Our two oceans are such an incredible luxury for us. It keeps us at a comfortable distance from most of the rest of the world so that the suffering need only be observed from our living rooms between game shows and sitcoms. But that suffering does not end when the cause is mitigated. PTSD is not just for soldiers. Political decisions have lasting human consequences with very long half-lives.Human beings are blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with very large brains that retain the memory of events often for a lifetime. How this is done we still don't understand. But, to be sure, there is a difference between short term and long term memory. Short term can be fleeting. What goes into long term is much more permanent. (Why this gives us a survival advantage is food for though.)
The fact that we don't remember much of our childhood doesn't mean that it is not there. Freud was very clever in sorting out this situation even if he may have been off on the mechanism. One thing for sure, though. We remember traumatic events. They get burned into our brains with a branding iron. Think back on your childhood and see if this is not the case.
Which brings us to the subject of SteveG's post, the traumatic experience of children in Iraq and what this is going to do to them in the future. It is very hard to imagine an entire nation with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Remember, a disproportionate number of the current Iraqi population are children. Like this one:
and this one:
and this one:
I have been collecting photos of Iraqi children. I now have well over 500.
Just think about it. What we have done.
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