Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

How to give someone a howling case of PTSD: The Army’s recipe in action

Much talk of post-traumatic stress disorder has come out of the Iraq War, but little is as striking as that of Lt. Col. Bill Russell Edmonds, a Special Forces officer whose memoir is scheduled to appear in a few months.

61nkkh12wal
61nkkh12wal

Best Defense is in summer re-runs. This item originally appeared on January 30, 2015.

Best Defense is in summer re-runs. This item originally appeared on January 30, 2015.

Much talk of post-traumatic stress disorder has come out of the Iraq War, but little is as striking as that of Lt. Col. Bill Russell Edmonds, a Special Forces officer whose memoir is scheduled to appear in a few months.

In the book, titled God Is Not Here: A Soldier’s Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War, Edmonds says in his first sentences, “I’m a good person forced to make many horrible choices.”

What especially makes it stand out is that it amounts to a textbook on how to develop a howling case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). All the ingredients identified by the noted psychiatrist and veterans’ counselor Jonathan Shay in his two groundbreaking books on the syndrome are here.

If the Army in some perverse experiment had consciously wanted to try to induce PTSD in one of its officers, it could not have done a more effective job than it did on Edmonds.

(For the rest, click here.)

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

More from Foreign Policy

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.

Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?

The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.

Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.
Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World

It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

It’s a New Great Game. Again.

Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.

Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.
Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing

The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.