9
Nov
2015
What are we Remembering?
Remembrance Day is a challenge for Christian preachers. For most of us our permanent default is to be peacemakers. And that makes it difficult to stand before a congregation and praise the work of soldiers. At first glance, Remembrance Day is all about war…and thus is presumed to be the opposite of peace, But I’ve never met a soldier who hasn’t been all about peace. They, who have seen the worst humanity can do to one another, are passionate about ending the violence of war even as they know that sometimes war is inevitable. Albert Camus once wrote: “peace is the only battle worth waging.” The soldiers I’ve known understand that and have committed their bodies to following it up.
These days I find myself thinking about the high cost of war. Not only the financial resources Canada commits: $18 billion in Afghanistan and 2.5 billion on our part of UN peacekeeping missions (as compared to $21 Billion for the whole of World War 2). But also the lives committed: Canada sent more that 420,000 Canadians overseas to fight in the First World War – of which 61,000 were killed by enemy fire and 23 were executed for cowardice/desertion and hundreds more were dishonorably discharged as cowards. In the Second World War, another 1.1 million Canadians served, of which 46,000 died (of 60 million deaths worldwide), 54,000 suffered major injuries, and almost 10,000 were diagnosed with shell shock. Add to these numbers the 130 dead peacekeepers in Syria (our 32-year mission in the Golan Heights), 158 soldiers, two civilians, one diplomat and one journalist in Afghanistan not to mention another 1,800 seriously wounded in that mission. These are high enough costs but what is not taken into account is the cost that is still being paid.
I’ve had the gift of walking with many veterans of combat during my time in ministry and what they all share in common is a profound reluctance to talk about the war. They’ll talk about how bad the food was, the ways they spent furlough, and the crazy pranks they pulled on one another, but they won’t speak about the actual fighting. The memories of battle remain locked deep in a place where there are no words to describe them. And living with those memories is the high cost that is still being paid.
An exhibition of a soldier in a trench suffering from shell shock. For thousands of soldiers in the Great War, the fear, paranoia hysterical crying, terrible nightmares, mutism, fatigue, facial tics, and tremors were symptomatic of shell shock.
Shell shock, combat fatigue, battle exhaustion, post-traumatic stress – the labels change but the experience they describe doesn’t. It’s true we’ve come a long way from WW1 in which sufferers were seen to manifest “childishness and feminity” (as described by Sir Andrew MacPhail in the Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914–19). For thousands of soldier in WW1, the fear, paranoia, hysterical crying, terrible nightmares, inability to speak, fatigue, facial tics, and tremors lasted long after they came home from the front.
Medical treatment for what we now call Post Traumatic Stree Disorder (PTSD) has ranged from the gentle to the cruel over the years. Freudian techniques of talk and physical therapy helped many victims while more extreme methods involved electric shock therapy. During the latter, patients were electrocuted in the hope of stimulating paralyzed nerves, vocal chords, or limbs. Shock therapy was more effective than Freudian techniques in returning soldiers to the front, with about two-thirds of all patients returned to the front. It is unknown how many relapsed when they re-entered combat. Until recently, doctors knew very little about PTSD, and there were few treatment programs after the war for returned veterans who suffered from the mental trauma caused by war. It was not uncommon for soldiers suffering from shell shock to be viewed as nothing more than cowards, and many suffered punitive ‘treatments’ for their ailments, including electroshock therapy and solitary confinement. It was, for example, commonly believed that combat-related trauma was a short-term illness, and some soldiers were, because of their inherent psychological weakness, more ‘predisposed’ to suffer trauma than others. This, inevitably, added to the shame of those who suffered.
In a military context, the Vietnam War was the catalyst for the most significant turning point in the history of psychological war trauma. Psychiatrists could not ignore the numbers of men returning home with symptoms initially labelled as “post-Vietnam syndrome.” Veterans of the conflict waged a long and ultimately successful campaign for greater recognition of their suffering; in 1980, PTSD was included in the American Psychiatry Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Today, the Canadian Mental Health Association defines PTSD as a mental illness involving “exposure to trauma involving death or threat of death, serious injury or sexual violence” and treatable through psychotherapy, counselling, medication and support groups.
PTSD and other war-related ailments are a significant problem in the Canadian military community. Psychiatric conditions are the second-most common disability claim of the 40,000 Canadian soldiers who served in Afghanistan. Troops who served in the Afghan War made nearly 3,500 disability claims for psychiatric conditions such as PTSD, depression and substance abuse, according to Veterans Affairs.
One hundred years after it emerged from the trenches of Europe, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains a devastating affliction for men and women in uniform. At least today, however, PTSD is commonly accepted as a genuine and serious wartime injury. Yet it is still extremely difficult for veteran to access the resources they need here at home. Funding for returning veteran is low…and insufficient for the length of the treatment needed for this disorder. The Royal Canadian Legion has jumped in to try and bridge this insufficiency by allocating funds raised by the sale of poppies to assist soldiers.
So what can we do, we who are charged to preach on this day of Remembrance? Educate our congregations, listen gently to congregational members in the military (past and present), explain why the cost of war is still being paid, challenge them to lobby their politicians, work to reduce the stigma of psychological injury, and pray, pray, pray for those who served and still serve.
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