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Iraq War Veterans Treatment and Returning Home

Veterans of the war in Iraq are being treated better upon their return to the United States than veterans of the Vietnam War primarily because of the attitude of Americans toward the respective wars and the information available about the troops.

Currently more than sixty percent of Americans oppose the war in Iraq (PolingReport.com 1). By contrast, in 1971, only twenty-eight percent of people thought the Vietnam War was not a mistake (Gallup, The Gallup Poll 299). Thus, a significantly larger segment of society opposed the Vietnam War. In addition, opposition was more organized into protests and demonstrations and permeated the subculture movement in its music and attitudes. So powerful was this societal movement that some even credit it with contributing to the nation's failure in the war. According to two political scientists, the reasons for the United States' failure were "primarily socio-political, first and foremost the fundamental lack of legitimacy of the superpowers' objectives in the war ... among the superpowers' citizens and allies and in the world community at large" (Arrighi & Silver Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System 264). No such widespread movement opposing the Iraq War exists today. Thus, soldiers returning from Iraq are not being taunted and maligned to the same extent.

While the treatment of Iraq veterans has not matched the disrespectful and malicious nature of the reception of Vietnam War veterans, one could argue that the inadequate care the former receive for their illnesses makes their homecoming just as uncomfortable. Veterans' hospitals and military medical centers have become lodged with a surfeit of wounded military men and women. While initial medical care is typically advanced and expertly performed, soldiers across the country struggle with unaddressed mental and emotional problems just as much as Vietnam veterans. The system, experts say, is still unequipped to deal with the ...

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Iraq War Veterans Treatment and Returning Home. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:13, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2001102.html