Today on Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman spoke to Aaron Hughes, of Iraq Veterans Against the War, who’s among a number of Afghanistan and Iraq war vets planning to return their medals of honor to visiting NATO generals this Sunday at the NATO summit in Chicago.
Says Hughes, “[Veterans] have to live with [the] failed policy [of the global war on terror] on a daily basis,” Hughes says. “A decade-long war, what have we been doing? … There’s a real moral disconnect between the idea that our military can build a democracy and the idea that our military is trained and designed to control, dominate and kill people. … Occupations don’t build democracies, don’t extend individuals’ freedoms. The movements—the Arab uprising, the Arab Spring—that was building democracy. The movements of Gandhi, the movements of the civil rights movements here in the United States, people’s movements, that extends democracy, not military force.”
In response to Goodman’s question, “Why do this? Why are you returning your medals?” Hughes replied:
Because every day in this country 18 veterans are committing suicide. Seventeen percent of the individuals that are in combat in Afghanistan, my brothers and sisters, are on psychotropic medication. Twenty to 50 percent of the individuals that are getting deployed to Afghanistan are already diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma or a traumatic brain injury. Currently one-third of the women in the military are sexually assaulted.
It’s clear that these policies of the global war on terror has had a profound effect on the military, my brothers and sisters, while simultaneously perpetuating a failed policy. And unfortunately, we have to live with that failed policy on a daily basis, and we don’t want to be a part of that failed policy anymore. And we’d like these NATO generals that we served under to acknowledge us, to acknowledge the wrongs that have occurred, to acknowledge our human rights, our right to healthcare, and the rights of the Afghan people and the rights of all these communities, including the communities back at home that are affected by these wars.
NERMEEN SHAIKH [Democracy NOw! co-host]: Aaron Hughes, can you say a little—it’s a startling figure: 18 suicides a day among veterans. What are the conditions that veterans come back to in the U.S. after these wars, serving in these wars?
AARON HUGHES: The reality is, there’s a massive disconnect that many service members return to, because our culture and our society is not at war. Less than 1 percent of our country is at war. And unfortunately, we’ve been carrying the burden of that war by ourselves. And we come home to poor and failing resources. Unfortunately, when service members are asking for care, they’re not able to receive that care while they’re in the military. And the VA is highly underfunded, overall.
We currently have been working on a campaign called Operation Recovery, a campaign fighting for service members’ and veterans’ right to heal and a campaign to stop the appointment of traumatized troops. And it’s really appalling that when these brothers and sisters get home and they’re asking for help, that the only type of help that they can get is some type of medication like trazodone, Seroquel, Klonopin, medication that’s practically paralyzing, medication that doesn’t allow them to conduct themselves in any type of regular way. And that’s the standard operating procedures. And yet, those are the same medications that service members are getting redeployed with and redeployed on and conducting military operations on. And this is the same medications that, you know, we are trying to reintegrate into the world with. And it’s—the disconnect between what’s happening in Afghanistan and what’s happened in Iraq with the daily lives of everyone here in the United States is just too vast to overcome.
The mention of Klonopin caught my ear; it was the smoking gun in the suicide of a young veteran whose father I spoke to while working for a state-wide citizen action non-profit two and a half years ago. I can’t say I expected the state of how we institutionally treat our veterans to improve dramatically in that time, but I really wish it had. So what are we doing? And what do we do next?
You can watch the full Democracy Now! interview (or read the rush transcript) here.
It doesn’t surprise me that the vets are medicated. I bet if you follow the money there’s a huge kick-back going on that pushes these drugs on them. It is a for-profit system after all.
“Occupations don’t build democracies, don’t extend individuals’ freedoms.”
Why does no one ever apply this thought to what Israel has been doing? Why does no one have the balls to call the Israeli wall-building and settlement building the apartheid that it is?
We need to get the fuck out of Afghanistan and stop killing for profit and excusing it by calling it “spreading democracy” or a “war on terror.” It is neither. We need to stop supporting countries which practice apartheid and which occupy in the name of “democracy” and alleged “security.”
Yes, thanks for this, Amanda. Knew it was bad, but didn’t realise that it was this bad. Will give it the proper reading it deserves as soon as I have time.
Thank you Amanda
It makes me think of retrograde March in Virgin certainly making the war now and the level of evolution that human has reached is become abominable and the dramatic psychological consequences. This I recall the book of Boris Cyrulnick wonderful misfortune about living conditions during the second world war. Send to men to war to safeguard the political interests without for veterans….