Editor,
Some citizens may find it quite odd that a veteran who has served both in Iraq and Afghanistan supports bringing our troops home and ending the war in Afghanistan. While most troops and veterans are not for the pullout, I read articles at least once a week on how returning war veterans and soldiers are struggling to cope or reintegrate into life back home. Some soldiers and veterans believe there is no solution to their problems, and in the end they do what they believe is the only solution to their pain. They take their own lives. More and more troops are committing suicide, and because of this, I believe this is just one more reason why we need to bring our troops home.
One out of every five soldiers returning home from war has post-traumatic stress disorder. When a soldier deploys to a war zone, there are many things that this soldier must adapt to. Not only are soldiers pulled away from their families, they are introduced to things that are unthinkable to the everyday American. Imagine not having the ability to call your family or loved ones at any time, having to wait weeks for a package to arrive or not being permitted to return home for a family member’s funeral — and then being exposed to life and death situations, seeing comrades die and fearing for your life almost daily.
In June, the Pentagon reported that one of our troops takes his or her own life about once a day. These numbers continue to climb, which leads me to question why the suicide rate is so high. The stresses soldiers deal with when they return home are hard to imagine for someone who hasn’t had to deal with it. Your spouse or parents don’t understand what you have just been through, which makes it harder to talk to them about things you are struggling with. You’re told you have to wait two weeks just to get in to see a mental health provider, and then you can only see your counselor once, maybe twice, a month if you’re lucky, due to the high number of soldiers seeking help. Or you’re told you are weak for going to counseling. Some soldiers have even been refused rank advancement for being diagnosed with PTSD.
As you can see, the mental health issues these wars inflict on those who protect this great country are a growing problem that must be addressed.
After I returned from Afghanistan from a 13-month deployment in June of 2010, I kept in close contact with some of my soldiers. I had one soldier who was seeking help, and he dealt with waiting and being told his problems weren’t as bad as he was making them out to be. After two years of fighting with his PTSD and not getting the help he so deserved, he did the unthinkable and took his own life.
We are still at war, but there seems to be another battle here at home concerning those who have defended our freedom. The longer we are at war in faraway countries, the more soldiers, new and old, will be exposed to the environment of war. It’s time we bring our troops home and care for them, as they have fought to defend our rights and our freedoms.
Samuel Hibben
UNM student
