Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 11, 2010

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder effects both sides.

Might have something to do with the death squads in Iraq that target Iraqi who have assisted the American effort? Amazing how few Iraqi are here, most go to refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and are suffled back…not like the Thai, Viet Nam or other war refugees at all. Iraq has been a strange, illegal war…and looks like it will be strange for some time to come.

That seems kinda ironic.

Maybe he was a Republican.

Rule One: The Lieutenant is always right!

Rule Two: when in doubt, refer to Rule One.

This strip is so poignantly true…Brilliant, Trudeau! Thank you.

Considering their history, I wonder that entire Afghan population aren’t experiencing PTSD, No to mention the entire Iraqi and Palestinian populations, and to a lesser degree the Israelis as well. And the Somalis. In fact, it would not surprise me if what we call PTSD is what they call Normal. It sometimes seems that those folks are crazy, irrational. Maybe that is true, but in a way we never consider.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this foreshadows Toggle and Hakim interacting with each other for mutual healing and to being instruments of cross-cultural understanding.

Naw? GT wouldn’t put the in the same therapy group, would he?

I wouldn’t be surprised if this foreshadows a load of touchy feely codswallop.

I can imagine the storyline where Hakim and Toggle will meet and learn about each other.

I am wondering if Sergeant Mel is being set up to be killed off or wounded while saving her new subordinates during an attack on the base. GT brought her back into the war for a reason.

@Lewreader

No, not in any group. I think it will be face to face outside of any formal structure that they end up helping each other conquer their inner demons.

Ever read Enemy Mine by Barry Longyear (1979)? Won the Hugo and a couple of other awards.

Cue the book burning…church raising…[insert other emotionally charged event here]

perfection. and on this day.

Considering that Leo’s therapy group is almost certainly at the VA, I doubt Hakim would be in it. As The Skulker said, it will probably be somewhere else where they meet up.

@Sandfan: If you don’t like the strip (and you must not since you seem to frequently complain about the story lines), there is a simple solution. Stop reading it!

Perspective can be a real b-word, can’t it?

give up sandfan. this strip tends to drip with the leftist-creepies or ooze in various forms, occasionally. here you can be thankful youŕe not mired in it yourself, and can comment on it. itś a cartoon, folks, lighten up.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Libya, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Darfur, Rwanda, so much PTSD, so few shrinks.

It does fall on both sides, and “the old ones” can teach. Maybe Phred should come back to join “group”.

Doughfoot, My own opinion: I think many countries in Africa and the Middle East have huge populations of children exposed to war related violence, and yes, suffering PTSD. Even those who have not witnessed the violence have had to take extreme precautions in their daily lives which could amount to at least lifelong paranoia. I think that as that generation takes control of their countries, they will perpetuate the violent dysfunction in their societies. I hope I’m wrong.

OshkoshJohn, I don’t see GT killing off Sgt Mel. To my recollection he does not kill off characters, though some fade away. I thought GT would kill off Duke when Hunter Thompson died, but Duke is still around. Being where she is, there are a lot of interesting situations GT can put her in. I hope I’m right about this; Mel’s character still has a lot of potential.

I don’t see Leo and Hakim becoming friends, and I don’t see them getting together to resolve all their issues, but I think there can certainly be some illuminating exchanges between the two, and I’m looking forward to that.

Bring on the codswallop. I’m looking forward to it.

dfowensby, you poor guy, you gotta reach all the way up Limbaugh’s bleeep to find a weak partisan insult.

Try this: Read, “Kathy.”

Same can be said of kids raised in an American ghetto ( is that still the word) these days, Chris.

TexTech: conservatives seem to enjoy reading the more liberal comics and media and complaining loudly that they exist. Kind of like the old lady who keeps looking at the disgraceful behavior of her neighbors even after she’s complained about it. And most of them are little old ladies at heart. And most of them were crying about not enough rep in the press years ago ao they now want to choke off the other side? St. Paul long ago warned about being careful what you preach against or you will fall into that sin and every one they have complained about the liberals doing, the neo-cons have done an then forgiven themselves or their reps for.

This is a Muslim high holy day along with being our 9/11 and they have been very discreet in their celebrations in awareness of our wounds. I appreciate it.

why do so many assume that an iraqi who has issues with american soldiers was fighting against american soldiers.

bombs drop, rockets are fired, bullets fly mindlessly in all directions. civilians die and their homes are destroyed. not by intent…just colateral damage (bland word for the horror of it.)

remember the wedding that got bombed by an american plane? the old woman whose husband and children were killed, stand in front of the camera screaming “I hate you. May you die spitting blood.” at the news camera.

