From Larry Wohlgemuth…

It’s bound to happen. Eventually someone who served in Iraq or Afghanistan will move into your neighborhood, maybe even next door, and you’re going to wonder. You’ll wonder whether your children are safe, and what’s going to happen to your property values. But you’re going to wonder.

It was never part of the discussion when Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush were assuring us that we needed to become a nation of torturers to be secure. Those from the pants-wetting crowd jumped all over it, although lacking the intestinal fortitude to visit the local recruiting office and sign up themselves. But it begs the question, what will you do when a torturer from Abu Ghraib moves in next door?

We’ve had some experience with this, groups of people who’ve not always been welcomed everywhere. Blacks, Latinos and other minorities have historically known they were not wanted in certain neighborhoods, but this is different. These will be men and women that we’ve used as so much cannon fodder in another war to loot and plunder that we’ll be kicking to the curb. And that’s exactly what we’ll do.

We experienced something similar after Vietnam. I know, you’re going to talk about how we treated GIs, spitting on them in airports and things like that. Rest assured that the people doing that were FBI agents who had infiltrated antiwar groups and served as agent provocateurs to discredit peaceniks. It was known as Operation Cointelpro and was investigated, censured and allegedly shut down by the Church Committee. Allegedly. By and large people had nothing against Vietnam vets until IT started happening, and IT will happen this time, too.

What is IT? IT is posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and it’s estimated that 35% of the veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will experience this debilitating malady. After Vietnam, and as the number of veterans who experienced PTSD grew, the government worked hard to keep their stories from us. However by the mid-1970s it was clear we’d brought home a group of young men who were irreparably damaged. We had no idea of the extent.

It started with increased amounts of domestic violence and spiraling divorce rates among these veterans. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and violence followed a large percentage of them wherever they went, and nobody had a clue as to why. Finally the VA put a name to it; posttraumatic stress syndrome (later changed to post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD), and said it was a reaction to their combat experiences. Americans’ attitudes towards these men changed rapidly.

Soon they were not welcome anywhere, which really was okay with them because they preferred solitude or to hang out with each other. But the incidence of violence continued to grow, and we read stories about men who picked up guns and shot up their families or their workplaces. Our discomfort with that war was soon replaced by our mistrust of its veterans, and men hid the fact of their service, which only made the problem worse. It was an additional resentment on top of all the other horrors they had faced.

Now we have a new group of soldiers coming home, similarly damaged, that will try to reintegrate into society and live some semblance of normal lives. Their desire will be made more difficult as the reports of veterans behaving violently multiply. We’re already seeing stratospheric divorce rates, and last year 6000 veterans of this war committed suicide. The question is not if this new generation of veterans will explode, rather when it will happen, and it appears that it will be soon.

As someone who’s experienced PTSD personally I know their struggle. You can keep the lid on it only so long, but if you stuff it down the eruption is more violent when it finally comes out. One million eight hundred thousand men and women served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 35% of them are ticking time bombs walking among us, and even moving in next door. As the violence increases and is more publicized we’ll see a growing intolerance of them just like after Vietnam. The additional pressure to keep from acting out will only increase the probability that we’ll see even more violent outcomes in the future. This problem will be with us for more than a generation.

So you just got a new neighbor, someone fresh out of the killing fields of Afghanistan. He looks like a normal guy, but how can you tell? You’ve heard news stories about violent and antisocial behaviors, and even shootings, and you’re not sure what to think. Was this guy an “interrogator” at Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo? Is he one of the guys I’ve seen on the YouTube videos? Are my wife and children safe around him? What will happen to my property values?

Sadly these are legitimate questions. It’s through no fault of the veteran that he’s in this position other than he chose unwisely and joined the military. They are damaged and destined to create more carnage before it’s over. Fortunately there are a effective therapies that did not exist in the immediate aftermath of Vietnam. Let’s hope the government that worked so hard to create them works just as hard at fixing them, and doesn’t just throw them into prisons to rot.

6000 suicides. It’s already happening. What will YOU to if one moves in next door?