Reporting on Afghanistan, Iraq low on the media's priority list this year
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San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Bethania Palma Markus
12/31/2010
Three years after being honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, combat veteran Jaazar Shalabi, 29, of Monrovia is about to lose his apartment.
And six years after his honorable discharge from the Navy, Alfonso Castaneda, 35, is homeless and his marriage is crumbling.
While war rages for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and plagues them after their return home, the men and women who served feel the rest of the country has lost interest.
"No one cares about the war or the injuries, or the outcome of it or that it's still going, or that people's lives are getting affected by it," Shalabi said.
According to one recent study, he's right.
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have been reduced to background static on the home front, according to researchers.
Only 4 percent of news coverage this year has been dedicated to the 9-year-old conflict, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The year before, only 5 percent of news coverage was dedicated to the war.
That's despite the fact that roughly 90,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan.
Nearly 6,000 U.S. servicemen-and-women have died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. And nearly 500 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan in 2010, making it the war's bloodiest year.
"A lot of people just don't want to hear anything about it, and the media is both a reflection of society and an influence on society," said Bruce Solheim, a history professor who organized veterans courses and programs at Citrus College in Glendora.
"Advertisers drive the whole thing, so if people aren't tuning in or reading (the media's) not going go with that," Solheim said.
As the wars dragged on over the past decade, some said the public is murky on why American troops are still in Afghanistan.
The United States attacked Afghanistan in October 2001 in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. U.S. officials called it an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden and terrorist organization Al Qaida, who masterminded the attack.
In 2003 U.S. officials turned focus to Iraq and attacked that country under the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war, stating that country had weapons of mass destruction.
American troops are being drawn down from Iraq.
Meanwhile, bin Laden has never been found. In May President Obama announced a troop surge in Afghanistan and the U.S. is now engaged in shoring up a central government headed by Hamid Karzai.
The U.S. has spent more than $1.1 trillion on both wars, according to CostOfWar.com, a website run by National Priorities Project.
Since no draft is in place, the general public does not feel the same fascination with Afghanistan as it did with Vietnam, experts said.
Only a tiny fraction of the population has been immediately affected by the ongoing wars, said Dr. Judith Broder, founder of The Soldiers Project, a nonprofit mental health organization for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Vietnam War dragged on for 10 years, but Broder said people didn't have the option of forgetting about it.
"What's different for us as a country is that in Vietnam, everyone knew someone who was in Vietnam," Broder said. "Whether you supported it or not, this wasn't a hidden part of the population. That makes big difference."
Members of the all-volunteer forces have been sent back for multiple tours of duty, while in previous wars draftees were only required to do one.
For the most part, society hasn't adapted to the needs of returning veterans whose trauma has been compounded by multiple tours of duty, said Lorenzo Powe, program manager for the Salvation Army's Liberty Program, which serves homeless veterans.
Anger issues, problems readjusting to civilian life, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries from bomb blasts have plagued veterans of the ongoing wars.
"The main thing is they are having a normal reaction to the abnormal situation of having been in combat for such long periods of time," Broder said. "They're like all of us except they've had experiences we have haven't had, and if we had those experience we'd be like them."
Because of psychological trauma, many run affoul of the law.
"A lot end up with (charges of) assault on police officers," Powe said.
Often they have trouble readjusting to civilian life after rigorously structured military life.
"When you're in the military, you have your mission, you have your duty," Castaneda said. "But out here it's chaos."
And while soldiers learn a vast array of skills that range from driving tanks to treating ghastly war wounds in the battlefield, their expertise often isn't recognized in the civilian world, Powe said.
They face other challenges few are aware of.
Being in crowds or situated in a room where the veteran can't clearly see an exit can cause anxiety that many employers or college campuses don't understand, Powe said.
"Society has to be compassionate but don't sell them short," he said. "They're stronger than you think."
Some veterans of the recent conflicts said they're having trouble fitting into a culture that seems oblivious to their experiences.
Shalabi, of Monrovia, described a sense of disconnect after being discharged in 2007.
"You wouldn't think we're at war and it's sad," he said.
Shalabi did two tours of duty and served as an Arabic translator. But he was taunted while in the military because of his Arab heritage.
Shalabi suffers from service-related injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was arrested and charged with drunk driving after a confrontation with a California Highway Patrol officer in April.
Shalabi maintains his innocence, but said he pleaded guilty because he couldn't afford a good lawyer and took the advice of the one he had to settle for.
He can't pay his rent because of the fees associated with the DUI, he said.
Castaneda is having a rocky time in the civilian world too.
He's heard the catch phrase "support our troops" and been called a hero, but doesn't feel the words have translated to reality.
While Castaneda was able to land jobs, employers let him go because a service-related back injury and post-traumatic stress disorder caused him to miss work.
A disability check from the Veterans Administration isn't enough to live on without work, he said.
Meantime he suffers severe depression and has since separated from his wife, who he said wants to file for divorce.
"It's OK to put a bumper sticker on your car but when it comes down to it I don't think anyone really cares," Castaneda said. "People have their own problems."
Broder said supporting troops entails investing in training programs for employers and police departments to deal with veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Their coming home issues being glossed over because wer're saying thanks and calling them heroes," she said. "There are a lot of people whose suffering is being hidden by this lack of reportage."
