The New York Times is running a series about US veterans of Iraq charged with murder after returning home, including 21-year-old Walter Rollo Smith’s senseless killing of his wife. Should we expect any less from such a traumatizing and violent experience as Iraq?
As a matter of fact, yes. There is reason to believe that for every youth traumatized by war, there are more that are instead activated, mobilized, and empowered.
Take child and young adult soldiers in northern Uganda, who have seen and engaged in some of the worst violence imaginable. In a recent paper I harness near-random variation in who was recruited and who was not to calculate the long term impact of armed conflict on youth.
The answer: former child and adult recruits are a fifth more likely to vote, are more than twice as likely to be community leaders, and are no more violent than their peers. The reason? Violence, it seems, activates and empowers youth as or more often than it defeats them.
Upon return, some number of these young combatants are indeed depressed, anxious, and even–by some definitions–traumatized (as seen in a previous paper with a counseling psychologist, Jeannie Annan). But these youth are the exception and not the rule.
Such findings are not limited to Uganda. John Bellows and Ted Miguel find that war deaths in the family lead to greater political interest and activity in Sierra Leone. Psychologists have also found that that exposure to war violence has led to increased political activism among Jewish Holocaust survivors and Palestinian victims of bombardment.
Why do we assume otherwise? The dominant view is a pessimistic one. The French foreign minister has spoken of young ex-soldiers as “a time bomb that threatens stability and growth†in Africa. A recent New York Times editorial lamented that they return as “damaged, uneducated pariahsâ€.
The short story: after Iraq the John McCains of the war may be more common than the Walter Rollo Smiths. Those who do return traumatized need our help and support, but let us not tar all ex-soldiers with the same brush.
Interesting and surprising. However, I don’t think equating one violent ex-soldier with one productive one is very enlightening. Even if ex-soldiers are more likely to be productive, it might also be the case that those that are not as productive may be commit disproportionately more violent crimes. How many productive citizens counterbalance a murderer?
Citing McCane was peculiarly counter productive for me. Uncontested pilots bombing rice patties with napalm – remember the naked little girl? – is more cowardly than courageous. Thinking fondly of yourself as a patriot afterwards is a Republican kind of hubristic jingoism that claims the world hydrocarbons solely for our own suv’s.
Particulary counter=productive? The man spent 5 YEARS in a POW camp, being tortured.
Please, this is not intended to be an article about John McCain, and I do not want the discussion to degenerate into partisan vitriol. Any further comments along this line will be deleted.
I think the answer is something of both.
I served in Southern Lebanon as a member of the IDF, and saw my share of the violence that is a part of everyday life there.
In the ten years since I left active duty, I have dealt with numerous issues relating to the violence which I was exposed to and which I committed.
From frequent nightmares to self-destructive and anti-social behaviors there is no question that the process of adjusting back into society was long and hard for me.
I still often feel that I cannot relate openly and honestly with the vast majority of people I engage with socially and in my relationships it is a particular frustration.
The feeling that those you love could not understand let alone accept what you went through and what you did is quite alienating.
I consider myself fortunate to have had friends who were willing to be there for me without having to understand or rationalize what I was going through.
That said, combat was a powerful experience for me in many positive ways, I went into the service a young arrogant schmuck and came out a driven and engaged man.
Sure I lost my innocence and many of my ideals along the way but I also gained a sense of purpose. I accepted that my time on this planet was short, ultimately out of my control and all I could do was to focus myself on getting the most out of each moment, and string those moments together until I had something resembling a worthwhile life.
It is, in all honesty, I process I continue to struggle with, although by most measures I am a productive member of society.
I am currently an executive working in technology, I own my own home and save for the mortgage am debt free. I vote and spend a good deal of my time volunteering in a variety of ways.
I had a conversation recently with a young woman in which she commented on how together I seemed to be and how much I gave to those around me, saying “Wow, you’re a good person” I simply shrugged and replied, “No, I just have more to make up for than most”
And that is often how I feel, part superstar, part broken man. I suspect that coping with my actions and experiences will consume many of my thoughts for the rest of my life, but all one can do is be thankful for what who we have in our lives, put one foot in front of the other and repeat as necessary.
Sorry, I was just a little irritated that someone commented without having a clue about the background on what they were saying. As a combat veteran, I think that yes, it is tragic that a small percentage of us never do adjust and cannot carry on, but like I said, it’s a very small percentage. Of course, a greater percentage have difficulty adjust and just get by, but many. many of us cope and are actually motivated to change our society.
Fascinating look.
Thank you so much for this!
I think that many Americans would like them to remain pariahs, much like they intended Vietnam veterans to be marginalized for the entirety of their lives. Veterans have an obligation to themselves to push back, survive, and ultimately triumph over the dark side of the people they served to defend.