Ain't Gonna Fight No War No More

Tammy and I were sitting in downtown Phoenicia today enjoying a free outdoor concert by a local folk group.   I pointed to a sixty-ish,  long haired, black leather vest wearing dude and said to Tammy "He has to be a Vietnam vet, but if he is, he must have a patch on his vest saying so but I don't see one."  Then, as if on cue, he turned around and emblazoned across the back of the vest were the words Vietnam Vet.  It's hard to imagine that Vietnam vets are in their sixties or nearly so.  There are a lot of leather wearing, motorcycle riding, pony tail sporting, sixty year olds in Phoenicia but this particular man screamed war vet from the sixties to me.  Why?

There was no PTSD syndrome after the Vietnam war.  Well, there was of course, but it was a diagnosis that had not yet been formally recognized until 1980 when the youngest vets were in their early thirties. I neglect to mention veterans of earlier wars here because the thoughts I express in my blog are purely observational and therefore can only be applied to my generational knowledge base.  Even the Roman Centurions may have suffered from PTSD.  I believe, however, that it may be especially acute in the Vietnam vets because of a lingering bitterness over their feeling of being ostracized when they returned home.  And it was not just a feeling.  It was an unpopular war and many Americans wrongly blamed the young soldiers who went to war without protest.

So I am now wondering about the returning Afghanistan War veterans.  How will they be adjusting ten years from now?  We are already reading about the higher than normal suicide rate among young veterans.  And the war is becoming increasingly questionable especially with the recent leaking of classified documents.  Back in 2001-2003 the entire world supported our efforts.  All our vets were heros.  They are still brave heros of course but we hardly ever think about them unless we have a relative or close acquaintance in the armed services.  The public turmoil obviously added to the distress in the soldiers returning from Vietnam.  But now we barely give the war much thought especially since it is a volunteer army.  Back then we were all affected, now it is seemingly only a certain part of society.

Afghanistan is certainly as horrific a theater of war as Vietnam, maybe even more so.  Maybe the current crop of veterans are suffering more in silence thus the high rate of suicide.  Even if Vietnam vets got negative attention, at least it was attention.  That sounds horrible but most of us want to be validated or at least recognized for our actions.  Only time will tell how they integrate back into society.  It certainly isn't easy and I am thankful everyday that I never had to face that difficulty.  I do feel, though, that we can support the troops while not being in favor of a protracted presence in Afghanistan.  It is kind of like how the Church feels about homosexuality: Hate the sin, love the sinner.