“Remember me with laughter”

From the story cited in Wordsmith’s original post:

Cagle died May 23, along with Staff Sgt. Stephen Butcher of New York, when a bomb exploded as they patrolled near Ramadi.

I’m not making any sort of political point, but just offering a speculative opinion.

I think that Iraq War soldiers and veterans suffer from a form of stress which is unique in the annals of warfare.

Up until Iraq, most soldiers were killed in fights with other soldiers, from the hand to hand combat of Homer and The Iliad to Davy Crockett and the Alamo to World War II sailors fighting off dive bombers and submarines, to World War I flying aces, to going up against the Viet Cong in the Central Highlands, and even to the streets of Somalia.

There have always been random bombs and land mines, but, in terms of percentage of total casualties, nothing like Iraq, where most fatalities and maimings are a result of completely random encounters (a sort of “reverse lottery”) with explosive devices, as opposed to firefights with the enemy, where a soldier at least has a chance to fight his way out.

The very idea that the most likely way to meet one’s fate is with a random encounter with an IED landmine has just got to be unbelievably stressful — perhaps even more at a subconscious level than at a conscious level.

I think that post-traumatic stress disorder may be, in some ways, more severe for Iraq War vets than for vets of previous wars.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

You can’t suffer PTSD if you don’t live to suffer it. So many soldiers of wars past simply didn’t return.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/05/only-those-who-are-willing-to-die-are.html