Why does my friend, who was in the army in Kosovo having post traumatic stress?

Question

i have a friend whos freaked out by the happenings "in combat" in Kosovo. He will not say why..He even goes to therapy and takes meds for it. Why do you think??

Answer 1

My husband was deployed to Samarra and he has PTSD. They have seen many things to graphic for a civilian to even imagine. Watch the movie "A day in Iraq, American Soldiers". My husband said that is a pretty acurrate portrayal. Don't ask questions about it. It is not something they like to talk about. If they do talk about it listen and don't ask. Be his shoulder to cry on and realize them talking about it can bring on flashbacks and nightmares. Be sensitive and don't be too nosey.

Answer 2

Kosovo is the another war zone where terrible events and many lives were taken--again due to an internal civil war. That's where Hitler's theory of "ethnic cleansing" was actively pursued by one group against another. US/UN peacekeeping forces have been there since the Clinton administration. To halt the mass killings of hundreds of thousands has been one of the most humanitarian roles done by the US military since WWII, but is now rarely mentioned. Your friend probably has seen the after affects, such as mass, unmarked graves, countless corpses of men, women and children, & the peace that exists is shaky at best. Again, these ethnic conflicts highlight the worst in mankind. Your friend is experiencing it first hand. Tell him, "thank you" for holding the lines.

Answer 3

Because there was a lot of traumatic stuff happening in Kosovo, a lot of people killed and the dead lay around unburied for a long time. There was just a lot of stuff you and I have never been exposed to.

You saw how traumatized we were by the World Trade Center bombing. And most of us weren't even there!

Answer 4

Some can take it, some can not. I am sure he talks about it in therapy. This will probably get him more money on his medical discharge benefits. Several reasons is what I think. I support our Troops.

Answer 5

Because you see people dieing, and you see people being maimed kids dieing, all that messed up stuff. He probably seen some of his friends die too, you really shouldn't ask because you probably don't really want to know.

Answer 6

I am no expert on Post Traumatic stress syndrone just an interested party who has seen many cases of it since even before Viet Days , read all I could on it and still I am confused as to the how and why some men feel this very real afflicton and some do not.

War is Legalized Insanity; where the lowest most bestial nature of mankind can act out its darkest fantacys without being labled as insane.

That one can be rewarded for actions that in everyday life when not at war would send one to the gallows or at least imprisoment seems to play a large part in this affliction.

Some may call those who suffer as being insane but to many psycologist the very fact that men do react in this way shows a sanity of consiousness that has threads of fairly recent origin, and they term it hyper-awareness.

Recent in the fact that man has only recently become more aware of alternatives, the real cost of warfare, had a more or less stable environment for most of its generations, where the need to face death or even worry about the killing of its food and violence is not an everyday occurance.
For most of the worlds industrial societys this has only come about in the last 40 to fifty years so we are in the main still under the old mannerisms of mankind of centuries ago, especially in our leadership both within the polital and economic leaders we are governed by.

While all these societys present a civilized face to world at large behind them they use manipulations to arouse the lowest base of humanitys instincts in forms of nationalism and the least educated and far more pliant members of societys to perform deeds of insanity in order to protect leaderships mainly economic interest.
There are still men sufering trauma from the Korean and WWII eras and while thier cultutres stressed men did not cry and country do or die they suffer but are more restrained in their symptoms.
One fact that has been noted since education and information needs have progressed so much since beginning of last century isd that at the end of wars and peace restored the incidences of violence in communitysd skyrockets and not justt from the men involved in war itself but in a society that sent them to war overall.
That men in the military of the past were not accessed by the public in general to their actions, and the man once in military havbing been ingrained by a culture seperate from society it supposedly represents easily tries to put out judgeemnts and just to follow his new cultural identity.
Teh post stress factor comes after his leaving that society and a return , for lack of beter word, a saner environment.
That is why the seeming bond still exist among men who have served and especailly those who served long enough to retire, carries so much force in US actions politicly and miloitarily today. they for the most part have lived their lives in a war time atmosphere and know no differnt.
That anyone dares deviate from this supr manhood frternity is loked upon as a weakness and disloyalty to not just the country but to thier fellow comrades in arms.
Imagine the stres this plays upon a mans mind, the conflicting emotions of seeing death and not even seeing death or being threatend by it but just the knowledge that he as a man of sanity helped destroy so many human lives.
Never mind if the fact comes out that he was doing an unnecessary duty, he still must justify his actions in some way.
The attempt to get men and women who would not feel this syndrome by having an all volunteer military, the ranks of which are made up by men who have lived almost no other lives but military, many who come from a militarized society built upon generations of willingly being drafted into those services, weekend warriors and so many dependent upon ther eduction, in other words a whole cultural life, to stopp the spread of stress synde=rone has been a smashing failure.
In Fact at end of Gulf War one when the slaughter though horrific was of short duration over 250,000 men still needed help with this stress formation.
Now that we ahve men who vblunteered and are kept at a constant state of warfare and indoctrinated into a never eneding form of a warfare society the ranks of thsoe affflicted with this sydrone is even larger thn in first gulf war.
Until we can find a better way, wether through drugs that make men forget what they did yesterday, the military and political forces search for another drug of the mind, such as religous fanaticism or some form of super patriot warior mentality, we will have this problem of civilized men returning from the insanity of warfare, and wondering WHY?