The Suffering of Soldiers

Hell on Earth

My grandmother (at home, we called her Grannie Titmuss) was born in the late 1880’s and died in the early 1970s. She had five brothers who were called up for the so-called Great War from 1914-1918.

Her parents received a letter from the British Government which started with the words all parents dread to read – notification of a son’s death. “I regret very much to inform you that your son….” In the space of four years, all five brothers of my gran were killed in battle.

Her husband, a few years younger than her, also fought in France, returning home in his early 20’s – a traumatised man. A decade after the war, he committed suicide.

The suffering of soldiers, both on and off the battlefield, exposes an enduring reality shaped by intense physical, emotional, and psychological challenges.

War exposes soldiers to traumas that can leave lasting scars, impacting their mental health, much of their personal lives, and preventing reintegration into society. The suffering extends beyond the physical wounds. It delves deep into the inner life, forming a psychological burden and social conflict persisting long after the war has ended.

Physically, soldiers face extreme environments, injuries, and the constant threat of death. Combat zones are fraught with violence, unpredictability, and physical pain, where even minor injuries can become severe under harsh conditions. A soldier suffers from bombs, missiles, gunshot wounds and loss of limbs, physically debilitating but also endures severe emotional wounds with a long, slow period to recovery. In some cases, soldiers suffer lifelong disabilities. These injuries affect their independence, often requiring extensive rehabilitation to help reduce the toll on their existence.

Let us never forget that the suffering doesn’t end when the soldier leaves the battlefield. Upon returning home, a soldier often faces major issues. The collective routines and disciplines in the military environment differ vastly from those in civilian society. This contrast can lead to feelings of isolation and misunderstanding. For many, support upon returning home is inadequate; they may encounter stigmas related to mental health. Soldiers sense civilians cannot understand the sacrifices they have made, nor the cost to their wellbeing. They keep quiet and refuse to touch upon the horror of their memories.

This exposure can lead to mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. The language of PTSD fails to capture the depths of despair and torment in the minds of many soldiers returning from combat. A small event, such as a crying child, a person shouting or a car horn, can reignite the trauma they experienced in a battle zone.

An engagement with war, invasion and killing for the purpose of conquest and territory robs a soldier of peace of mind, natural happiness and empathy for others. Aged 18 or more, soldiers witness the worst of humanity engaging in collective violence.

Nightmares, panic attacks and sudden flashbacks releases a similar repeat experience of what took place on the battlefield. Emotional numbness and high levels of anxiety make daily life like an extension of the battlefield. These psychological wounds are often invisible but can debilitate the life of a former soldier, as much as physical injuries. The range of psychological wounds affects the relationships with loved ones, work and sense of self-worth. Thoughts of harming others, or harming themselves, or both, arise out of the conditions of war. Holding street parades to celebrate victory obscures the suffering of soldiers.

According to the South Atlantic Medal Association, 256 British soldiers were killed over the Falklands/Malvinas islands war in the south Atlantic and since then 264 veterans have committed suicide. US and other nations report high levels of suicide due to the engagement of soldiers in war.

The ‘Glamour’ of War

The media and public praise soldiers, alive, dead, maimed or traumatised, as heroes. Most so-called war heroes know differently. Hollywood, politicians and media attempt to glamourise war and frame killing in a good versus evil combat. This masks the truth of a deliberate attempt on both sides to maximise suffering and death on the other side. War consists of the old, rich and powerful ordering the young, poor and powerless to go and kill others much like themselves, and any civilians who get in the way.

There is nothing glamorous about war. So-called heroic acts might come from an impulse to do something crazy to escape the despair in the mind. A medal pinned onto the uniform of a soldier may hide a dark reality of a wounded mind behind it. The creation of heroes feeds the belief in the glamour of war to feed the egos of those pursuing excitement.

After service time in the hell realms, veterans may feel abandoned by the very society they served, increasing their sense of isolation. They may experience a loss of meaning, a loss of purpose and feel they will never recover from what they did or what they witnessed or both. The emotional burden weighs heavily on them, day after day. Ex-soldiers frequently turn to substance abuse, such as alcohol and drugs, addictive behaviour and living with the stigma of a depressed or impulsive mindset.

Beyond the individual suffering of the soldiers, their families endure much anguish and anxiety. They often live with the constant worry of losing a loved one or finding themselves living with a completely different person they knew before their loved one went into battle. Children may grow up with a parent who is emotionally or physically distant, due to the parents' ongoing anxieties and fears endured in combat. Spouses may become caregivers for years, witnessing firsthand the toll that war has taken on their loved ones, adding further strain to family dynamics.

