Soldiers and their families fall through the cracks
(posted by Paige)
I came across a disturbing series of articles in the New York Times which chronicles
more than a hundred cases of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan charged with committing murder after returning home from active duty. Many of the cases involve domestic abuse resulting in the deaths of spouses and children of these veterans. In some instances, soldiers already had charges of abuse pending when they were deployed:
According to interviews with law enforcement officials and court documents, the military has sent to war service members who had been charged with and even convicted of domestic violence crimes.Deploying such convicted service members to a war zone violates military regulations and, in some cases, federal law.” Lizette Alvarez and Deborah Sontang
In other cases, domestic violence and other crimes occurred after returning from
active duty. In these instances, post-traumatic-stress-disorder is often cited as a
strong contributing factor to the veterans’ criminal, often deadly behavior.
Some researchers draw a fairly firm connection between post-traumatic stress disorder and domestic violence. A 2006 study in The Journal of Marital and Family Therapy looked at veterans who sought marital counseling at a Veterans Affairs medical center in the Midwest between 1997 and 2003. Those given a diagnosis of PTSD were “significantly more likely to perpetrate violence toward their partners,” the study found, with more than 80 percent committing at least one act of violence in the previous year, and almost half at least one severe act.
Cases like these beg the question, which has repeatedly been posed by family members of perpetrators and victims, as well as by mental health experts, is the military doing
enough to help returning soldiers readjust to life off the battlefield? If the research is correct, then why are so many veterans, and their families, being allowed to fall through the cracks? In a story that aired last December, NPR explored one possible explanation. According to the story, large numbers of soldiers are being discharged without full benefits as a result of “bad behavior”:
NPR asked Pentagon officials to disclose how many vets with mental health
problems have been discharged without all their benefits since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq [...] The Army said that since the U.S. went to war in Iraq, the Army alone has discharged about 28,000 soldiers for bad behavior, from taking drugs to going AWOL to assault. An Army spokesman said they can’t tell how many of those soldiers were diagnosed with mental health problems, but medical specialists say troops who have PTSD or traumatic brain injury commonly misbehave in exactly those kinds of ways.
Sadly, the same families that have been asked to sacrifice the most at home for
Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ are being failed by the system when their loved ones return
psychologically scarred and without adequate recourse to assistance.
My guess is that the so-called ’successful’ surge is not going to help ease the
problem.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Some months back, piggy-backing on the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed for our disabled vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, there was reporting that mental health services are given short shrift and some soldiers have committed suicide while awaiting them.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Several of the cases mentioned in the New York Times series involved murder-suicides. It’s really pretty shameful and sad. It makes me think of the recent campus shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois. When these things happen, counseling is made available immediately for students and faculty. If it weren’t, the schools would be highly criticized. And yet, our military has such an inadequate system for helping their soldiers, medics, etc. recover from months of witnessing and participating in daily violence. So many of these people returning are just kids in their late teens/early twenties. They end up being casualties of the war even after surviving combat.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Definitely well-written. I overcomed post traumatic stress (finally!) last year. I seeked help from internet webbies, like http://www.howtorelievestress.org which offers plenty of tips about post traumatic stress. Eversince then, I can see an improvement in my condition.You should try it too.