Ask an Iraq war Vet

[Genz]

Do you think you have some kind of post traumatic stress disorder now? Do you know guys who have? Does the military take care of these people enough? What quality is the treatment of veterans in general in your view? I'm happy that you weren't wounded. What do you know about the guys who weren't so lucky?

[4drugmoney]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks a lot of your service. I appreciate all you are doing.

What are the best (useful) items to receive from family/friends while abroad? I have previously sent baby-wipes, gatorade powder, sun block, American flag, and sunflower seeds - I really had no idea what would be in high demand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah all that stuff is great to get. Books or Magazines are good. Beef jerky. Actually any kind of food/candy is usually good. Anything to kill some time.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think if we concentrated our efforts in Afghanistan instead of going into Iraq we would of been more successful in getting osama and dismantling alkida.

Also thank you for your service.

bat

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not really sure.Personally I dont think anything will dismantle Alqueda, even if we do kill/capture osama.

[ QUOTE ]
Is one car magnet ribbon that says support the troops or do I need to have 2?

Kidding aside: thank you.

We get a lot of bs from hawks that says at least implicitly that you can't support the support and not support the war. How do marines and other service personnel feel about that?

Thanks again.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the most part I think Military members understand that most people who are opposed to the war still support the troops. Of course there are exceptions.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think you have some kind of post traumatic stress disorder now? Do you know guys who have? Does the military take care of these people enough? What quality is the treatment of veterans in general in your view? I'm happy that you weren't wounded. What do you know about the guys who weren't so lucky?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have PTSD. I didn't go through anything that horrible (relatively speaking) to get it, which I am extremely thankful for. I did have a hard time adjusting when i got back for a few weeks. People get what they call "superman syndrome". Which is basically the mindset "Hey I made it through Iraq, I can do anything"
The first weekend back like three of my friends got in fights and arested, a few got DUIs,ETC. Obviously it had alot to do with over indulgence of alcohol.

Yeah, I know a few guys who are definetely affected by PTSD. Most of them choose to ignore it, which is not very healthy. I think the Military is just starting to understand PTSD and the most effective way to treat it. It's still kind of a social stigma. "Oh he can't hack it.Everyone else is fine, he must be weak..ETC"

I think the military does a decent job of taking care of physically wounded people, but still has a long way to go on the mental problems many vets face.

[ata]

Can you expand on why you think that it's impossible to 'win' and why you think that it won't get any better by sticking around and figure they should just pull out now?

And thanks for your service.

[4drugmoney]

[ QUOTE ]
Can you expand on why you think that it's impossible to 'win' and why you think that it won't get any better by sticking around and figure they should just pull out now?

And thanks for your service.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just don't know what winning would be. If it means they are going to be one big happy democratic nation, I seriously doubt that will ever happen.I don't think they want to be a Democratic nation.And it is already basically a civil war there. Superioir firepower will not solve the problem in Iraq. We cant just kill all the terrorists, because there is an endless supply of them.

Personally I think just up and leaving is a terrible idea, however staying there indefinetely is equally bad. Also the cost of the war is staggering. Someone earlier in the thread said that the war didn't effect him at all. If you look at this estimate of the costs of war it's pretty easy to see that future generations are going to be paying for it for a long time.

[Tornado69]

http://iamthewitness.com/Bollyn-Balkanize_Iraq.html ... what did you and fellow people feel about [censored] like that going on ? Most people don't know about it as the gov't tried to keep it hush hush but did you guys know about it ?