Efforts to address these issues include medical treatment, psychological counselling, and community support. Comprehensive care costs money to meet the complex needs of returning soldiers. Government often prefers to use taxation to expand the military and production of weapons rather than provide a lifelong service to reduce suffering of soldiers and their families.

This needs to be restated. Soldiers may face severe conditions, including extremes of weather, hunger, heightened fears and sleepless nights. Death hangs in the air, intensifying levels of sheer terror and chronic anxiety. Degrees of mental-physical exhaustion add to paralysis and despair.

The Experience of Hell

Can you imagine what it must be like to perpetuate the horror of inflicting death on others? What are the consequences of such collective madness?

• Dead men, women and children

• Human remains

• Blood and body parts

• Blast explosions from bombs, mortars, rockets and RPG (rocket-propelled grenades)

• Wounded, injured people of all ages

• Slow death of a person (s)

• Horrors in a hospital

• Torture

• Threats and rage.

• Weeping of women, sobbing of children and similar unimaginable grief for men.

The soldier can end up with an intense feeling. “It’s all my fault” The primary fault rests in the policies of the politicians and army generals. Soldiers need to find the strength to take some measure of responsibility. There is the making of karma and the consequences in ways obvious and not obvious. Nobody directly involved in the support of war and time in war zones comes out of all of that unscathed. Nobody.

Such people find themselves experiencing more self-doubt, regular insecurity, an increase in blame and fear.  For some, there is a loss of peace of mind, loss of happiness and an inability to laugh. They wonder why they cannot feel real happiness as they knew before becoming soldiers. Such post war experiences can reveal a handful of the karmic consequences, as well as deeply troubling experiences.

My dad’s trauma of years in war zones left him afraid I would hurt myself, even with small tasks. He insisted on putting an electric plug in the wall in the kitchen for the kettle or putting the plug in the wall to switch on music in the living room. “I’ll do it. You might get a electric shock,” he often repeated to me. I was in my late teens.

The Impact of Authority

Governments and society need to question the conditions and beliefs leading to conflict. Suffering can continue long after pilots have dropped their last bomb on civilians, tanks fire their last shell at blocks of flats and soldiers have fired their last bullet to kill combatants and civilians.

Why does society, including young men and women, encourage the call to arms to endorse slaughter of entire sections of a population?

Society remains vulnerable to the authority of politicians, powerful people in the public, private sector, religious leaders and influential authorities who urge war to take place. Hardly any of these people, who appearing in the media or planning rooms for war, spend time in the epicentre of the killing fields.

They stay detached from the realities of war, even if a few did their military service in long-gone youth.

Acting under orders, soldiers can experience intense guilt for taking the lives of others, giving orders to others to kill. They might feel they have lost their moral compass and empathy for others.

Their conscience can expose itself at any time, generating an intensity of remorse, sometimes leading to self-harm and self-destruction on the battlefield, back at home or in a remote location.

Steps to support Suffering Soldier

Treatment for the soldier suffering with emotional, mental and physical wounds requires long term skilful and love treatment. Soldiers may require ongoing support for years, not for a few weeks after returning to civvy street (civilian life).

Steps include:

• Psychotherapy

• Counselling

• Medication for a range of mental health issues

• Support groups with other soldiers and army veterans

• Minimising triggers such as watching war movies, the news and social media

• Mindfulness and stress-reduction techniques

• Practising the ethics and values of non-violence in body, speech and mind

• Find livelihoods related to giving loving support to others

• Find a voice to share with wise listeners instead of repressing of emotions/memories

• Exploring with other alternative ways for healing and renewal

• Caring for the environment and creatures

• Going outdoors as much as possible. Walk the streets, parks, pathways, walk beside the river and in the hills and woods

• Developing a spiritual/religious sensitivity to know the oneness and expanse of life

• Keep an eye open for holistic approaches, such as combining therapy with community-building activities and caring employment

• Associate with groups of shared interests that nourish well-being.

Such programmes support soldiers returning to civilian life so they can rebuild their trust, their lives and their humanity.

Non-Association with Killing of another Human Being

The Buddha remained an unwavering and steadfast opponent of the killing of another human being. He made non-killing the first principle of his entire body of teachings.

