U.S. diplomats returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder

[Rose Siding]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with the same debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.

Larry Brown, the State Department's director of medical services, said that as early as this month the department will e-mail questionnaires to employees who have been posted in Iraq.

The surveys, to be completed anonymously, are intended to determine how many returning diplomats and civilian employees are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other problems as a result of exposure to a war zone, Brown said.

State Department employees in Iraq seldom leave the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone. Even there, rocket and mortar attacks are frequent, and the sound of gunfire is constant. Suicide bombers have penetrated the zone on rare occasions, most recently on April 12.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070502/1a_bottomstrip02.art.htm

[bdamomma]

1. this is just sickening, this maniac must be surgically removed.

[CoffeeCat]

2. PTSD...

These State Department employees don't experience heavy combat, as our soldiers do.

However, each and every one of them understands (on some level) that they are in Iraq because
a very rancid, corrupt administration put them there. They understand that they were put in
harm's way--for a lie.

One of the causes of PTSD--is being forced into dangerous situations, and feeling as if you
have no control over your circumstances.

Not only are these people in a war zone---they understand (some better than others) that the
people who put them there are dangerous liars who have no regard for their safety or their lives.

That--in itself--is frightening.

It's no big surprise that some of these people have PTSD.

[Donnachaidh]

3. ah yes -- but THEY get treatment for it.

Unlike our troops that are STILL waiting for appropriate treatment of the disorder.

[Broadslidin]

4. Rest Assured, the US government will classify these 'units' as Mental Defectives...!

:yoiks:

[HereSince1628]

5. The survey should include questions about back problems...

caused by tossing around bales of hundred dollar bills. Maybe they could give advice on how to cope with the image of the oozing blood of US corporate bagmen crushed under the weight of a million dollars. :sarcasm:


That said, I'm sure that diplomats exposed to mortar fire can have PTSD.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Mother Condi will, um, sooth their troubled souls

[lazer47]

7. I and some other Vets on DU actually have PTSD

and we are not making little of Diplomates with PTSD, however me thinks that it is closer to R.E.M.F. instead of PTSD

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. PTSD

PTSD is much more common than the DoD lets on.

However, it doesn't surprise me to learn that our diplomats are suffering from PTSD.

...

More than 1,400 State Department employees have served in Iraq since 2003. Three have been killed there.

Although U.S. diplomats have served in violent places before, they have "never been put into an active war zone in this way," Brown said.

...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/08/africa/web.0208diplo.php

Many U.S. diplomats refuse to work in Iraq

By Helene Cooper
Published: February 7, 2007

WASHINGTON: While the diplomats and Foreign Service employees of the State Department have always been expected to staff "hardship" postings, those jobs have not usually required that they wear flak jackets with their pinstriped suits.

...

Many U.S. employees have outright refused repeated requests that they go to Iraq, while others have demanded that they be assigned only to Baghdad and not be sent outside the more secure Green Zone, which includes the American Embassy and Iraqi government ministries. And while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice maintained Wednesday that State Department employees were "volunteering in large numbers" for difficult posts, including Iraq, several department employees said that those who had signed up tended to be younger, more entry-level types, and not experienced, seasoned diplomats.

...

[bemildred]

8. After deaths in Iraq, diplomat says she feels 'all the work I did is worthless'

WASHINGTON — Dark circles rim Rachel Schneller's eyes, an indication of the trouble she's had sleeping in the 10 months since she left Iraq.

Schneller's tour in 2005-2006 as a U.S. diplomat working with the provincial government in the southern Iraqi city of Basra was marked by tragedy and loss. An Iraqi employee she worked with was murdered in June on the way home from work. An American contractor friend was killed in September when a rocket pierced his trailer. More recently, an Iraqi prosecutor chosen by Schneller to visit the State Department for training this summer was murdered.

Since then, the diplomat says, she's had recurring memories of a nightmare in which she hanged herself from a lighting fixture in her office. "I had a deep sense that Iraqis are getting killed because of me," says Schneller, 33, an economics officer at the State Department in Washington. "All the work I did is worthless."

The war has placed deep strains on many of the 56,000 people who work around the world for the State Department. Some diplomats such as Schneller return home from the war with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Others say resources are being drained from posts elsewhere to cover the growing costs in Iraq.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-05-01-iraq-diplomat_N.htm

[loudsue]

10. I hope Americans, on the whole, will FINALLY be sick and tired of WAR.

War is NOT the way for adults to deal with their problems or suppressed anger. But it's going to take a lot of dumb shits in high places to see the face of war (like many of our more mature european neighbors have) before they realize that there MUST be a better way to deal with things.

