Have we learned the lessons of Vietnam?

President Bush knows that in order to succeed in the war in Iraq, it is
essential to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. But with an average of 65
attacks a day and tactical details of terrorist operations being transmitted simultaneously
on internet and video by Zarqawi (Wash. Post, Aug. 9), it is far from clear that we are
winning Iraqi hearts and minds.

The recent deaths of 23 Marine reservists from Ohio’s Lima Company
have finally forced the question of whether we are winning hearts and minds at home. This
President expects the nation to be unwaveringly stoic in war—for parents and loved ones
of soldiers and marines to hold tight as they watch their children kill and be killed, and
for soldiers to tough it out as they return home maimed and riddled with guilt that they
are among the survivors.

Stoicism is critical in wartime, but it has its limits. A soldier fights in the most
honorable and brave way when he believes in the cause and conducts himself justly with
the best tactics and weaponry available. But many on the ground are wondering just what
war they are fighting, and whether they have the right armor and weaponry to face this brand of insurgency.

What is not in doubt is that the insurgency is leaving far too many soldiers
physically and psychologically vulnerable. Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington
D.C. has reported that traumatic brain injuries (TBI) caused by improvised explosive
devices are the signature injury of this war. Doctors there are seeing twice as many brain
traumas as limb injuries. The blasts can literally rock the brain and cause it to swell. But
very few Americans seem to know about this new breed of “shell shock.” Yet the data is
out there. According to the New England Journal of Medicine (May 19, 2005), two
thirds of soldiers who endure blasts from IED’s suffer traumatic brain injuries. Symptoms
can range from brain swelling, headaches and dizziness to cognitive impairment, mood
changes, depression, anxiety, and impulsiveness. Some of the symptoms overlap with
those of post-traumatic stress disorder.

A few months after the first wave of deployed troops returned, Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research reported that 17% of troops were showing signs of post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That number has now doubled to 30%, according to
recent remarks by the Surgeon General. None of this is a surprise to Vietnam Vets. They
know all too well the chronic effects of war. But few in the Administration are willing to
draw the analogies. The public may soon be doing it, though, as the Vietnam Era anti-war
documentary, “Winter Soldier,” is re-released this week in major cities, including a
viewing this Friday at New York’s Lincoln Center (New York Times, August 9, 2005).

Many Vietnam vets won’t need to see the movie to bring them back to the war.
Take, for example, this Vietnam Vet, whose posting I recently received from a friend,
himself a Vietnam Vet:

“A couple of years ago someone asked me if I still thought about
Vietnam. I nearly laughed in their face. How do you stop thinking
about it? Every day for the last twenty-four years, I wake up with it,
and go to bed with it.” Next time someone asks me “When were you in Vietnam?” he
says he’ll answer, “”Hey, man. I was there just last night.”

Thirty years after Vietnam, this is a sober warning to Bush, himself no veteran of
that war, just what the psychological costs of war are on a generation of brave
Americans.

NANCY SHERMAN is author of Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy behind the Military Mind. She is University Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown. She was the Inaugural holder of the Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the United States Naval Academy. Visit her website, www.nancysherman.net.