Another Bad Thing about War

The latest from the Department of Veterans Affairs:

For men and women who have fought in the country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, death behind the wheel is becoming another lethal aftereffect of combat. After they leave military service, veterans of the two wars have a 75 percent higher rate of fatal motor vehicle accidents than do civilians. Troops still in uniform have a higher risk of crashing their cars in the months immediately after returning from deployment than in the months immediately before. People who have had multiple tours in combat zones are at highest risk for traffic accidents.

Part of the reason may be the style of driving adopted in combat zones to frustrate IEDs and ambushes, that is, never stopping at intersections, driving in the middle of the road, and so on.

That’s probably not the whole story, however. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suffered by thousands of veterans, increases aggressive driving. Drunken driving and thrill-seeking also are more common after combat, according to a few studies and the testimony of many veterans.

According to the government, this same pattern was observed after the Gulf War, and it took about five years to dissipate.

War is just not good for us.