It's important to note that rational clarity about the situation can also be what leads soldiers to insinuate that they are actually the bad actors in a given conflict, which can lead to depression and then suicidal thoughts.
I can't find the study now. But it was documented that Viet Cong soldiers had overall less PTSD years after the Vietnam War than Americans. And the extrapolation was that Viet Cong soldiers, defending their country and people from a foreign invader, were more easily able to justify their actions and thus didn't feel the remorse, guilt, and fear during fighting that their American counterparts did.
Perhaps that isn't the whole story, but I'd bet that part of the reason American vets struggle with PTSD so much is that not all of them can rationalize and defend the things the American army does in other countries around the world. It is almost always involved in offensive invasions, especially of lands where neither the natives nor the insurgents trust them or want them involved. And I think being so face to face with injustice and having to perpetrate it without any moral salve that you are doing the right thing is hard, especially in our digitally connected, personally disconnected world.
I can't find the study now. But it was documented that Viet Cong soldiers had overall less PTSD years after the Vietnam War than Americans. And the extrapolation was that Viet Cong soldiers, defending their country and people from a foreign invader, were more easily able to justify their actions and thus didn't feel the remorse, guilt, and fear during fighting that their American counterparts did.
Perhaps that isn't the whole story, but I'd bet that part of the reason American vets struggle with PTSD so much is that not all of them can rationalize and defend the things the American army does in other countries around the world. It is almost always involved in offensive invasions, especially of lands where neither the natives nor the insurgents trust them or want them involved. And I think being so face to face with injustice and having to perpetrate it without any moral salve that you are doing the right thing is hard, especially in our digitally connected, personally disconnected world.