Baby Boom from Middle East Wars Shows Need for Financial Restraint in Present Economy

Baby boomers who presently dominate the economy, make political decisions and are said to influence much of American culture are faced with financial dilemmas resulting from a recession that is predicted to last for months if not years.

There is another baby boom going on right now, just as there was for the 18 year period following the Vietnam War, in which many babies are being born without fathers during their early formative periods, children of soldiers who have gone through months and years of combat. These children are anticipated to inherit a large debt based upon the needs of people today, the increasing debt incurred from the war, and the larger financial outlays that are anticipated to take place to continue to bail out failing companies. Men coming home for the brief periods between tours are coming home to produce new offspring or see them born. Military hospitals report a large influx of expectant mothers, a number that continues to grow. In the meantime many of the fathers are sent back to combat only after days of family visits, for short periods to see new babies, before returning to the front in either Iraq or Afghanistan. What will be the future of the children of these military personnel following the war both in the short and long term? Medical experts in the Veterans Administration report that the rate of military personnel returning with post traumatic stress disorder is significant. The estimate is one in eight will have some level of this disorder with its cluster of emotional problems that include sleeplessness, anxiety, poor tolerance for stress, overreaction, poor attention and erratic behaviors. Reports by Dr. Gregg Passey, Psychiatrist, are that one in five are likely to try to commit suicide. The impact on the wives and children of these men is apt to be startling. Combine the emotional traumas men re-experience aspects of their experiences in war, the consequent increase in family violence, especially after long periods of a father’s absence and then return as a virtual stranger to a growing infant or toddler; and there are likely to be socio-economic and educational problems as well as economic ones facing the children of soldiers returning from the Wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to experts. All of this will come on the heels of an enlarging economic crisis that is anticipated to last a very long time. Legislators presently debate the bridge loan for the Big Three, a modification of bail out with strings attached; and some worry about the consequences to future generations. These future generations consist of the children of men who have served under difficult conditions for years and who will need special services for years to come.