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Helping our soldiers at home

It is important to learn from mistakes. When a light socket electrocutes you, it would be smart to not touch the socket again.

In terms of helping soldiers to adapt to life after war, the United States has latched onto an electrical circuit and is frying.

Look back to the Vietnam War. Soldiers came back with mental illnesses that had not even been diagnosed before and were left to fend for themselves in a completely different world.

Soldiers today are still dealing with the post-traumatic stress disorder from battles in Vietnam. They have issues with being startled and dreams still haunt many. Many soldiers from the Vietnam War cannot maintain jobs due to mental disorders they will be dealing with for the rest of their lives.

Although the United States may do a lot to heal the outside wounds of soldiers with state-of-the-art hospitals and top-notch doctors, it is sometimes the inner wounds that are the hardest to heal.

On the bright side, the U.S. military has implemented a small amount of therapy into their adaptation programs. On the dark side, many soldiers are still committing suicide when they return home from war. So obviously, not enough steps are being taken.

A U.S. Army report from August released the following: “Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy.”

What the government needs to realize is that post-traumatic stress disorder is a harsh reality and sending thousands of men and women to war is creating a massive need for therapy to help these people.

Many end up on dependant medication that is not as helpful as talking out their problems with a psychiatrist. By bottling up the thoughts and feelings from the war, soldiers are putting themselves closer to suicide and hurting the families around them.

The country needs to help the soldiers back into the communities they came from. Money needs to be spent more on adaptation and therapy, or else we are simply repeating the offense from the Vietnam War. We need to protect the men and women who protect us.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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