I have no idea what our (US) mission is for the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The number of US military personnel dead is one too many. The number of Afghans, and Iraqis, who have died, been injured, and displaced is one too many.
Meanwhile, here at home:
Iraq veteran Jessie Bratcher shot the man he was told had raped his girlfriend. An Oregon jury found he had been legally insane at the time because of post-traumatic stress disorder.The sociologist, William Brown, quoted in that story is my colleague--he is known to friends and colleagues as "Bud." A Vietnam veteran himself, Bud has invested a great deal of time and his own money in post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases in particular. He provides a compelling analogy to help us laypeople understand. There is a difference between civilian and military lives and work. For all purposes, the civilian and military "operating systems" and software are very different and, sometimes, incompatible. Unfortunately, while the military is very good at installing new software when civilians enlist, it does a horrible job of removing the killing software before returning the soldiers to civilian lives.
To make things worse, the VA does not give PTSD the attention and respect it deserves.
I can only imagine that pretty much the entire Afghan society is in a permanent state of PTSD. Given that Afghanistan was practically in a state of civil war even before the Soviet tanks rumbled into Kabul that fateful Christmas night in 1979, we are now looking at two generations of Afghans who have known nothing but wars and chaos in their countries. That is the "normal" for them? What a crazy world we live in!
End the bloody wars now. Please.
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