Suicides, family breakups, depression and social stigma are a legacy of Iraq

[Bluebear]

NEW YORK (AFP) - Suicides, family breakups, depression and social stigma are just some of the hidden legacies of the Iraq war among the more than one million US troops who have served in the campaign.

While nearly 4,000 American troops have been killed in the war and more than 29,000 have been wounded, those who escape physical injury still stand a high chance of developing psychological scars that may stay with them for life.

Some have watched comrades die or witnessed unspeakable carnage, while others may have found it hard to come to terms with the trauma of killing...

The study, by the group Veterans for America, found that the mental health care provided for soldiers did not meet the psychological burden they had suffered during repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080317/hl_afp/iraqwar5yearsushealth

[Skittles]

1. I cannot take much more of that fucking clown, PT

I hope he rots in hell

[Droopy]

2. We all knew that was coming

I wonder why most Americans didn't? The effects of war on Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans wasn't buried too far back in our history. It was still in the national consciousness of America in the lead up to the current debacle. The baby boomer generation in particular should have known all too well what happens to people who have seen combat. Somehow we forgot and marched needlessly into another death trap.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

3. I know someone who's a Republican

And she was married to a Sergeant in the marines. She's a typical Republican, very religious and all. She thought her hubby was a good Christian and that's why she married him.

They had been together for 10 years (I think she was 18 when she married him) and then he went to Afghanistan (I don't know about Iraq). He came back and then started to organise trips without her to the east coast, saying he was meeting up with friends there.

It turned out that he was cheating on her. So now she's a single mum of 2.

I don't know if Afghanistan contributed to that. She wrote a blog a couple months back that he was going to Iraq.

[reformedrethug]

6. I highly doubt

that Afghanistan contributed to him being a cheating scum. I spent 7 years in the Marine Corps with several "overseas" assignments and I never cheated on my wife. Me being in the Marine Corps tho did contribute to our divorce, not in the way most may think tho. It was the fact that I was gone alot and she got tired of it, although she knew what she was getting into when she married me because I was in the Corps when we met and got married.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

7. So was she

She even posted pictures of her with her hubby when they got married. He was in full uniform.

I often wondered if it was the war that broke them up but I never asked her... IMO I think it's none of my business anyway.

[reformedrethug]

8. My thoughts

are that is could be several things all wrapped into one. When the husband is deployed, the wife has to take on both roles ie: Mother and Father roles and when he comes home its hard for the wife to adjust to not having to be both, and its hard for the man to adjust to the wife being the only adult in the family. Its hard to put into words really, often times when he comes home he feels that he is not "needed" because the wife has had to take care of everything in his absence and thats hard for the man to adjust too. I know that was a contributing factor to my divorce, that and the fact we were both simply too young IMHO as she was right out of HS, in fact for her senior prom I was the one that took her so she really did not have a chance to "live" after HS.

Also, being in combat, or in a combat theater does change people there is no disputing that fact. Some people are able to adjust mentally, emotionally, and physically better than others after coming home from that atmosphere, and its hard on all involved during this adjustment. There is a saying in the military in general that being a military wife is THE hardest job in the military and after living that life I belive that 100% and not all women are able to handle that, just as all men are not able to handle that either.

[MissHoneychurch]

4. Please make him go away ...

:puke:

[BuelahWitch]

5. Yes, an acquaintance of mine, been with her hubby 17 years

is watching her marriage break up. Hubby did at least 2 tours in Iraq. He came back around Christmas time. After all those years and three children, they're talking divorce.

[Lars39]

9. OT: I'm having a time pulling myself away from the "dance".

Did doofus really do that? :wow:

[Bluebear]

11. Happy, fabulous, everything is wonderful in his world!

[Orwellian_Ghost]

10. K&R n/t