Weer een getraumatiseerde generatie die een oorlog voor de rijken uitvocht. 'When you are used up, where do you go soldier?' zingt Robert Cray. De video-opname van deze song kunt u hier bekijken: http://afsc.org/iraq/cray/video-wmv.htm Ondertussen bericht Yahoo News: 'Iraq war leaves mental scars for civilians, US troops alike. Iraq war is reaping a fierce psychological toll, exposing a mental health crisis inside Iraq, and searing hundreds of thousands of US troops with combat trauma, experts warned… a wide variety of ailments can be expected in a nation stifled by decades of tyranny, foreign occupation and three years of post-Saddam violence."It is a very easy for a lot of people to lose hope with ongoing violence and ongoing intimidation. Iraqi citizens were also devalued and targeted by the Iraqi regime," said Dr Husam Alathari, medical director of the INOVA Center for Addiction Treatment Services and a consultant to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. US soldiers returning home from tours in Iraq, meanwhile are initially showing a higher incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than in other American conflicts. Around 317,000 veterans who received a primary or secondary diagnosis of PTSD were treated at medical centers run by the US Department of Veterans Affairs in 2005.
Around a third have had a subsequent diagnosis of a mental health disorder, said Dr Antonette Zeiss, the department's Deputy Chief Consultant for Mental Health. "It is higher than initial rates in previous wars," said Zeiss, adding that part of the rise may be due to a vigorous effort by the department to find out what help veterans' need. There are more women veterans from the Iraq war -- around 13 percent -- than in other conflicts, reflecting the need for more research into PTSD. Veterans are also typically older, with many from reserve and National Guard units, rather than the young, conscript soldiers in their teens and early 20s who fought the Vietnam War. Many veterans, who would have died from their wounds in earlier conflicts, survived through speedy access to medical treatment -- but are coming home maimed in body and mind, prompting new mental disorders, Zeiss said.' Lees verder:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060127/hl_afp/usiraqwarhealth_060127192100 Zie voor verzet tegen de oorlog ook: http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000354.php
1 opmerking:
The reasons for the war in Iraq, both official and unofficial, have made the United States a joke. We have gone against all the principles that we stand for by creating this war. Looking at the US from another point of view, what stops any other country in the world from being justified in attacking us under the same assumptions that we attacked Iraq? There are plenty of countries out there that disagree with our governing party (many with reason to believe the head of state was not even elected democratically depending who you talk to). We have openly amassed an astounding arsenal of the most advanced and deadly weapons on this planet, and we now have a history of having used them without proper restraint and downright recklessly.
There is no excuse for what is happening in Iraq. I feel personally responsible for each person who has lost their home, their limbs, and ultimately their life in this war. Why? Because my lack of interest at the time of attack, allowed my government to do unspeakable things to human beings who had done nothing to deserve it. Why is Saddam Hussein allowed to argue in a court while the thousands of families that were torn apart by our bombings are still living in the most hellish of conditions? What is the sense of that? Where is the supposed “justice” that the news media fed all of us? Saddam and his accomplices are living in relative comfort considering the actions they are accused of. Where is the justice, when we can blow a child’s arm off, but the dictator that we are “freeing” him from gets to feast on Doritos?
Assuming that this war wasn’t only about deposing an unfriendly government that was sharing their oil with everyone but us, where are the weapons of mass destruction? I venture to say the US has brought more weapons of mass destruction to Iraq that Saddam ever hoped of making. Who is the real threat in this picture? Why are we letting our government get away with this gross abuse of power? We are letting the Bush administration destroy the stature and respect that we had as a nation in the world stage. Never has the US been more rightly criticized than it is today. All the good we have spread around this world, all the ideals we have upheld as a country, marred by these events.
As citizens we need to take a stand. What is happening is not ok. Every dead soldier, every dead man, woman and child in Iraq is blood on our hands. Our government works for us, not the corporations getting rich off war contracts, not the Bush administration, not the oil companies. We are responsible as Americans to do something, no matter how small to voice our disagreement. Go protest; write a letter, sport a peace sign, no action is insignificant. We deserve a government that honors the ideals that this country was founded on. We have no right to inject our way of life where it is not wanted. If we continue to do this we have no argument to stand on should someone wanted to threaten our way of life. We can not command the respect of other nations if we are unable to reciprocate.
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