4000 Dead in Iraq. 40,000 Mourn For Our Kindred Dead
By now it is no secret that at least 4000 Americans have been killed in Iraq.
It should also be no secret, but is usually left off the table, that we also have at least 40,000 more people who are swamped by intense grief. If one figures in families and friends and people who cared for each of these killed, then 40,000 is probably a low estimate.
Most of you who will read this blog have already experienced intense grief before. It is a horribe darkness that can ravage one. One of my closest calls with my own life since the current war began was when my nephew was killed. The Pentagon won’t count him as a KIA, he was killed by his PTSD after three tours. My grief for that young man nearly killed me. It was combined with a grief for America, what it has become compared to what it used to be. It helped to make my own PTSD even worse. And, it almost killed me.
After the media and journalists are done gleaning all the life out of the grieving, the families will be left alone. The media won’t care anymore, they’ve already scavenged those poor folks for every tick on the ratings chart. But these families, these friends, will be set up for their own PTSD, from the trauma of losing someone for whom they deeply cared, and then less so from the emotional rape that the journalists will put them through. After all that, they are left alone and suffering. They will be at risk of suicide. PTSD will try to kill them. (A person does not have to be in combat or even in the military to acquire PTSD. All they need to do is experience trauma.)
If you know these people, then it is time to buck-up and truly be their friends. Proper grieving takes two or more years to go through. Help them keep appointments. Help with the kids. Just be there.
I say all the time, becuase I believe it and know it all the time, that prayer has kept me alive. Deep prayer can touch us in the grounding of our souls and fend off the seduction of death. If you don’t have or cannot find words, that is just fine, the deepest prayer is held in Silence.
We pray for the 4000, the 40,000, and all those killed in these wars. No sides, no good guys or bad guys, just human beinigs tormented and fractured by war.
We pray that we will all survive this grief and the seduction of Death.
Semper Pax, Dr. Z