Some Hidden Costs of Acting as a Bully Amongst Nations

by
William Krehm

As defective as the bookkeeping of nations already was, the psychological damage even to the alleged victors in the Iraqi war is just beginning to surface. The Good Lord created man with a conscience undoubtedly in the interest of our getting along and surviving as both individuals, with the members or our own community, and now - since those who run our world find it in their interest to learn to deal with some very different cultures whose territory we have chosen to consider in our own backyard. But to straddle the world with our own armed might, it would be helpful to study more about our own history and that of other peoples, rather than relying entirely on our superior weapons of destruction. Our government, however - even for its own narrow ends - has got its priorities addled. It is hardly surprising accordingly that the psychologically wounded among our own troops coming home are not always able to enter into normal relationships with their own communities. There is then a serious debit account that should be added to more readily recognized costs of our military adventures.

A good example is the article in The New York Times (08/07, “After the Battlefield, Fighting the Bottle at Home” by Lizette Alvarez): “Most nights when Anthony Klecker, a former marine, finally slept, he found himself back on the battlefields of Iraq. He would awake in a panic, and struggle futilely to return to sleep.

“Days were scarcely better. Car alarms shattered his nerves. Flashbacks came unexpectedly, at the whiff of certain cleaning chemicals. Bar fights seemed unavoidable. He nearly attacked a man for not washing his hands in the bathroom.

“Desperate for sleep and relief, Mr. Klecker, 30, drank heavily. One morning, his parents found him in the driveway slumped over the wheel of his car, the door wide open, wipers scraping back and forth. Another time, they found him curled in a fetal position in his closet.

“Yet only after his drunken driving caused the death of a 16-year-old cheerleader did Mr. Klecker acknowledge the depth of his problem: his eight months at war had profoundly damaged his psyche.

“I was trying to be the tough marine I was trained to be - not to talk about problems, not to cry, said Mr. Klecker, who has since been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, I imprisoned myself in my own mind.

“Mr. Kleckers case is part of a growing body of evidence that alcohol abuse is rising among veterans of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, many of them trying to deaden the repercussions of war and disorientation at home. While the numbers remain relatively small, experts say and studies indicate that the problem is particularly prevalent among those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, as it was after Vietnam. Studies indicate that illegal drug use, much less common than heavy drinking in the military, is up slightly, too.”

Troubled Veterans Add to Crime

“ Increasingly, these troubled veterans are spilling into the criminal-justice system. A small fraction wind up in prison for homicides, or other major crimes. Far more, though, are involved in drunken bar fights, reckless driving and alcohol-fueled domestic violence. Whatever the particulars, their stories often spool out in unwitting victims, disrupted families, lost jobs and crushing debt.

“With the rising awareness of the problem has come mounting concern about access to treatment and whether enough combat veterans are receiving the help available to them.

“Having cut away back in the 1990s as the population of veterans declines, the Veteran Health Administration says it is expanding its alcohol and drug-abuse services. But advocacy groups and independent experts - including members of a Pentagon mental-health task force that issued its report last year - are concerned that much more needs to be done. In May the House and Senate passed bills that would require the veterans agency to expand substance-abuse screening and treatment for all veterans.

“For active-duty service members, the military faces a shortage of substance-abuse providers on bases across the country, while its health-insurance plan, Tricare, makes it difficult for many reservists and their families to get treatment.

“In the breach, a few states, including California, Connecticut and Minnesota, have passed laws or have begun programs to encourage alternative sentences, often including treatment for veterans with substance-abuse and mental-health problems.

“In recent years the military has worked to transform a culture that once indulged heavy drinking as part of the warrior method into one that discourages it and encourages service members to seek help.

“The Army takes alcohol and drug abuse very seriously and has tried to deglamorize its use, said Lieut. Col. George Wright, an Army spokesman. With the urgency of this war, we continue to tackle the problem with education, prevention and treatment.

“That is a tricky mission in time of war.

“The problem in todays military is that soldiers have to be killers, do war, but we dont allow them any releases like we used to, said Bryan Lane, a former special forces sergeant who sustained a traumatic brain injury in Iraq and has post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. You cant go out and drink, you cant start a fight. Its completely unrealistic.

“The military, he said, is trying to create a contradiction: a perfect warrior, and then a perfect gentleman.

“Drum, in the North Country of New York, just outside Watertown, is home to the Armys most deployed brigade - the Second Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division. Late last year, several thousand soldiers returned after 15 months in Iraq. Some had served three, even four, tours, and they quickly overwhelmed the bases mental-health system. A study by an advocacy group, Veterans of America, found the demand for psychological help was so great, and the system so overburdened, that soldiers often waited a month to be seen.

“Many did what generations of homecoming soldiers have done: they salved their wounds in local bars. With drinking off-limits in Iraq, at least openly, they were that much more likely to binge, that much less able to tolerate it.

“The base commander, Maj. General Michael L. Oates, says that since his arrival in early 2007, misconduct related to substance abuse has reached unacceptable levels, despite a toughened regimen of education, designated driver programs and penalties.

“The rate of illegal drug use is slightly up, the rate of alcohol use is more than slightly up, General Oates said. I am not against people drinking, Im against misconduct.

“Most returning soldiers re-adjust after a few months. But the general estimates that at least 20 percent turned to heavy drinking or drugs - typically the first signal that there is something wrong.

