Effects of War on Soldiers Essay

The very act of enlisting as a soldier subjects a person to a plethora of extend related complications that originates from physical, emotional, to mental elements of a human macrocosm. Soldiers undergo intensive forms of learning in order to gain the much needed bookingfront resilience, however, farther many military training facilities concent swans on the physical part of the change at the expense of psychological and emotional aspects.According to the U. S the States Chief of Infantry, Major General Paul Eaton, the Ameri back tooth army does short well in preparing soldiers physic totallyy but it dedicates a paltry condemnation in preparing them psychologically and emotionally. Jeffrey et al, 2004 This results to very physically competent soldiers but psychological and emotional babies who can not endure extreme emotional and psychological challenges. Soldiers and medical officers get through very ugly circumstances that may leave them physically, emotionally or psyc hologically scarred.Some of the common undergo effects of struggle apart from death and loss of body move are feelings of detachment, irritability, sleeplessness, loss of concentration, and night mares, which result from constant exposure to horrifying and traumatic experiences that are common in difference of opinionfields. Associated Press, June 30, 2004 A soldier in combat undergoes countless mortification, among which could be lasting months and years of exposure to forego heat, scorching jungle, hammering rains, ice-covered mount tops and tundra conditions among many other dehumanizing defy conditions.Very often soldiers goes without enough food and sleep and worse excuse faces constant uncertainty that gradually wears and tears a soldiers sense of control over their lives and their environment. Grossman, 1999 The extinction of beloved and intimate fellows in battle fields leads to gigantic horror and it normally causes great gap of the emotional wound which like a ph ysical one is by chance fatal. These emotional wounds like the physical ones sometimes heals but may bruise or correct shrink when exposed to severe or annoying touches.Combatants of war continue to nurse such emotional wounds and it reaches times when the wounds can not hold on to any more of the irritating touches, at these points a combatant nervous system breaks and therefore he or she constrains a psychiatrical casualty. Associated Press, June 30, 2004 According to Richard Gabriel nations normally counts the cost of war in terms of dollars, lost production, number of soldiers killed or wounded soldiers, but seldom do they make efforts of measuring the costs incurred in the war in terms of individual suffering.According to him one of the major(ip) effects of war that has established itself in built in bed 20th century warfare is psychiatric breakdown, unfortunately it has continued to receive a paltry attention in spite of it being the most costly item of war when put in human terms. He asserts that in virtually every major battle fought the probability of getting a psychiatric casualty is high than even getting killed by enemy can. Grossman, 1999During the World War II for instance, the States lost over 500,000 combatants as a result of psychiatric collapse, a large force enough to man 50 divisions, this happened despite step up efforts to weed out those who were perceived to be emotionally unfit for combat. At one point in World War II, psychiatric casualties were being discharged from the American army at a faster rate than new recruits were being engaged in.A study through by Swank and Marchand about World War II on US Army combatants indicated that after a period of 60 days in constant battle atmosphere on the beaches of Normandy, 98 % of the surviving soldiers had become psychiatric casualties, while the remaining 2 % experienced what was termed as fast-growing(a) psychopathic personalities. Grossman, 1999 These findings points to the fact that continuous exposure to extreme battle conditions is equally worse and can cause death as enemy fire does.Nevertheless, this kind of unending, protracted warfare that produces a high turnover of psychiatric casualty numbers is largely associated to the military and technological advancements of the 20th century. The unending war experiences were witnessed for the first time during the World War I and as a result large numbers of psychiatric casualties were describe. For instance the battle of Waterloo only lasted for a single day, while the Gettysburg battle took only tercet days with nights exceed for resting.Grossman, 1999 According to a study carried out and published in New England Journal of Medicine, large number of the more than 6,000 U. S soldiers from different departments of the army studied was found to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorders. The survey was conducted to them before leaving for Iraq, after sextette months in Afghanistan and lastly aft er eight months in Iraq, the survey was repeated again three months after returning back home.The returnees showed rife symptoms of major depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). The study indicated a16-17% of those soldiers who served in Iraq and 11% of those who served in Afghanistan as suffering from PTSD complications, this is tangible evidence that war leads to great suffering and death among the soldiers. The Iraq war for instance, was one of the fiercest with a lot of firefights and all sort of attacks than those in Afghanistan and hence the high number of victims.Other studies done after the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars indicated a 15% PTSD for Vietnam veterans and 2 to 10% to Gulf War veterans. Associated Press, June 30, 2004 During the US-Vietnam war in 1992, US undertook a military expedition known as Operation Ranch hatful that involved the spraying of herbicides from US air force aircrafts to clear phytology and expose enemy soldiers. Some of th e herbicides used were very strong and little(a) exposure to them led to long term effects.Many soldiers and nurses have been reported to suffer from ailments that are associated to exposure to Agent Orange, Green, Purple, and White as the chemicals were popularly referred to, the case of nurse Chris B. , RVN is an example of more than 100 nurses who have been interpreted ill with diseases that eats into their organs and joints. Killology, 2008 Too long time spend in combatant situations denies soldiers a chance to be with family members, this may negatively affect their relationships with their spouses and children.A soldier who is involved in outside borders offensives may take a couple of years without communicating with their loved ones. such situations may lead to family break ups or infidelity, childrens born of soldier parents may also indulge in bad behaviors as a result of lack of proper parental attention and love.References Killology, available at http//killology. com/a rticle_psychological. htm, accessed on January 24, 2009 Associated Press, June 30, 2004 1 in 8 returning soldiers suffers from PTSD, accessed on January 24, 2009