emotional numbing, and serious effects on relationships. These effects linger for years: 15% of Vietnam veterans are still suffering. (4)

There are 580,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan now: the VA reports (5) that one in 6 has already been diagnosed with PTSD, but many more will come. Anger, alcoholism, and divorce rates have all gone up, destroying these young families. (6) There have been at least 59 suicides of soldiers in Iraq. (7) The President won't tell you all that.

Bush's plan would only subject more and more people to this terrible experience, in a war justified only by lies and self-interest. The effects are lifelong. I have a friend, Joel, who is 92 years old and fought in the Pacific in 1943. His life has been entirely shaped by that experience-trauma causes lasting effects on the brain. 60 years later, he still wakes with nightmares of battle. He writes of the combat death of his friend as if it were yesterday. He still sees a psychiatrist at the VA hospital, and on his way out he stops to talk to the young Iraq veterans coming in, and tells them to be sure to get help for their PTSD, not to pretend they're OK as so many of them do. I am doing this for you, Joel, and our other heroes and victims, so that we don't go on with this senseless violence and damage forever.

1. The Lancet, 10/14/06 (Burnham et al.) Johns Hopkins Public Health News Center, 10/11/06 , the Washington Post 10/11/06
2. www.icasualties.org, 1/10/07
3. New England Journal of Medicine, 12/9/04 (Gawande)
4. NEJM 7/1/04 (Hoge et al.)
5. Department of Veterans Affairs, Cox News Service, NY Times Syndicate 1/10/07
6. Army Post-Deployment Reassessment Survey, July 2005
7. Jelinek, Associated Press, 12/19/06