Duh?

:kick::kick::kick:

[mainer]

11. My diplomat-relative said he "aged 10 years" while in Baghdad

He's sick about everything that's gone wrong there. And he says we don't hear a fraction of the really, really awful things that are happening, and how the Iraqis have every logical reason to absolutely hate us.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. I find it a little hard to buy since they hardly ever leave the Green Zone. They haven't seen the

carnage that the troops see on a daily basis.

[OKIsItJustMe]

14. Believe it...

Just because the folks carrying guns are more obviously traumatized does not mean that the diplomats are unaffected.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/anxiety.cfm#anx4

...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops after a terrifying ordeal that involved physical harm or the threat of physical harm. The person who develops PTSD may have been the one who was harmed, the harm may have happened to a loved one, or the person may have witnessed a harmful event that happened to loved ones or strangers.

...

[KurtNYC]

20. I believe it too

when you hear real machine gun fire, burst after burst all night long, mortars, the smoke from buring buildings, it will mess with you. The bullets don't have to hit YOU in order to do some mental/emotional damage. Seeing kids with their legs and faces blown off aint too pleasant either. I don't think the Green Zone is any kind of insulation from the carnage.

[mainer]

24. Just the ride from the airport is terrifying

You don't have to be a soldier to be scared out of your wits there.

[Demeter]

13. The Correct Term is GUILT

not PTSD. And the guilt is entirely deserved. They must atone for being part of the problem.

[Bridget Burke]

16. Most of these diplomats are not political appointees.

They didn't create this mess.

"Atone"? Sounds awfully Old Testament to me.

[Demeter]

17. Did They Resign? Did They Blow Whistles? Did They Subvert

the criminal enterprise? Or did they go along to get along, hold their noses and suck it up?

GUILT is the only word for the road not taken when you know damn well you should have.

And the Bible existed millenia before the word "atone". Don't go semantic on me.

[OKIsItJustMe]

18. Let me get this straight

You want to take out your revenge on the diplomats!?

I think you may misunderstand what the word atone means.

[Demeter]

19. Revenge? Are You Reading Your Own Posting?

Click on your dictionary link again. There is nothing about revenge in it, but something about paying your debt....and please don't bother me again.

[Bridget Burke]

21. So I guess our soldiers need to "atone," as well.

Let us know how the IRS responds to your refusal to finance the War. (That is, pay taxes.)

Watch out, incoming semantics!

In secular usage, the word "atonement" means the act of reconciling with another person -- or group -- for one or more past sins or wrongdoings. In a religious sense, "atonement" normally means "at-one-ment." This is the state of being reconciled with God. The word comes from the Middle English phrase "at oon," which means "at one." When used in a religious context, it normally refers to some activity that reconciles a person or group with one or more deities, whether the action involves the affirmation of a statement of faith, the ritual sacrifice of an animal, or the performance some other ritual. In ancient times, the ritual sacrifice of a human was often required.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_atone1.htm

The "ritual sacrifice of a human" is a fairly drastic definition. But it appears to be yours!

[Demeter]

22. I Think More Than Enough Humans Have Been Sacrificed In This Religious Frenzy

and as an atheist and an intellectual, I resent all the slurs against my citizenship, usage of my native tongue, and the specious straw men arguments. Their atonements must be with the nation, not the god, and the citizens who employed them to look out for our interests, which do not include rape, pillage, destruction, and creation of blood feuds. Also some personal atonements going on, for not believing the messengers, no doubt. You ought to try it, yourself.

[Bridget Burke]

23. Well, if you employed them--you paid their salaries. So you're responsible, too.

You haven't yet told me how the IRS answered your refusal to pay last year.

Nothing's as impressive as a resentful "intellectual."

To rephrase that: A resentful intellectual is as impressive as nothing.

[mainer]

25. My diplomat-relative started under Clinton -- he hates the war

Career diplomats generally believe in negotiation, not war. They have remained in the state department because they thought it was the only way to counteract Bush's war-mongering. I have only the highest respect for them -- and yes, many have resigned in protest. But many have remained, to try and work within the system to change the course of this mess.

[donsu]

15. and they were breathing the same DU poisoned air as everyone else

in Iraq