Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion

March 19th marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Since then, an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis, 4,000 U.S. soldiers, hundreds of contractors and foreign workers, and many more civilians across the Middle East have died because of the "War on Terror."

War remembrances are usually occasions where we reflect on our decisions as individuals and as a nation and where we weigh the positive and negative consequences of those decisions. Whatever we come up with, it has to come from the perspective of the people affected by war.

Individual and collective acts of violence create their own life force and the cycle of violence and counter-violence continues across generations. In order to break the cycle, two things have to happen: (1) complete cessation of killing and occupation and (2) the public acknowledgment of injustices where the victims openly confront the victimizers. But it is also a process which involves the public declaration of the victimizer of their crime and their promise to make amends to the victims and their families. Such approaches have helped in the healing of fractured societies in Rwanda and other areas of Africa.

War is a military and male dominated violent act. Victims are civilians and include children and women. 90% of all victims of modern warfare are civilian. They usually have little say in the decisions that impact their well-being. By continuing to advocate on their behalf, we are sending a clear message that war is never an option because war is an assault on innocent people. It is not a strategy to eradicate terrorism or to capture a handful of warlords.

Thousands of American soldiers are returning home with physical and psychological imbalances due to their war experiences. Their ailments are exacerbated when they come home because of the disconnect between their war experiences and the environment at home. They lack an appropriate framework of reference from which to make American civilians understand the real issues facing them. In addition to their physical and psychological difficulties, they face economic hardship, a country and a veteran administration system bogged down by a bureaucracy that demands constant vigilance on the part of veterans who neither have the will nor the energy to wade through the countless rules and regulations that grant them their benefits. They have to battle disinterested or frustrated employees who are anxious to get the day over with as long as the paperwork is in order. National guardsmen and women have to battle unsympathetic employers and sometimes travel two or three hours just to get to a VA physician. That is a very disrespectful way to treat those who were on the verge of paying the ultimate sacrifice while the rest of us continued to carry on with our lives.

Health statistics have shown a sharp rise in survivable spinal cord injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder cases. Due to advances in medicine and the availability of hospitals close to the combat areas, soldiers and civilians are surviving wounds that traditionally have taken the lives of their predecessors. While that is a good thing on the outset, the numbers of individuals with severe and permanent disabilities are rising. When you walk around any town or city in the United States, look closely and see how many limbless or wheelchair-bound veterans you can pick out. That is not including those who are in comas, bed-bound, in mental institutions, and in prison.

Studies conducted by the VA have shown that those affected by PTSD the most are those who have killed in battle. Believe it or not, that is a good sign. It shows that those who have had to kill do have a conscience. It is the struggle between the part of the soldier that committed the act and the moral side of the individual that creates this fractured personality and pushes a soldier into dissociation. It is not normal to kill another human being. Killing once is bad enough. Doing it over and over is blasphemy and destroys the soul. People who have no conscience (psychopaths) usually do not engage in that internal struggle because their capacity for empathy is minimal or non-existent. They do not "feel" for their victims. The "James Bond" type psychopath we so much admire in the movies is very detrimental to society.

Hopedance magazine, in its current issue, hopedance.org, has a couple of good articles about veterans and some of the positive gains made in trying to heal the fractured bodies and souls. Collective healing needs to take place since the agonies of the returning soldiers are seeping into the society through their families, friends, and communities. The lessons of the Vietnam veterans should keep us focused on the importance of those who are struggling, in a humane manner. They should never be discarded because they have outlived their purpose.

The military model is counter-human. It can destroy and win territory. It can defeat strong and weak alike. It can never win the minds or the bodies of people.