Issue 7 Vol I, January 15, 2006

interview

HAS trauma of Iraq made Americans more isolationists? The PEW Research Center finds the answers to its questions gloomier. This is true about the elite. Most Americans think America shall  not be able to establish democracy in that war ravaged country.

US led coalition forces continue to ravage Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of war against terror, the soldiers who have returned from these countries are seeking treatment for post-traumatic disorders. Some of them are being treated at a Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in the Battle Creek city of Michigan.  Among them are those who witnessed the torture of prisoners and civilian deaths during their term in Iraq. A clinical psychologist Dr. Dharam Singh Bains, who is the director of this center, observed that these soldiers are changed men. Many of them have become abusive husbands while others are in a stage of clinical depression. In an interview with Gurpreet Singh, Dr. Bains warns that these men may not be normal again.

Excerpts:

For how long you have been treating the US veterans and what kind of symptoms define post-traumatic disorder among soldiers?
I am treating the US veterans since 1980, when I first started my job at this center to look after those had participated in the World War II, the Korea War and later in the Vietnam War. In 1986 we developed the inpatient program. Gradually we got funding for the outpatients. But we mainly dealt with the Vietnam War veterans. Most of them have chronic disorders. They have clinical depression, sleepless nights, nightmares and a tendency to commit suicide. This resulted into broken marriages as some veterans had turned into abusive husbands. Some of them turned into reckless shooters and vented out their anger in public places.

Currently, how many veterans are seeking treatment at your medical center? How many of them participated in the Iraq or Afghanistan war?
Ours is a 31-bed facility. Most of our patients are Vietnam veterans. These days we are handling a dozen soldiers who have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq. We are now receiving two or three calls every week on behalf of the soldiers who have served in these two countries. Most of these patients are suffering from post-traumatic stress due to civilian deaths during invasions and military operations. It is difficult to forget such bloody incidents. This stress prolongs for life.

Apart from giving them medicines we use group therapy on them. We encourage them to share their stories. We also offer them lessons in anger and stress management. Duration of this treatment ranges from 22 days to 60 days depending upon the severity of each case.

What kind of actions the US soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan indulged in that resulted into these disorders?
Most of these soldiers are young men into their early or late 20s. They inconsolably cry whenever they are pressed to tell their stories, which are almost the same.  At one point or the other they had bombarded the civilian areas and the residential buildings. They now curse themselves for destroying innocent families. Some of them say that they won’t be happy for the rest of their lives.

Some of them remember having become friendly with these civilians as they were ordered to give candies to the kids and cigarettes to the adults as a goodwill gesture. But later they saw them dying in bombings. Those who got injured in the insurgent attacks are also emotionally disturbed. One of my patients had lost his eyesight in a landmine attack. He is disturbed because of an uncertain future.

What’s the reason for such disorders? Is it due to stress of field duty or it’s a guilt feeling for killing innocent people?
The second one is more likely the reason. They cannot bear the deaths of innocent civilians. This question often haunts them that what harm these people did? Especially the soldiers who are drafted are more likely affected by such deaths. It’s because they lack experience and do not have sufficient war training. They cannot bear the psychological pain of watching civilians dying during invasions. They relate innocent war victims with their families back home. Whenever they find that they have destroyed families the first thing that comes to their mind is their own parents and kids.

Many Americans believe that the Iraq war was illegal. Could it be that the US soldiers who are serving in Iraq may be upset due to the political incorrectness of this war?
Those who are discharged from the service openly call this war illegal. The soldiers who have recently quit vehemently criticize the invasion on Iraq. But those who are still in active service keep their ideas to themselves. The rules do not permit them to articulate.

I have met a female soldier who was discharged in October. She had served in Iraq. She has admitted having witnessed the torture of a Kurdish soldier in US custody. She says that he had refused to challenge the Iraqis who are fighting against the US occupation as a result he was tortured to death.

How long it will take these men to become normal?
Normal? Forget it. It is believed that the soldiers who were raised in a civilized environment will never be the same people if they have ever participated in a war. The war changes the complete personality of a soldier. There can be some improvement into their behaviours but the stress lives with them for the rest of their lives. Vietnam War is the best example to understand this. Even 38 years after that war the Vietnam veterans are suffering from these disorders. The suicide rate among them is still high as we are struggling to make them normal human beings.