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Having a son in Afghanistan training the Afghan National Army, you can imagine that I keep close watch on the events there, especially those involving fatalities.  A few weeks ago I read that the Taliban had beheaded two boys, ages 10 and 16. They did this as a warning to the village, because the boys were scrounging for food around army and police checkpoints in Kandahar province. My heart broke at such news, because the boys have a mother and father, and I cannot imagine their grief. These boys had nothing to do with the war in Afghanistan, they were simply trying to survive. In my opinion, this was an act of pure evil, and we must question the source of such evil. I think the answer may lie in the character of the enemy we face in the current conflict.
Recently I heard a podcast by Dave Roever, a Navy Swift boat gunner who was severely wounded in Viet Nam, and now has a ministry to wounded warriors. What caught my attention in his presentation was that our troops are not waging war against another nation, but instead are engaged in combating an ideology, a deadly war on terror against an enemy who hides among innocent civilians. Moreover, our troops are facing a new form of asymmetrical warfare, one in which they must be constantly on alert for attacks from all sides, even from those whom they are training to assume their nation's security responsibilities next year.
Dave noted that although we can now restore our wounded warriors physically with amazing advances in medical technology, we aren't doing very well at restoring them spiritually. It's estimated that up to 45% of military personnel returning from Afghanistan suffer some form of combat trauma, from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Traumatic Brain Injury. Combat trauma is a spiritual wound that requires spiritual healing. When not diagnosed and treated, such injuries can result in erratic and often violent behavior, including suicide. Military suicides are at all time highs - there's a military suicide every 18 hours.
We must not repeat the mistakes made in the Vietnam era by non-intervention, so many agencies like Dave's are working to help heal veterans with combat trauma. The Military Ministry of Campus Crusade (http://www.militaryministry.org) offers a course on "Bridges to Healing," a spiritual approach to healing combat trauma, and has produced other materials on spiritual fitness, ministering to the military, and identifying combat trauma. ACCTS Staff are involved in "The Welcome Home Initiative," (http://christ-the-king-center.org/WelcomeHome/) a healing ministry to help those who have suffered trauma in combat. For more information on ministering to the military, go to our website at www.accts.org.
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