The British Ministry of Defense has announced that it is going to pardon all 306 soldiers shot for cowardice during the First World War.
This is the culmination of a campaign that has been going on for years, after it was discovered that most of these soldiers were actually suffering from “shell shock.” From the historical records it seems highly likely that this was actually post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some people have said that there’s no point in issuing posthumous pardons ninety years after the events.
I don’t agree. It’s virtually impossible for us to imagine the horrors of trench warfare, and I think that it’s important to recognize the terrible psychological consequences of it.
Hospitals in the United States are already beginning to see a great many cases of PTSD from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We know that there are some predictors of who will suffer from PTSD, but that given enough trauma, it can likely happen to anyone.
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