Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans

Veterans from any branch of the military who took part in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were spurred by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States

Regardless whether they suffered physical or emotional trauma from their service, Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans confronted numerous challenges when returning to civilian life, including obtaining employment and finding housing. Public response to veterans’ needs in the 2000s indicated a shift from the widespread anti-military sentiment expressed during and after late twentieth-century conflicts.

On September 11, 2001, Islamic extremists from the fundamentalist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes and attacked several buildings in the United States, destroying the World Trade Center towers in New York City, damaging the Pentagon, and killing almost three thousand American civilians. On September 18, US president George W. Bush signed a joint resolution permitting the use of force in order to combat terrorism; this led to the US-led war in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban government, which was protecting al-Qaeda. After the fall of the Taliban, the United Nations set up a provisional government and established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in December 2001. The invasion of Afghanistan was followed by the launch in 2003 of the Iraq War, also led by the United States, in the belief that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had connections to several terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, and also possessed weapons of mass destruction (neither claim was ever proven). In both Iraq and Afghanistan, US-backed democratic governments were elected, but they struggled to extend control much beyond their respective capitals, and US and coalition forces battled insurgent forces in both countries for years.

The US combat troop presence in Iraq lasted until 2011, peaking at 170,000 troops in 2007. In 2019, the war in Afghanistan became the longest war in US history, outpacing the more than seventeen years of the Vietnam War. It officially ended in 2021, when the last US troops withdrew from the country. According to a 2018 study by the RAND Corporation, all told, from September 2001 to September 2015 alone, 2.77 million US military personnel were deployed around the world at one time or another, most of these from the Army, and mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. This made Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans a sizable presence in American life, although they made up less than 1 percent of the population.

Problems Facing Returning Veterans

While most veterans leave the service and return to civilian life without too many lasting detriments from their time overseas, they can face unique challenges that most of the population may not understand. One of the most widespread and most difficult problems that troops face after deployment is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can vary in intensity from mild to extreme cases in which the sufferer has difficulty distinguishing friend from foe. A 2011 Pew Research Center poll reported that 37 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who may or may not have received formal diagnoses, had suffered PTSD symptoms. According to a 2009 study by Michael P. Atkinson, Adam Guetz, and Lawrence M. Wein, the risk of developing PTSD increased significantly for service members who were deployed multiple times. The determination of whether a soldier has the condition varies, depending on several factors, such as when they are examined. Because symptoms do not always appear immediately or present in the same manner, diagnosing the condition can be difficult. Other factors such as combat stress reaction and separation from family are among the other issues that service members may face, both before and after deployment, and can lead to a very fragile mental state.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) were also common during these wars. Many former service members were left with speech, memory, and/or motor impairment, as well as emotional problems, due to TBIs. TBIs and PTSD were frequently blamed for the increase in suicide among both active-duty and discharged service members. It was reported that between 2005 and 2010, one service member committed suicide every thirty-six hours.

Abuse of opioids and narcotics became another problem among service members and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including those who incurred severe injuries and those with PTSD. Between 2005 and 2010, over fifteen thousand veterans were prescribed opiates for pain, among them nearly three thousand PTSD sufferers and over eighteen hundred with non-PTSD mental health concerns. Untreated withdrawal from these and other battlefield prescriptions has led a significant number of veterans to seek out drugs illegally upon their return to civilian life and to committing petty crimes. A program known as the Veterans Court was begun in Philadelphia to stem the rise in crime committed by veterans, many of whom were addicted to drugs or alcohol and had untreated mental health issues. Through probation, community service with veterans’ support groups, and rehabilitation or counseling for offenders, the Veterans Court aimed to help reduce recidivism.

Sexual violence against female service members is yet another phenomenon facing some veterans of the Iraw and Afghanistan wars, and it places female veterans at increased risk of self-harm. Accurate figures are difficult to determine: in 2010, nearly a third of female service members said they had been victims of assault during their term of service, though far fewer had reported it to officials. According to the New York Times in 2021, almost a quarter of all female service members reported such violence. This high rate, along with emotional strain and higher incidence of PTSD, likely contributes to the statistic showing that the risk of suicide among female veterans is threefold higher than that for female civilians.

Despite Department of Veterans Affairs’ home loans and housing assistance, homelessness has long plagued returning service members, and Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are joining the ranks of the homeless in large numbers. By 2019, veterans made up an estimated 11 percent of the total adult homeless population, and of these, young veterans were far more likely to be homeless than their counterparts in the greater communities.

