Most people will immediately know what that means, even though when I last checked most of us are not in the habit of carrying swords about these days. If one stops to wonder about the phrase and its origins we may in our short-sightedness conjure images of Seppuku (ritual suicide) performed by Japanese soldiers in WWII. But the origins in Western Culture run much further back in time.

Ajax, in Sophocles’ play of the same name, dies by falling on his own sword. At least two of the plays of Sophocles are being used even today to help veterans deal with their wartime experiences. I recommend you check out the following link:

[Editor: To watch a snippet of a performance presented during the Department of Defense\'s War Resilience Conference, click here for the NPR story, \"In Ancient Dramas, Vital Words For Today\'s Warriors\" by Elizabeth Blair.]

The politics of left and right have no place in this subject. Wars have existed by the thousands throughout history. I doubt there exists a single day in the last 250 years where there was not at least one ongoing conflict somewhere on the globe. It is neither anti-war nor pro-war to state that some soldiers eventually die from wounds of the mind. But to deny the existence of the problem is ignorance.