On Killing by LtCol Dave Grossman, 2009, Excerpts
Societies which ask men to fight on
their behalf should be aware of the consequences. Manifestations of PTSD
include recurrent and intrusive dreams and recollections of the experience,
emotional blunting, social withdrawal, exceptional difficulty or reluctance in
initiating or maintaining intimate relationships, and sleep disturbances. These
symptoms can in turn lead to serious difficulties in readjusting to civilian
life, resulting in alcoholism, divorce, and unemployment. The symptoms persist
for months or years after the trauma, often emerging after a long delay.
Success in war and national survival
may necessitate killing enemy soldiers in battle. If we accept that we need an
army, then we must accept that it has to be as capable of surviving as we can
make it. But if society prepares a soldier to overcome his resistance to
killing and places him in an environment in which he will kill, then that
society has an obligation to deal forthrightly, intelligently, and morally with
the result and its repercussions upon the soldier and the society.
Tom Waits – Hell Broke Luce
Based on the story of Jeff Lucey, a 23-year-old
Marine veteran of Iraq who killed himself.
Lucey was suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder.
He hanged himself with a garden hose in the
cellar of his family's home.
Unbroken by Laura
Hillenbrand, 2010, Excerpt
The Pacific POWs who went home in 1945 were
torn-down men. They had an intimate understanding of man’s vast capacity to
experience suffering, as well as his equally vast capacity, and hungry
willingness, to inflict it. They carried unspeakable memories of torture and
humiliation, and an acute sense of vulnerability that attended the knowledge of
how readily they could be disarmed and dehumanized. Many felt lonely and
isolated, having endured abuses that ordinary people couldn’t understand. Their
dignity had been obliterated, replaced with a pervasive sense of shame and
worthlessness. Coming home was an experience of profound, perilous
aloneness.
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