BY AMANDA ZIVCIC
Despite the hoopla surrounding ANZAC Day every year, very little attention is paid to how destructive war is to veterans, their families and the society they live in. In the last few years, studies have indicated that domestic violence could be reduced by 21% if there were no war veterans, and that veterans' children are much more likely to commit suicide.
Three years ago, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare produced a report, the "Morbidity of Vietnam Veterans — Suicide in Vietnam Veterans' Children", which found that veterans' children have three times the suicide rate of the general community.
It stated: "Those born since 1973 are particularly at risk, as they move into the high-risk age groups [ages 15-19 and 20-24]. As such, appropriate strategies need to be put in place to arrest the number of suicides likely to occur over the next 20 years."
A similar report released in 2002 by Yale University researchers and the West Haven Veterans Affairs Medical Centre, Connecticut, was published in the American Journal of Public Health. It found that "male veterans who spent time in combat were more than four times as likely as other men to engage in domestic violence". The study examined 2600 men between 18-54. Roughly 7% reported combat experience. "The veterans were 2-3 times more likely to suffer from depression, substance abuse, unemployment and divorce", the report stated.
Using clinical methodology and a mathematical formula, the researchers determined that if there were no veterans in the US, then the number of domestic violence cases would drop — nationally — by 21%.
On the backs of these striking statistics, comes further information that dispels the common assumption that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), not combat itself, is the prime cause of "adjustment" problems after wartime service.
Common symptoms of PTSD include sudden and vivid flashbacks of events (which can last from minutes to hours and can occur years after the trauma), nightmares, waking up screaming, reacting intensely to loud noises, and the inability to maintain relationships with family and friends.
While it is true that veterans are a staggering 6.4 times more likely to suffer from PTSD, even those who aren't diagnosed with the disorder suffer from lower tolerance for frustration, explosive outbursts and never-ending alertness. This decrease in veterans' emotional and mental stability is statistically consistent with increases in domestic violence, child suicide, unemployment and substance abuse, thus showing that even after a war has ended, women and children are still disproportionately affected by it.
Violence, particularly spousal and child, is not a cycle which is easily halted. War creates damaged human beings, who then proceed to perpetuate their learned behaviour in others.
Children do not have to "see" domestic violence to be affected by it. Hearing arguments, seeing the effects of a beating or hearing references to violence after the actual event, is all internalised.
On average, every PTSD-affected Vietnam veteran psychologically traumatises four other people, usually their partners and children, who are then capable of traumatising others in the next generation. This cycle of violence generally continues exponentially. Because its root causes are distanced with each generation, it can become increasingly difficult to end.
"Military violence is taught with a vengeance in basic training and practised without mercy on the battlefield. And it spreads rapidly from the soldier to spouses and children", writes Gary Kohls, MD, in his essay "Domestic Violence, Military Violence and PTSD". "The epidemic of domestic violence among military families is well documented: with high rates of marital failure, addictive disorders, and physical and sexual abuse. This should not puzzle us, for people become what they see and do and believe in, and people who are trained in violence have enormous difficulty being loving, nurturing and compassionate human beings."
Our desperately underfunded public health system simply does not have the resources to cope with a returning contingent of troops afflicted with physical and mental health problems. Military expenditure erodes public health funding twofold: by taking funds away and increasing the burden upon it.
Despite knowing about the recommendations of the "Morbidity of Vietnam Veterans" report for three years, the Coalition government still decided it was "appropriate" to send troops to another war.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, April 23, 2003.
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