PTSD affects civilians too, especially when your children die. Maybe Americans need a real fighting war at home to begin to understand that. One where there is no front line, where women and children are not safe and homes are destroyed. To many battles in other peoples yard, and I think we have lost sight of it.

Wow, ChrisFLH70, you have certainly raised the level of polite debate around here, while obviously totally missing glenardis point of “putting yourself in another’s place” or ” walk a mile in my shoes.”

Chrisnp, PTSD is rampant in Africa. Child soldiers, child rape, punitive amputations and slavery, all endemic in the wars throughout West and Central Africa.

glenardis, ChrisFLH, & stuart_estes are caught up in that chicken/egg debate. What reaction to whose outrage triggers another outrage? Who committed the “Original Outrage”? It should be easy to figure out, since everyone seems to have an answer. It’s almost like a “perpetual motion machine”. We could probably solve the world’s energy needs with it, but it’s more toxic than coal.

I’m sorry if I offended anyone, and I understand “putting yourself in another’s place” . That was my point. I am quite sure that anyone who has lived through that kind of violence would would never suggest that there is any social value in living through it for any reason. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous. ESPECIALLY on 9/11!

PTSD was not recognized before Vietnam. The VA has spent billions in research, studies, and trials to help our affected veterans. They basically wrote the book on it.

Yes there has been abuse. When I met a vet collecting 100% for his PTSD from Granada, I thought, “what happened, you spill your pina colada on the beach?” I can’t see that we should let a few deny the majority who really need help. Like any government program, some scams will happen.

Whatever happens, PLEASE do not put those two in the same therapy session. Neither one is ready for that.

ptsd was caused shell shock before, so it’s been around before vietnam

Today’s strip completes GT’s unfolding of the initial classroom crisis that involved Toggle, Prof. Shipley, and Hakim. After four strips on Leo’s PTSD, Trudeau broadens his focus to show the trauma experienced by Hakim, who (like Toggle) assumed that an American classroom is a secure refuge from war memories. Both traumatized characters are portrayed sympathetically, but the academic Shipley, for whom Iraq is merely a (no doubt deplorable) mistake, seems clueless about the trauma he provoked by asking an Iraqi about Metallica. The Professor is the real object of GT’s satire.

there was no intent to blame american troops for collateral damage. it happens, regardless of the whose war it is. But when the war surrounds not only you but your family and friends, you do not have to be a combatant (as is suggested here) to get your head screwed up.

the idea of a “war at home” is probably most relevent on 9/11. it is probaby most relevent on 9/11 to think about how damned lucky we are that it hasn’t happened. We need only to look at this singular act of terrorism and see how drastically it has changed our lives, how we live, and how we look at each other. imagine now what 8 years of continuous conflict would turn us into.

There in a collage class together, not a therpy class

Actually, Lewreader, PTSD was simply known by other names previous to Vietnam, and as some would argue, was first described in ancient Greek texts. It was certainly well known in the 19th century. As to the VA basically writing the book on it, I would agree that the VA has spent a lot of money on research in recent decades, but they are in my opinion late comers, and built on a lot of research already done by others. I suggest you read “Shell Shock to PTSD; Military Psychology from 1900 to the gulf war.” It will tell you about much of the work begun in Britain even before WWI, psychiatric specialty hospitals during that war, even the ex-services mental welfare society in the inter-war period.

Also, many of the newer treatments for PTSD in recent years have come from outside the military establishment.

Palin Drome, I think you are misreading Shipley. He may have been caught off guard by the Toggle/Hakim incident (understandably), but if I remember correctly – several months ago when Shipley was introduced as Toggle was first enrolling in college, he was very sympathetic to Toggle’s PTSD. In fact, if my memory is correct (which isn’t all that good, so I may be miss-remembering), I think Shipley was a Vietnam vet.

Re: Why/how a traumatized Hakim is here.

Shortly after 9/11, in the midst of sporadic anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incidents in the US, a historian friend reminded me that most Arabs in this country were not Muslim (being Lebanese Christians), and most Muslims in this country were not Arab (being African-Americans who had in some sense followed Malcolm X’s movement away from Christianity and/or the Nation of Islam into a more orthodox Islam).

When I mentioned to my friend a few years later that I had often cited him on these facts, he had to correct me on at least one of them. Thanks to immigrants/refugees from our war, the majority of Arabs in this country are now Muslim. (I’m not sure about the current demographic breakdown of US Muslims.)

That’s pretty much how empire works.