The Effects of Civilian Deaths in Iraq

Jake Stryker


Laura Darrow

Eng 102

7/23/2010

The Effects of Civilian Deaths in Iraq

Like most wars , the Iraq War takes a toll on the psyche’s of our soldiers. I use the present tense because the horror and suffering never ends after the war. Many come home with a sense of guilt for the things they did and saw in Iraq. Sean Huze’s The Sand Storm is a brilliant story which makes the reader feel the guilt and shame of the soldiers. Is also makes the reader have their own internal struggle alongside the soldiers, trying to justify their actions. Trying to make an excuse. One such part is during LCPL Dodd’s monologue, when he is talking about having killed numerous civilians, “Fuck ‘em. What the hell were they doing in a war zone anyways?” (Huze 3). I think of SGT Casavecchia as the conscience of these men throughout their monologues. He gives LCPL Dodd the answer he already knows, but doesn’t want to tell himself, “I think they lived there” (Huze 3). It is easier for LCPL Dodd to use his excuse that they were in a war zone, than to accept the reality that they invaded neighborhoods, not military grounds or “war zones”.

Many soldiers have experiences like this, and come home to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or other serious mental health problems. According to a study by the the American Medical Associaton, “Thirty-Five percent of Iraq war veterans accessed mental health services in the year after returning home”, and according to the New England Journal of Medicine, 15.6 to 17.1 % of Iraq war veterans “met the criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD” (http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/newsletters/research-quarterly/V20N1.pdf, pg 4).

A large part of this was not so much troops seeing their comrades fall beside them, though that certainly did happen and must account for some trauma. A large part of the issues these troops have returning home is dealing with having seen large numbers of innocent men, women and children massacred. For some it is not from what they saw, but what they did, who they killed and for what reasons.

The total death count of American soldiers dead from the Iraq war as of February 6, 2010 was 4,365. I have found it hard to find information on how many Iraqi soldiers or “enemy combatants” have been killed. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the invasion of Iraq said , “We don’t do body counts” (http://web.mit.edu/CIS/pdf/Human_Cost_of_War.pdf, pg 16). This could be a reason why it is so hard to find an answer to this question. I have however found a 2008 Report for Congress that inquires into the number of civilian deaths in Iraq. The report consists of six separate sources with their own numbers, but the average number is 172,091 Iraqi civilian deaths from the start of the war in 2003 to August 27, 2008 (http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/110395.pdf, pg 19).

With most sources places the Iraqi civilian death toll over 100,000, it is no wonder many of our soldiers come home with mental health issues. While our troops were not drafted to war, many did not want to be there in the first place. Just as with the Vietnam war, many soldiers were morally opposed to “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. Like Huze writes about SSGT Adams, “he wasn’t fighting for the red, white & blue, He just knew the road home went through Baghdad” (Huze 19).

Many of the soldiers cannot be held completely responsible for their actions. As much as it may sound like the trials at Nuremburg, they were just following orders. The real responsibility needs to lie with the policy makers of our country and every one of us American citizens. We need to remember that we don’t just send people to fight and die for us, we send people to fight and kill for us. When we do that, especially today with the extremely devastating weapons we have at our disposal, we need to think about who it will effect. It will leave a resentment towards our people from nations overseas, and a resentment from our troops who return home and wonder why we sent them to do such things.

The stories in The Sand Storm do a good job of making you feel for the soldiers, as well as making you look at the way civilian casualties are played out while in Iraq at war. To further this understanding, one must look at the facts and the numbers that represent real people. The major media does not do a good enough job of portraying the costs of war, not only for our soldiers who may live with nightmares the rest of their lives, but for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people who will undoubtedly have similar if not even worse mental issues.

Sources

Huze, Sean. The Sand Storm: Stories From the Front. 3, 19. Screenplay. New York: Susan Schulman Literary Agency, 2004.

Hoge, C. W., and J. L. Auchterlonie. "Mental Health Problems, Use of Mental Services, and Attrition from Military Service after Returning from Iraq or Afghanistan." Journal of the American Medical Association: 295, 1023. Http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/newsletters/research-quarterly/V20N1.pdf. 5 Apr. 2009. Web. 20 July 2010. .



Burnham, Gilbert, Shannon Doocy, Elizabeth Dzeng, Ridyadh Lafta, and Les Roberts. "The Human Cost of the War in Iraq." Human Cost of the War in Iraq: 16. Http://web.mit.edu/CIS/pdf/Human_Cost_of_War.pdf. Center for International Studied, Massachusettes Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusettes, 13 Oct. 2006. Web. 20 July 2010. .

Leland, Anne, and Mari-Jana "M-J" Oboroceanu. "American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics." American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics (2010): 19. Http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/139347.pdf. Congressional Research Service, 26 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 July 2010. .

Img URL: http://www.thelastminuteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/bush-faces-of-the-dead-large.jpg