"Arms
alone can give the world no permanent peace, no confident security. Arms are
solely for defense -- to protect from violent assault what we already have. They are only a costly insurance. They cannot add to human progress."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address before
the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Statler Hotel, Washington, DC,
4/21/56
The financial cost of this long war is staggering, and
because it is fueled by Islamic hatred of the West, in
particular the Judeo-Christian societies of Europe, America and Israel, it
offers no near-term resolution. But
dollars and debt are not the greatest cost we will pay in this war.
There is a slow realization among the military leadership
of the terrible cost of conflict on the human spirit. I am not sure the civilian politicians can
ever grasp the price this nation is paying with our future.
In past wars we sent our soldiers, sailors, airman,
marines and coastguardsmen off to war, they fought until either the war or
their service was over, they were led by a small cadre of professional officers
and non-commissioned officers, but for the most part they were volunteers or
conscripts. They historically fought as
a unit, and were relieved as a unit.
There were exceptions of course, and we saw in the Vietnam War the idea
we could just send the draftees over for their term and abandon them back into
society. What we didn’t know then, but
should now, is the psychological trauma that war imparts on the survivors.
With this war we are sending our professional warriors
back into the crucible time and time again.
I guess the simplest analogy would be to compare the impacts to concussions
in football that are so much in the news these days. We ask of our young men and woman unimaginable
things, and they deliver time and time again.
I was fortunate this weekend to listen to the stories of an Air Force
Master Sargent, who has served as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal expert for 12
years, talk of his experiences during four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
how he is dealing with the post traumatic stress from being blow up three or
four times, watching his friends die, seeing young children torn apart by the
bombs placed by the Islamic extremists that he could not safe, or blew up
without realizing they were near by.
He talked about how we are just now realizing that skilled
counselors, who can cut through the walls they build to protect themselves, can
provide the tools to help understand and cope with the damage that has been
done. He spoke of four pillars of resilience
that form the basis for successfully coping with the trauma and horror they
experience.
First comes the mental pillar, how can those who’ve seen
so much find peace with the horrors? The
critical concept centers on something I’ve understood for a long time. You have got to understand the demons, sort
through what you can control and let go of what you can’t. We see this exact same concept summarized in
the serenity prayer that forms the basis of recovery in Alcoholic’s Anonymous. God, grant me the serenity to accept the
things I cannot change, the courage to change the tings I can, and the wisdom
to know the difference. At the end of
the day mental strength and recovery comes from an acceptance that only you can
control your life and the hard choices must be yours and yours alone.
Next is the physical -- study after study shows that through
proper diet and exercise the body improves and strengthens the chemical make up
and supports the individual’s mental strength.
There is a story of an extremely obese man who suffered from severe
depression. His doctor had advised he
was suffering from heart disease and he sought a way to commit suicide that
would not be so obvious and affect the insurance payments to his wife and
family. So he set out one day to run
until he suffered a heart attack which he new he would surely bring on. Having no breath, he ran for about a mile
before he collapsed in exhaustion and waited for the attack. It did not come, so he slowly walked home
vowing to run harder the next day.
Needless to say he ran so hard he collapsed again. He repeated this every day for a week, and
all the sudden he realized he had lost weight, his breathing had improved, and
his outlook towards the future was different. If we want a positive outcome in
our lives we must start with care of ourselves.
Then comes the social aspect of resiliency. We need to value and accept our friends and
family and not be afraid to look to them for the strength and compassion we
need to make it though the rough spots. Those
who are alone, or feel so alone they are not part of a larger group are the
most likely to have problems in their recovery from PTSD. I would suspect, although I’ve not done the
research, this is one of the biggest contributors to the large number of
Vietnam Veterans who came home from the war, hating everything around them, who
sought refuge in drugs and dropped out of society.
Finally, and certainly not the least important, is the
concept of spirituality. The recognition
that your life serves some higher purpose and power. If your choices are always about
self-gratification then you will make increasingly poor choices. For you to make sense of life and society you
must have something to anchor your moral compass to, to turn to when you have
to release what you can’t control and to help balance your needs and those of
the larger society.
Please keep these in mind if you see someone who seems to
be lost and searching for a way to deal with the day. Don’t be afraid to talk with them, a small
word at the right time can be the difference between a life well lived and a
life tragically cut short.