It is important to make crystal clear the responsibility of the relationship of human beings to keep both eyes wide open for each other in a caring way.

Examples of the Absence of Desire to Take Away the Life of Others

• A person has no desire to intentionally deprive another human being of their right to life.

• A person has no desire to order another human being(s) to kill another other human being(s).

• A person has no desire to incite another to kill other human beings.

• A person has no desire to knowingly, consciously, deliberately causes the death of another or others.

• A person has no desire to make any kind of effort to support the killing of another.

• A person has no desire to directly or indirectly provides the weapons or any other means, to kill another or others.

• A person has no desire to give any kind of sign, gesture, nor signal, to kill another or others.

• A person has no desire to prepare for the killing of another or others

• A person has not desire to recomend the killing of another or others.

• A person has not desire to imply, directly or indirectly, the killing of another.

• A person has not desire for a way to kill someone or for another to find a way to kill.

• A person has no desire to knowingly kill another or others with a purpose or otherwise.

• A person has no desire to persuade another human being to commit suicide.

If a person in a way whatsoever gives support to another or others to kill a human being, then this person acts as an accomplice to the one or more who engages in the act of killing. An accomplice to war, to invasions, often claims “We have no choice.” Owing to detachment from empathy for the plight of others, this view supports killing, genocide, starvation and more.

This violates the first principle of life. The principle is clear and simple. Treat others as you wish to be treated without exception.

Application of Humane Principles

These humane principles protect four kinds of people –

• Soldiers from inflicting suffering

• Accomplices supporting the infliction of suffering

• A safeguard for those destined to lose their life

• Protection of families, loved ones and friends enduring grief and despair, whether military personnel, combatants, accomplices and families regardless of identity.

We protect our soldiers and other soldiers/combatants by finding ways to stop war, negotiate peace and the resolution of conflict. To engage in activities to end a war confirms an act of compassion, not a political act. This principle applies to all – religious networks, charities, spiritual organisations, non-violent campaigners, networks and individuals.

Active compassion matters. Any organisation rejecting compassion leaves war in the hands of the politicians and military.

For those dedicated to the teachings of the Buddha, there is not a choice between support for war, ignoring the realities of war or acts of compassion. Acts of compassion function as a solemn duty, an expression of our humanity, far deeper than politics and an ideology to justify war.

Our soldiers need to come home from war and remind us war consists of a descent into an uncivilised and barbaric hell realm, where killing, harming and widespread destruction confirms the obscenity of every act.

Why should soldiers remind us of the horrors of war? So that people, from children to adults, young and old, men, women and other, refuse to countenance any kind of involvement in such terror.

The experience of our soldiers can transform into a force to stop war.

Two Stories from my Dad as a World War 2 soldier

My dad was called up to join the British Army in 1939 – 1945. He was 20 years old. At home, he never spoke about the war. I recall he only made one comment. “Our government robbed me of the best years of my life.“ (aged 20 - 26). I don’t recall he said anythuing else to me, except that single comment. In January 1990, he suddenly told me two stories of his experience as a soldier.

Story 1. My dad said he took despatches on a motorbike from one Army command post to another. On a country lane, a young German soldier, hiding in a field, shot at him. The bullet hit the motorbike causing him to crash. The soldier walked over to him with his pistol in hand to kill my dad lying under the motorbike. Both young men looked into the eyes of each other. The German stopped himself from pulling the trigger and walked away. My dad pulled out his gun. He also could not pull the trigger. My dad picked up his motorbike and continued his journey. The story reveals acts of compassion.

Story 2. My dad said he and a fellow soldier were engaged in clearing a narrow street of terraced homes of any remaining German soldiers in a small town in Germany. They rushed from one house to the next. Peering behind the curtain of one house, before moving to the next house, they spotted a German soldier running down the opposite side of the street. My dad’s companion raised his rifle to kill him. My dad said he put his hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Wait a moment,” my dad whispered. A few seconds later, a young woman with a baby in her arms opened a door on the opposite side of the street and started running down the street. She ran into the arms of the German soldier. They hugged and kissed each other and their baby. Another story revealing an act of compassion.

My dad’s eyes filled with tears. He then withdrew back into his 45 years of silence about the war.

He died three weeks later, aged 70.

MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE WITH COMPASSION

MAY ALL BEINGS REALISE OUR COMMON HUMANITY

MAY ALL BEINGS TREAT OTHERS AS WE WISH TO BE TREATED