Soldiers as Victims

[darrels joy]

With elections in Iraq less than two months away, we're hearing fewer cries of "quagmire," but Vietnam nostalgists in the media are busy putting forward another trope: that of soldiers as victims. Here are three examples:

ABC News's "Nightline" is airing a three-part series on "concerns that the Iraq war is producing more cases of PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] than any conflict in decades." They don't say how many decades, but we're guessing the number they have in mind is around three.


The Christian Science Monitor has a story on "the pattern of discontent in US ranks"--as if anyone expects soldiers in a war to be content.


The New York Times , on its front page no less, runs a story titled "A Flood of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict." Did the Times run out of things to write about that have actually happened?


The Monitor takes four paragraphs to make the Vietnam comparison, the Times only two--though if you read through to the seventh paragraph of the Times story, the analogy falls apart:

Military and Department of Veterans Affairs officials say most military personnel will survive the war without serious mental issues and note that the one million troops include many who have not participated in ground combat, including sailors on ships. By comparison with troops in Vietnam, the officials said, soldiers in Iraq get far more mental health support and are likely to return to a more understanding public.