It wasn’t long after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 that President Bush explained that we were fighting over there, to avoid having to fight the enemy here, "on our own streets, in our own cities."
That would be the expectation from someone who lives far removed from the real streets of America. The rest of us know that the war is already here, on our streets, in our own cities. And it will be here much longer than our men and women will be over there.
Studies have shown that one in three returning veterans between 2001 and 2005 sought help for mental health issues, and one in eight of those were diagnosed with a series mental illness such as post traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports show that soldiers returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan are also experiencing high rates of substance abuse, in addition to mental health problems. The highest rates of PTSD and mental health disorders were among the youngest serving, between 18 and 24 years of age, compared to those veterans 40 years or older. And as often as the current wars are compared to Vietnam, consider this striking difference: Nearly 1 in 3 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have enrolled in VA healthcare. Only 1 in 10 enrolled upon returning from Vietnam.
The authors of the report at the University of California and the San Francisco VA Medical Center say chronic mental illness “threatens to bring the war back home as a costly personal and public health burden.”
It’s a recipe for poverty for many of these young soldiers, some of whom joined the military as an escape from poverty in the first place. For most of these men and women, there aren’t trust funds waiting for them when they return, there’s Walter Reed Hospital. Support the troops, indeed.
The topics of mental illness, PTSD and returning veterans are often looped into conversations regarding homelessness and poverty. But seldom do you see the resulting homelessness and poverty debated as a direct cost of the war. It is a conflict that is draining state and local governments’ resources as they backfill lost funding from the federal level. Social services and assistance programs in cities across this country cannot meet the need on the ground right now. Who has calculated the estimates for the future clients, for their families who have lost their breadwinner, for the small business that had to close while the owner was off at war, for the homeless who are hitting the streets in leftover camouflage?
We’ve turned a blind eye over the years on the cost at home, believing the veterans were taken care of. But we know that about one in four homeless men in this country are veterans, left to fight much personal wars on the streets. And while the people marching to support them are labeled unpatriotic, their accusers trim back needed assistance programs in order to send billions to the war overseas.
The next time those dollars are measured, tell your lawmaker to tally the cost at home, on our streets, in our cities. It’s adding up fast.
