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| |  Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action
More than 85% of American military medical evacuations from the Middle East were not the direct result of enemy action, but the result of non-battle injuries and disease, researchers said.
Of some 34,000 military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan who shipped out for medical reasons from 2004 to 2007, only 14% had been wounded or injured in combat, according to Steven P. Cohen, MD, of Johns Hopkins, and colleagues.
They also warned that "the burden of psychiatric illness" will increase with the duration of conflict and reliance on reserve units.
By 2007, combat wounds had become only the fourth most common reason for evacuation in both regions.
Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders held steadily as the number one reason throughout the study period, ranging from 21% to 28%.
Non-combat neurological and psychiatric disorders both increased substantially, especially the latter. http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHe...Medicine/18100
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| | No. 1 | 
Feb 07, 2010, 11:07 AM
Re: Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action
Since the massive worldwide protests before the Iraq war the media mostly ignores the protests. Military Families Across the Country Protest President Obama's Decision to Escalate War in Afghanistan
December 3, 2009 – Following President Obama’s announcement of increased troop levels in Afghanistan, members of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) and Gold Star Families Speak Out (GSFSO) expressed outrage and deep sadness by speaking out and taking part in protest actions across the country. While the military community is frequently tight-lipped about policy decisions, these military families broke that code of silence to publicly decry the President’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan.
MFSO members Linda and Phil Waste of Shellman Bluff, Georgia, describe how their families’ sense of duty to serve this country and their faith in President Obama has been abused:
We have lived in terror for over eight years now. Three of our sons and three grandchildren have served in the Army in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Our family has endured multiple deployments, extended deployments, stop loss, and the unconscionable practice of pressured reenlistment while in country. At present we have a grandson in Iraq and a granddaughter in Afghanistan. We believe all our sons suffer from some degree of PTSD, one more severe than the others. Our granddaughter is on all kinds of medication for PTSD, and yet is in Afghanistan on her 3rd deployment!
We worked hard to get President Obama elected and sent money out of our retirement to support his election. His many words of ‘hope’ did indeed give us ‘hope’, however, his deeds dashed our hopes on the rocks of more death and destruction of continued wars. The only sane solution is to bring the troops home now!...
http://mfso.org/article.php?id=1354
| | No. 2 |
Feb 07, 2010, 03:19 PM
Re: Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action
My brother struggles with horrible PTSD as well....yet he is up for another deployment soon. 
We are losing more troops to suicide than to combat. Those are our sons, brothers, sisters, fathers killing themselves because they can't live with what they've done. And...we keep sending more to go do it again.
| | No. 3 |
Feb 12, 2010, 05:25 PM
Re: Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action
I don't think this is exactly new information. I do believe I read that most of the deaths in the Civil war were due to dysentery. I also read somewhere that more soldiers died from influenza than on the battlefield in WWI. Both wars were vicious, bloody wars with many death directly from combat.
| | No. 4 |
Feb 16, 2010, 05:43 AM
Re: Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action Originally Posted by Elvish  We are losing more troops to suicide than to combat. Those are our sons, brothers, sisters, fathers killing themselves because they can't live with what they've done. And...we keep sending more to go do it again.
As everyone here is fond of saying. Show us the links to the research to prove this. I really think PTSD is a societal caused illness. (this comes from someone who has spent years previously in combat and who has a brother diagnosed with "PTSD")
| | No. 5 |
Feb 16, 2010, 12:08 PM
 Re: Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action Originally Posted by Kyrshamarks As everyone here is fond of saying. Show us the links to the research to prove this. I really think PTSD is a societal caused illness. (this comes from someone who has spent years previously in combat and who has a brother diagnosed with "PTSD")
What evidence do you have to suggest that it's societally caused?
A hundred years ago they called it shell shock, then battle exhaustion. Erich Maria Remarque wrote about it in the 1920s and '30s in Germany without calling it PTSD. (Not surprisingly the books were banned by Hitler.)
If you don't struggle with it, then you are very, very fortunate. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103850359 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7859797.stm http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer195.html (a bit strongly worded, so be warned)
If you want me to crunch some numbers I'll be glad to. I'll refrain from any more emotional a response than that.
| | No. 6 |
Feb 16, 2010, 02:05 PM
Re: Most warzone casualties not result of enemy action
I can easily get emotional. I'm crying now.
My aunt died a couple weeks ago. She kept my beloved uncle sane after he had to look a Japanese soldier in the eye, kill him, and take his tags and wallet (with photo of him with wife and kids.
My grandfather told her, "The man that came home from the war is not the same man you married."
I never got to know the man he had been. But thanks to his family the man he became was so very gentle and loving. Fun loving. And took us kids fishing. (Thus the name Herring_RN)
He told me a couple times a year from 1962 until he died in 2005 that he rarely had a waking hour without remembering killing that man. And woke up dreaming of it almost every night.
He was once thought to be dead and woke up in a pile of bodies. he cried out and was rescued. he always wondered if others were alive but unconscious as he was.
In the seventies I worked with a nurse who had been captured and raped by Viet Kong. She lost toes to infection. Was put on trial on a hospital ship while running a fever. Accused of collaborating with the enemy because she "let them" rather than be killed.
She lost it one night shift because we fellow nurses were interested in trivial things like taking our kids to the zoo, fashion, and sports.
She now works at the VA and helps fellow soldiers.
My cousin was killed in Viet am. Same age as me. His best friend, who joined the Marines with him, still weeps when he sees me. "Tony" is a husband, father, and grandfather. He is making the best of what happened.
Over the years I've spent countless hours just listening as "Tony" and others talk about their memories.
I can only be a caring friend. Wish I could help more.
I think PTSD is cause by traumatic experiences. Especially violence.
Accidents, crimes, domestic violence, and others.
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