Loss of belief will be one major contributor to the mental problems the returning Iraq warriors will have and very likely will cost more than the war itself. The more a soldier believes in his/her government and country and the righteousness of fighting for freedom the more their whole world is turned upside down and they are left with no moral compass and no one to trust with their faith. And, unlike in the Vietnam War where many were drafted (me), these are all volunteers and much more invested in the rightness of this war. It is no wonder at all that those wounded soldiers in the hospitals they show on TV almost always still believe in the rightness of this war. To believe otherwise would be to admit you had suffered and sacrificed your future for nothing. And so many of them will face that extreme betrayal when the proverbial chickens come home to roost.

I wonder how far this analogy between loss of faith in God and a loss of faith in country (or parent or lover) can be taken.

Loss of belief may be unsettling for many people, but for me it was liberating to realize that my life is not under the control of invisible, irrational forces.

Your old religion just not enough to cope with modern day angst? Just take two and mix together for a more comforting jumble of paradoxes.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jubus2may02,0,3937916.story?coll=la-home-headlines