Confronting hard truth and PTS

The WSJ also features a story about Army Major Peter Kilner who has been writing and speaking about the need for soldiers to deal with their feelings of guilt over killing in the course of duty:

Slowly, Maj. Kilner's writings -- which encourage officers to talk to their troops about the morality of killing in combat and the guilt that often comes with taking another's life -- have begun gathering a wide audience.

Instructors at a military-police school in Missouri have passed them around to spur discussions on the morality of killing. At the Army's school for newly minted chaplains in South Carolina, Maj. Kilner's writings are being incorporated into a new course to be offered later this year on how to counsel soldiers on the morality of war. Recently a battalion of troops from the 101st Airborne Division gathered to discuss his theories on killing prior to deploying to Iraq later this fall.

I'm sure that the antiwar left will have something accusatory and outraged to say about this. During Vietnam the morality of killing was the argument of many protesters against the war, but I always felt that the real concern of those of draft age or with family in that age group was the fact that Americans get killed in war.

I also think that the experience of killing and seeing friends killed and wounded in horrible, gory ways explains why so many WWII veterans never spoke about their experiences to their families. The memories were too painful, and in those days men didn't cry. Now you see them on television documentaries, breaking down as they talk about those experiences, and your heart goes out to them. That's why we see them as heroes, and why they deserve our honor and respect. The parades and outpouring of support helped them deal with the sense of guilt over killing or surviving when others died. The troops returning from Vietnam didn't get that. Just the opposite. And theat is why I have no respect for pacifists and angry protesters like Cindy Sheehan who seem to ignore the nobility of serving one's country and liberating the oppressed and focus only on their own anger.