Hey thanks for all the replies to this thread.. really enlightening thoughts. It would be interesting to see older stats on the military, numbers in the world wars and so forth.. though I doubt they would be very accurate, considering PTSD wasn't even considered a proper disorder back then. Lots went unreported I'm assuming, because of the stigma. I know there was a lot of shame over my grandfather's illness (he was in WW2 and Korea).. it's only in the last couple of years that we've accepted he was likely ill with PTSD and it is not shameful.

One thing I will say though.. JMHO.. whilst WW2 was worse in many ways, more combat for all and so forth.. it was also better. At least the troops were fighting for something tangible.. "real" freedom from the nazis. The nazis were a real threat. Whereas the "wars" we are fighting now.. I don't know.. in a way its harder to be deployed on a so-called "peacekeeping" mission.. Harder to go over there without any clear purpose, spend months just sitting around twiddling your thumbs basically, and when there is something to do, someone to save, you are ordered not to. I know that happened to my brother in Rwanda.. his unit had to sit by and watch the genocide unfold and weren't allowed to assist civilians.. that is a different level of trauma IMO.. to physically have the power to help but not be allowed because it's against "policy". So you just stand by, helpless, while civilians are tortured and killed.. that can really f*ck you up.