While many of the physical and mental challenges that faced veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are common to military personnel in any conflict, the veterans of these specific wars also contended with the fact that their military missions were not clear victories. While the Iraqi dictatorship of Saddam Hussein was toppled, Iraq remained politically and socially volatile and terrorist activity continued to be a serious threat. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime was also overthrown, but regained power even before the final US troops had withdrawn in 2021. The sense of failure in these wars was reminiscent of the US non-victory in the Vietnam War. And while many supported leaving Iraq in 2011, the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020 and 2021 was much more controversial among both the general public and veterans themselves. According to media coverage, many veterans expressed disappointment that Afghanistan was essentially left to the Taliban, essentially nullifying years of their efforts to rebuild the country. Many also expressed fear and sadness for their Afghan allies who they felt were being left behind.

Support Networks

Even the service members who return home and are able to deal with their experiences without severe negative impacts on their lives face issues that can make reintegration into civilian society difficult; more than 40 percent of recent veterans report difficulty with reentry. Especially during the Great Recession of 2007–9, veterans had trouble finding work, with nearly a third unemployed at a time when the general unemployment rate topped out at 10 percent. Veteran support groups, such as the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and Veterans for Common Sense, assist veterans with finding jobs, obtaining health insurance, and pursuing higher education. The IAVA, established in 2004, not only committed to helping veterans build a community for themselves when they return home, but also connecting them to other veterans who have had similar experiences. While healthy service members previously had little organized support once they left the military, these types of support groups have grown in number and influence.

Service members who are seriously injured or mentally unstable used to face a similar position upon discharge from the military and from whichever hospital they recuperated in. After returning home, most veterans could only receive help from the Department of Veterans Affairs offices and medical centers, which were often underfunded and located far from veterans’ homes. Programs such as the Wounded Warriors Project, which was founded in 2003, aimed to fill in the gaps by providing rehabilitation services, higher education, employment training and placement assistance, and peer mentoring for veterans who have serious physical or mental issues. Like the IAVA, the Wounded Warriors Project also advocates for pro-veteran government policies and aims to raise public awareness of veterans’ issues and funds for support services. By creating an atmosphere of support and teaching veterans how to aid one another, these programs help service members grow and relearn their strength and independence.

Impact

The increase in public support for returning service members in the twenty-first century stood in contrast to the comparative disrespect and lack of compassion sometimes shown veterans from previous conflicts, notably the Vietnam War. In the 2000s and 2010s, those who did not agree with US involvement in the Middle East were more likely to distinguish between the wars and the troops fighting them. Even many of those who supported the wars themselves were glad to see troops withdrawn from Iraq; about three-quarters of those polled by the Pew Research Center supported the move. Over 90 percent of survey respondents also indicated they felt proud of the troops, and 75 percent had thanked service members for their efforts.

Despite the warm feelings the American public had for its troops, veterans and civilians alike recognized the disparities between themselves. Over 80 percent of recent veterans polled said that the public does not understand their challenges, making the public-awareness campaigns of veterans’ support groups all the more important. Government and military officials also increased efforts to address the problems of active-duty service members and veterans. Among these are better screening for and treatment of psychological problems, facilitating reporting and prosecution of sexual violence within the military, cracking down on for-profit educational institutions that mislead veterans about employment prospects, and giving incentives to companies that hire veterans.

Bibliography

Andone, Dakin. "US Veterans Are Disappointed With How the War In Afghanistan Is Ending—And Fearful for Their Afghan Allies." CNN, 17 Aug. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/us/us-veterans-afghanistan-allies-reaction/index.html. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021.

The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. Washington: GPO, July 2004. PDF file.

“Global Conflict Tracker: War in Afghanistan.” Council on Foreign Relations, 4 Oct. 2019, www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-afghanistan. Accessed 4 Oct. 2019.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. IAVA.org, 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.

“Mission.” Wounded Warriors Project. Wounded Warriors Project, Inc., 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.

Moyer, Melinda Wenner. "'A Poison In the System': The Epidemic of Military Sexual Assault." The New York Times, 3 Aug. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/magazine/military-sexual-assault.html. Accessed 13 Sept. 2021.

“Obama’s Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan December 2009.” Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 1 Dec. 2009. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.

“War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era: The Military-Civilian Gap.” Pew Social & Demographic Trends. Pew Research Center, 5 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.

Wenger, Jennie W., Caolionn O'Connell, and Linda Cottrell. "Examination of Recent Deployment Experience across the Services and Components." RAND Corporation, 2018, www.rand.org/pubs/research‗reports/RR1928.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2019.