Wandering Ghosts
In an interview by David Kupfer for “The Sun” magazine entitled: “Like Wandering Ghosts,” we learn of the work of Dr. Edward Tick.
Tick began counseling Vietnam veterans, at a time when the nation was trying to put the Vietnam War behind it and post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t yet a diagnostic category. Along with his wife, Dr, Tick directs Soldier’s Heart (www.soldiersheart.net), a nonprofit initiative to establish veterans’ safe-return programs in communities across the nation.
Tick insists that our veterans have been honored only while they are serving, to keep the patriotic fervor up, but not after a war is over. The exception was the World War II veterans, who were honored and given decent benefits.
The Senate version of a “safe-return” program is the “Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act,” which would bring back the WWII-style standards of providing vets with full college tuition. However, John McCain is opposed to a bill, which would honor and reward veterans for their service.
Dr. Tick insists: “Veterans need a safety net when they come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, so they won’t crash and burn like so many Vietnam veterans did. People in the community should be waiting to catch them.” He submits that the key to the healing process for veterans is for them to experience the emotions that they could not allow themselves to feel in the war zone and to address the spiritual damage that they suffered during combat.
According to Dr. Tick many women are suffering terribly in the combat zone. One woman veteran he met returned home from Iraq in a horrible depression because she had machine-gunned women and children. She refused help and was redeployed. She told her family she wanted the Iraqis to kill her as punishment for what she had done to them.
Some women veterans suffer because they feel they were created to be life givers, not life takers. So the moral trauma of war is more severe for them. But if we understand the warrior’s role to be not destroying and killing, but preserving and protecting, then we can find many women serving honorably in our military. Some of the most admirable women has met are combat nurses, chaplains, and career officers.
The imperialistic invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with preserving and protecting. In reality, both men and woman were created to be life givers, while the warrior’s role is to destroy and kill. Therefore, post-traumatic stress is the logical outcome of war, which is an abomination to the caring and creative instincts of both men and woman.
Tick began counseling Vietnam veterans, at a time when the nation was trying to put the Vietnam War behind it and post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t yet a diagnostic category. Along with his wife, Dr, Tick directs Soldier’s Heart (www.soldiersheart.net), a nonprofit initiative to establish veterans’ safe-return programs in communities across the nation.
Tick insists that our veterans have been honored only while they are serving, to keep the patriotic fervor up, but not after a war is over. The exception was the World War II veterans, who were honored and given decent benefits.
The Senate version of a “safe-return” program is the “Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act,” which would bring back the WWII-style standards of providing vets with full college tuition. However, John McCain is opposed to a bill, which would honor and reward veterans for their service.
Dr. Tick insists: “Veterans need a safety net when they come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, so they won’t crash and burn like so many Vietnam veterans did. People in the community should be waiting to catch them.” He submits that the key to the healing process for veterans is for them to experience the emotions that they could not allow themselves to feel in the war zone and to address the spiritual damage that they suffered during combat.
According to Dr. Tick many women are suffering terribly in the combat zone. One woman veteran he met returned home from Iraq in a horrible depression because she had machine-gunned women and children. She refused help and was redeployed. She told her family she wanted the Iraqis to kill her as punishment for what she had done to them.
Some women veterans suffer because they feel they were created to be life givers, not life takers. So the moral trauma of war is more severe for them. But if we understand the warrior’s role to be not destroying and killing, but preserving and protecting, then we can find many women serving honorably in our military. Some of the most admirable women has met are combat nurses, chaplains, and career officers.
The imperialistic invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with preserving and protecting. In reality, both men and woman were created to be life givers, while the warrior’s role is to destroy and kill. Therefore, post-traumatic stress is the logical outcome of war, which is an abomination to the caring and creative instincts of both men and woman.
posted by Jim O'Leary | 12:00 AM
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