Archive for June 2009
Why all the Iraq War Suicides?
I am asking myself this question now. Does it have to do with TBI and PTSD? Does it have to do with loss of hope, loss of morale, the knowledge that the public gives two shits about Iraq? The knowledge that men and women died there for no real good reason? Someone tell me the reason for it, please.
It is best to come home and forget that you were even there. If you are married reconnect with your family. If you hate your wife, divorce her before she gets her claws on your war chest if she hasn’t already spent it decorating the house or buying size 18 Air Jordan shoes for Jody. If she is with Jody don’t shoot them both. Find another woman who is worth your time and your effort and who has patience for your career. A woman like this is hard to find now. Most of all learn to be patient with yourself.
If you are unmarried I cannot stress the importance of getting a life affirming hobby besides drinking and womanizing. Women love us because we are fit, nihilistic, live day to day, and usually put it down well – however this sort of lifestyle can only lead to your ruin. Or unwanted children, which will lead to your ruin. Or death threats from shotgun wielding husbands, which will lead to your ruin. Or sexual addiction.
Get a life affirming hobby. That means a hobby which celebrates the fact that you are alive and didn’t die in that third world shithole of a sewer Iraq. I do hope that there is a Middle East Disneyland there one day, but having been there – I highly doubt it. I would love to take my kids to Babylon. I don’t see it happening.
Take up car repair. Take up an art. Buy a camera. Write something. Read a bunch. Take college classes. But by all means don’t waste your life sucking down brews in a bar waiting to talk to the next phony in a pony tail that sits next to you. Make something of yourself.
Don’t kill yourself over a woman. No matter how much shame you feel that she “Jodied” you, write her off for the whore that she is. Or the poor lonely person that couldn’t wait for you. Have you tried waiting for someone for fifteen months? Have you sent your wife on a weekend getaway before you started pulling your hair out with worry? Some women can’t take it. Either make up or divorce her and get on your quest to find someone nice. If you married a stripper outside of Ft. Bragg for BAH, no harm no foul. Try to find a nice girl in church.
If your wife did something totally off the wall like set up a brothel in your on base housing where she pimped other military spouses out, hire a lawyer and sue her for some of the profits, then get rid of her. You are not your wife. She is an adult woman capable of making her own decisions. Man up and kick her to the curb. Children will complicate things, but it is best to have them someplace stable, than with a total ginned up floosie.
Remember even though you are a professional and member of a team you are still an individual capable of independent thought. No need to be dependent on others for everything.
I can assure you. If you make a commitment to give up the booze and take up a new hobby, you will feel better in a few months. Also if things don’t get much better you can go to www.militaryonesource.com or speak with your chaplain. Iraq is not worth ending your life over.
Jeffrey M. Hopkins is the author of Broken Under Interrogation, where two Iraq war veterans take up the not so life affirming hobby of robbing, torturing, and murdering drug dealers in their rust belt hometown. It is intentionally all the nastiness of war. It is available on Amazon.com.
