Angry Planet - Why is it so hard to come home from modern war?

Episode Date: June 10, 2016

There’s an argument to be made that humans evolved to fight each other – and to be good at it. But as the United States approaches its 15th straight year at war, rates of post-traumatic stress disorder are high. Many soldiers come home uncertain as to where they fit in and dealing with depression, anxiety and other issues.This week on War College, we look at whether PTSD is a modern phenomenon. If it is, what is it about the way we live now that makes it so hard to transition home from the battlefield?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Love this podcast? Support this show through the ACAST supporter feature. It's up to you how much you give, and there's no regular commitment. Just click the link in the show description to support now. The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the participants, not of Reuters' News. There's an argument to be made, whether you believe it or not, that human beings evolved to fight each other and to be very, very good at it. But as the United States approaches its 15th straight year at war, rates of post-traumatic stress disorder are high. Many soldiers come home, uncertain as to where they fit in, and dealing with depression, anxiety, and other issues.

This week on War College, we look at whether PTSD is a modern phenomenon, and if it is, what is it about the way we live now that makes it so hard to transition from the battlefield to your own home? Matthew Galt was gracious enough to take on the hosting duties this week alone. You're listening to War College, a weekly discussion of a world in conflict focusing on the stories behind the front lines. Hello and welcome to War College. I'm your host, Matthew Galt. Jason Fields, managing editor of Reuters, is busy both managing and editing this week, but he will be back next week. Today we're going to be talking about post-traumatic stress disorder. it's a phrase that we've heard a lot about in the past 15 years since America has gone to war in the Middle East. Many soldiers come home fine, others come home to insomnia, panic attacks, and a longing to return to the war that they left behind.

But it hasn't always been in this way. War is a human constant, but the way that society deals with its warriors and war has radically changed in the past 30 years. With us today on War College to talk about that is journalist, author, and documentarian Sebastian Younger. Younger is the author of War, the director of Coringall and Restrepo. His latest book, Tribe, on Homecoming and Belonging, is about post-traumatic stress disorder in American society and how American society deals with its soldiers. Sebastian, thank you so much for joining us. So I talked to you probably about a year ago. I did a lengthy profile piece with you, and you kind of teased this book at the very

end of it. And you told me that you had a different take on post-traumatic stress disorder than what was normally being heard in the media. And you very succinctly put it, and this has stuck with me since then. You said, we have the problem, not them. And I think that's a very, that's a very good starting place. And that's kind of a thesis statement for this book, I think. And I kind of wanted to, I've been dying to ask you the follow-up question now for a year, so I finally get to, what is the problem that we have? Well, it's a problem that veteran to struggle psychologically in the modern world. And the problem is this, that as affluence goes up in a society, mental health deteriorates

that make more and more individual to a room on the floor in a house is unheard of in human history. There's a lot of great things about affluence, and there's a lot of great things about independence and making individualistic decisions. But there is a downside, and the downside is people from human connection. And that human connection is actually vital to our, from our psychological demons. Soldiers psychologically vulnerable after combat, which obviously is traumatic. But they have this awful comparison that they can now make. Which in line position like I was at at Restrepo, you're basically living your life in conjunction with 20, 30 other people.

You're doing everything with them. You're never more than an arm's length from a few other people. So that's how we evolved very abruptly, very abrupt so when soldiers come back from deployment. Why do you say that we erroneously call it PTSD? Right. It's interesting that you mentioned Western society because there are other societies where this doesn't, this rate of PTSD, as we call it, does not happen with their soldiers, even the modern era. You pointed out, I think that the American soldiers have twice the rate, the reported rate. of PTSD as do British soldiers that served at the same time with them in Afghanistan. That's right.

And you also pointed to Israel, too, which I thought was interesting. And is that also kind of speak to why American soldiers during World War II also didn't experience kind of the same rate of combat trauma? That was one of the really fascinating parts to the book to me, where those first two chapters, because there are people that, and this happens to American soldiers, too, they seem to pursue that connectedness, even at the cost of their own personal safety. You interviewed the Bosnian journalist who was happy during the war. Her parents had gotten her out of the country, but she snuck back in, and you quote her as

saying, we were the happiest. We laughed more. What do you think it is that made her go back? So do you think that this is kind of going off on a tangent here, but do you think that our biology just hasn't caught up to our technological advances? All right, so are we, is American society and Western society, is it anti-human? Okay, so how did other and older societies deal with this problem? Because we've, because war has been a human constant, right?

What is it that, let's say, the Romans or tribal societies are doing that's different? How do they treat their warrior class? Can you explain for our audience for some people that may not know? exactly what that short-term PTSD looks like. There was a good example in your book. But how should we treat soldiers when they return? What are we not doing that they need? I would say, in my opinion, just based on,

and I've read the book, I would say all soldiers. Kind of to that point, you write about the modern Native American tribes and the way that they treat their modern soldiers, the soldiers that are going off to Iraq and Afghanistan. And I thought that was very interesting. And I was wondering if you would describe that for us, kind of so that people can see, I guess a better way to treat people in a modern society.

That it's, that this, I fear that people reading your book and hearing this conversation would think that this sounds daunting and far too hard and that you're asking people to get up their iPhones. And I don't think that's what you're doing. I don't think that's what you're doing. I think that is a lovely note to close on. I think that's a wonderful call to action. I think the American civilian and military divide that we talk about all the time is is aggravating these problems.

And I think that that is a one small change, one small thing that all Americans could do to make this better. The book is by Sebastian Younger. It's called Tribe on Homecoming and Belonging. It is available now. You should read it. It's short and it's incredible. Sebastian Younger, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for listening to this week's War College.

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but in a quiet way. One last thing, if you like sports, you'll love our Keeping Score podcast. You can find it on iTunes or wherever your favorite podcasts are sold. Next time on War College. I mean, it is the case to abolish the United States Air Force, but the way to think about it is more of a bureaucratic reorganization.