The Unseen Costs of War

I understand the need for any nation to defend itself, to protect its borders. I am not opposed to self-defense. I think it is important to support the men and women who volunteer to serve bravely in our national defense, whether or not you believe in the reasons our politicians send us into war. That is one of the reasons I work for the VA.

That being said, I don’t think anyone really can comprehend the full cost of a war. I wish someone would account for the entirety of what it costs us as a nation before we go to war. I wish someone would pick a war, any war, and in retrospect count everything that it had cost us to engage.

And what are the costs of war? Well, there are the obvious; the financial expenditures. The manpower, the training, the equipment, the high tech weaponry, ships, jets, tanks, and so on. Transport is expensive. Feeding and housing the troops requires a large constant cash flow, and who knows how much administrative costs there are to keep track of everything?

How about the costs of international relations? Is America better off globally after a war? Do we cause too many other nations to hate us? Do we cause just the wrong nations to hate us? Or do we gain important allies, gain the trust of the international communities? Do we improve or degrade our potential for international trade, for peaceful relations?

How about the costs of human lives, and how do you measure that? How do you value that? The loss of sons and daughter, mothers and fathers. Brave, strong, smart men and women.

Obviously, what I see that a lot of people don’t is the medical costs of war. Certainly, there are incalculable costs of medical treatment at the battle field and in recovery. But what about the costs of the years and decades of treatment?

Decades of treating diabetes caused by agent orange, leading to amputations and early onset heart disease. Decades of treating PTSD and the loss of that person's productivity. I am still treating WWII vets. That means you and I as taxpayers are still paying for WWII. I studies history, I understand that WWII changed our world, I understand that we had to do it, and I know it was worth it. But I'll bet most people don't consider that we are still paying for it. We are still paying for it as long as VA doctors are seeing WWII vets.

I see millions of dollars of loss in terms of ongoing medical care, and I am only one doctor. It doesn’t take a PhD in sociology to expand from there and see the loss of contribution to society due to serious medical or psychiatric illness as the result of war. A women that might have discovered the cure to cancer, a man that might have been the next Thomas Edison or Steve Jobs. If only.

People who could have contributed to the work force, to education, entertainment, invention. Lost to illness. What of these loss of wages? What of this loss to their family? Loss of stability and confidence. Loss of a strong father to raise his sons, to be an example. Men and women with PTSD who struggle to make human bonds with their families. What is the cost to a family over the decades, and how does this affect our children?

How can anyone count these losses?

I know that sometimes war is necessary. But we need to be in it only when it is. I'm not sure our nation is better off for war. I'm not sure humanity is better off.

Vietnam Veterans – Kindred Pain

Over the past few years I've noticed that Vietnam veterans tend to identify with Iraqi veterans. Now that the conflict in Iraq is winding down, I am not seeing this as much, but during the height of our involvement in the war in Iraq, I would get frequent inquiries from Vietnam vets about how the Iraqi vets are doing.

Are they having PTSD? Are they coming back ‘messed up?’ Are they getting the help they need? What sorts of medical problems are they coming home with?

This is an interesting phenomenon for a lot of reasons. One is that the Vietnam vets are not a group that has traditionally projected their feelings and experiences to other groups of veterans. They have a tendency to keep their own suffering to themselves and as a result, are not known for reaching out to other generations. Not that they lack empathy; it just that their extra dose of empathy towards the Iraqi soldiers is noteworthy.  

Why is this? Is it because both wars were so wildly unpopular, and the Vietnam vet has so many unresolved issues in regards to this? They were so poorly treated when they returned, do they worry about how the Iraqi vet will be received when they return home? Is it the similarities in the wars; not knowing where the next guerrilla attack from the jungle will come out of, not knowing when the next IED buried in the sand will blow up your convoy and set you up for an ambush? Thus, the Vietnam Vet feels a special kindred to the nature of this war.

I think all of these play a role.

Vietnam is not an era we look back on proudly as a nation. Unfortunately, there are a lot of similarities between these wars. It is likely that in the decades to come, we will not look back with national pride on the Iraqi war. I’m not here to argue one way or another on whether we should have gone to war with Iraq in this Millennia.  That’s history now. And I certainly do not claim that we did not/do not need to wage war on terror. I’m just saying that some of that national self-doubt is present in this war, as it was in Vietnam.

I also don’t mean to stereotype all Vietnam vets. There are many different personalities and problems to the Vietnam vet, and they do not all fit in a box. In fact, I will probably write  a post on it down the road. But there are some patterns and generalities I am in a special position to notice.

Maybe this outreach to the Iraqi vet will be therapeutic for the Vietnam vet.

I am glad that we learned as a nation, that even if we hate the war, we do not hate the soldier. I’m glad their homecoming is different from the homecoming of the Vietnam vet, and I am pretty sure the Vietnam vet is glad of that too.