“Across the military, the precise dimensions of the problem are elusive, especially since the different branches largely keep their own statistics. Many studies do not distinguish between service members who have seen battle and those who have not. Moreover, behavior becomes harder to track when service members leave the military. Of particular concern are members of the National Guard and reserves, as well as recently discharged service member, who can lose their bearings outside camaraderies and structure of the military.

“In the Army, which has the bulk of the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagons most recent survey of health-related behavior, conducted in 2005 but just released last year, found that for the first time in more than 20 years, roughly a quarter of soldiers surveyed considered themselves regular heavy drinkers - defined as having five or more drinks at least once a week. The report called the increase - to 24.5% in 2005, from 17.2% in 1998 - an issue of concern.

“Heavy drinking or drug use frequently figures in what law-enforcement officers and commanders at military bases across the country say is a rising number of crimes and other examples of misconduct involving soldiers, marines and recent veterans.

“From 2005 to 2006, for example, alcohol-related incidents - mostly drunken or reckless driving and disorderly conduct - more than tripled at Fort Hood, Tex., according to information released to the Pentagon task force. The Marines, filled with young men drawn by the corps hard-charging image, have traditionally had the militarys highest drinking rates. The Marines also reported a rise in alcohol-related incidents.

“Earlier this year, a New York Times examination of killings in this country by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan found that drinking or drug use was frequently involved in the crimes. Last month, a soldier at Fort Bliss, outside El Paso, was charged with killing a woman in a drunken-driving accident - the third intoxicated soldier there accused of killing a civilian in six months, said the commander, Maj. Gen. Harold B. Bromberg.

“Substance use frequently figures in soldiers lives, which reached a high in the Army last year: alcohol or drugs were cited in 30% of those 115 cases, the Pentagon reported.

“Running through many of these soldiers lives is combat trauma or other scars of war.

“In part the dynamic is rooted in the warrior code. Trained to be tough and ignore their fear, many combat veterans are reluctant to acknowledge psychic wounds. Or they worry that getting help will damage their careers.

“In the last decade, the military has rolled out a number of programs to deal with excessive drinking. Soldiers carry call-a-cab cards. One base hands out portable breathalyzers. A new online campaign pokes fun at That Guy, a military man who drinks too much and ends up embarrassing himself and in trouble.

“Yet many experts and veterans advocates, as well as some government officials, agree that treatment continues to lag behind awareness - in terms of access, but also in willingness to use what is there. Studies show how few of the problem drinkers receive treatment.

“The Times article began with Anthony Klecker it takes its leave of us with him.

“Klecker experienced the brutality of war early, enduring ambushes and firefights as one of the first marines to fight from Kuwait to Baghdad and on to Tikrit. What torments, though, is the uncertainty.”

The Torments of Uncertainty

“ As the gunner on the rear Humvee in a First Marine Division convoy, Corporal Klecker was charged with making sure that nothing - no cars, no Iraqis - came too close. In the distance he saw a man in farmers robes running towards his convoy and fired a warning. Suddenly a white civilian van came hurtling up the road and Mr. Klecker fired another warning, then let loose several bursts of machine-gun fire at the van and the man. The van stopped.

“Mr. Klecker said he did not know if he had killed them - though he assumed he did - or if they were innocent Iraqis. Still, he says. I was proud. I had a lot of adrenaline. I did my job.

“Later though, the incident no longer seemed so clear-cut. I started to feel a sense of shame, he said, shame if I did the right thing or didnt. Really much what an increasing number of Americans and Canadians and other invaders of Iraq and Afghanistan are feeling - a growing smidgen about the presence of our military in those lands on clearly cooked-up pretences.

“Soon after he left the Marines and returned home to suburban St. Paul in Minnesota, his panic attacks, nightmares and insomnia worsened as did his drinking. He rarely spoke about the war, and only to other veterans.”

Talking About Iraq Causes Veteran to Panic

“ Soon he racked up arrests for drinking and fighting, and he was persuaded to go to the Veterans Affairs center for help. As often happens, the experience did not take. Mr. Klecker says he was shuttled from one counsellor to another. Trying to talk about Iraq threw him into a panic.

“He hit bottom on Oct. 28, 2006, when he drunkenly drove into a highway divider. It dislodged, trapping another driver, Deanna Casey of Minneapolis, who was killed when a tractor-trailer rammed her small car.

“If I could switch my life with Deannas I would do it in a heartbeat, Mr. Klecker said. I didnt ask for help and I should have.

“Afterward, Mr. Klecker received a full veterans disability rating for combat stress, At his trial for vehicular slaughter, the judge recognized the wars role in his disintegration and accepted his lawyers request for a special deal. After a year in jail Mr. Klecker moved into an intensive in-patient program at the St. Cloud veterans facility to deal first with his drinking and then with his combat stress.

“Last November, still untreated for combat trauma, Mr. Klecker grew agitated and pulled a pocket knife on a fellow-patient after an argument.

“He was forced to leave the inpatient program and wait for an outpatient slot. In February, the judge ruled that Mr. Klecker could not serve his sentence at home, and returned him to prison for 19 months.”

There is no clear line between invaders and victims in Iraq or other militarily contested lands. War and the politics of greed that lead into it, takes their toll on what may remain of humanity on either side.