The Guilt They Carry: Wounds of Iraq and Afghanistan

The announcement by Barack Obama of the surge in U.S. troop deployment to Afghanistan—from a two thousand-strong force in 2001 to one hundred thousand troops sometime this year—came bundled with a provision for a quick drawdown starting in July 2011. The commander-in-chief's timetable, coming eight years after the U.S. campaign to crush al Qaeda and topple the Taliban, was a gesture toward closure and a signal of the gradual transfer of responsibility to the Afghans. But for most of the troops returning home, there will be neither emotional closure nor relief from the burden of personal responsibility that soldiers carry in war.