Combat stress is a phrase we hear about often enough, usually as it pertains to war veterans. Is this just an empty phrase? Too often, we interpret combat stress to mean some military service member who has gone over the edge and is no longer able to function in a normal society. When military personnel are placed in war zones fraught with danger, their fight or flight response is always on alert, ever present. When this response becomes a 24/7 occurrence, over a period of months or years, there's bound to be psychological damage.

War zones produce the most challenging ethical, moral and debilitating circumstances a human being might ever encounter in a lifetime. Combat stress occurs when an individual is placed in a situation from which there's no escape. Each day is a repetition of the last, with no reprieve from the horrors of war.

Unless you personally know someone who's been sent off to a war zone, it's hard to imagine the psychological pressures and mental absurdities to which this person is subjected to on a daily basis. When we hear the news reports from war zones, we may be horrified at the deaths of innocent civilians, but may think little of the young individuals we've sent to do this work. These young warriors may have joined up with visions of saving the world, promoting democracy, thwarting dictatorships or combatting governments with idealogical views which contrast with those we subscribe to, only by virtue of a supposed righteousness.

War means killing. This is the genesis of combat stress. Each individual holds specific ethical boundaries, over which they are not prepared to cross. Therein lies the rub. However, once you're inducted into the military, you are bound to follow orders, no matter if they match up with your personal ethics or not. During military training, you are trained to obey, no matter what. Thus, the most gentle of souls is transformed into an obedient servant, upon pain of death or incarceration.
Combat stress ensues when the individual can no longer reconcile what he or she is instructed to do, with what he or she considers morally right. If your only choices  are to be imprisoned or shot for insubordination, you've got a deadly psychological recipe. You want to survive, yet you don't want to be morally implicated for the deeds which will keep you out of the stockade.

In most cases, the inductee or naïve enlisted person chooses the least painful course of action. Do what you're told and hope for the best. However, combat stress can last a lifetime, manifesting in dozens of ways that are counterproductive to a healthy society.

The combat stress syndrome resulted in tens of thousands of suicides among Vietnam vets. The Iraq and Afghani conflicts have not yet produced full statistics.

Combat stress produces some horrible results. When will we learn? War is ugly, no question about it.