Yes, the title is outrageous, but I have your attention, don't I? Unfortunately, it's not just a title to gain your attention. Unfortunately, it's a real caption from a real newspaper article. Of course, you probably know this unless you live under a rock somewhere. I guarantee every single Afghan citizen knew it faster than any average news attentive American citizen did. Ok, so if you don't know, the basics: A US Army SSGT went off the reservation and shot and killed more than a dozen Afghan civilians, some as young as 2 years old. According to witnesses, he dragged them--some by their hair--and shot bullets into their mouths--execution style. I watched this morning as they rambled on about the investigation team sent to the location had been attacked by Taliban. Really. And, no sh*t. How would any of us feel about someone, particularly a military member, coming into our homes, dragging us out by our hair, and killing our loved ones execution style? What the hell causes something like this? We'd love to blame the Afghans, because we just don't want to believe that there might be a problem with our miltary. But the reality is while the military has become more lax on the rules--time out cards, a more friendly boot camp than the one that existed in the early 90s (let alone the ones of the 1980s and earlier)--to appease a civilian world. Perhaps it's that appeasal that is resulting in several tragedies, one after the other, of these otherwise fine young men.
The SSGT is from an Army base in Washington. Which really doesn't matter so much as the fact that the DC Sniper came from there, the Fort Hood shooter came from there, another soldier who assasinated a police officer came from there, and now this SSGT. What the hell is going on at that base? It screams that something is wrong at that particular base, but that may not be the case. It may be a group that is part of the sub-culture of the base. In the early 90s, homegrown "militias", like the Michigan Militia, did a lot of recruiting at military bases. Afterall, that's where the infamous Timothy McVey came from. However, Timothy McVey was part of an organization that helped plan and execute the Oklahoma City Bombing. I know he had only one accomplice--that he was caught with. It was a pretty rude awakening for some of those groups that Mr. McVey couldn't be buried with military honors because we don't honor a soldier who's actions are so distainful and disgraceful and against the laws that we are sworn to protect. Are we not telling these young men and women in uniform that we are sworn to protect and defend our Constitution, not go over there and trample the rights that we view as so dear because we're not on American soil? I suspect the answer is that they're probably getting some mixed messages, although only the Army could really take a look in the mirror and tell us for sure.
Another problem the US military has acknowledged on occasion is that they have gang problems. There's plenty of documentation of the Crips, Bloods, Neo-Nazi's, white supremacists, and other fringe elements in photos posted by military members on social networks. History Channel, CBS, NBC, CNN have all at some point shown some of these pictures depicting soldiers, sailors, marines, and/or airmen flashing gang symbols. The military has tried to squelch these issues, but many of these members now join after already being involved with a gang for the excellent military training. Their loyalties to the gangs are not broken with an 8 week stint of the newer, nicer boot camps. Most gangs still "jump" in members which is likened to a near death beating. Is that what would motivate SSGT? Probably not. But hell, I'm up on my soap box, and we need to think about these things.
We wanted our military to think before acting. We wanted them to learn to disobey unlawful orders. When I say we, I mean the media, people in Congress and others in our political cog, liberal civilans that never served that were mortified by the stresses that we placed on our young military members. Why yes, we do put a lot of responsibility and stress on our military members. No doubt. Are we training them for that stress anymore? Stress cards in boot camp? Seriously. I can still see my CC in boot camp. Stress card? He'd have ripped that thing up, spit on it after he threw it on the ground, and cycled me for the next 4 hours. Stress card, my *ss--geez, I can almost hear him say it. The truth is the military needs members to follow orders. Period. It's a cold hard fact that a mission depends on the unit working as a team, achieving a goal, and getting the hell out of there. There is individuality that comes into play--some people are natural leaders, some are talented in something that the team cannot survive without. Regardless, even snipers, in spite of the stereotype on television and in the media, are usually two man teams. The individual is supposed to make the team stronger, not the other way around. Honestly, the individual burying the team's ability to complete its mission as a whole from some selfish, self-promoting thing has generally been a civilian thing. It doesn't work for the military. Military members--regardless of branch--put their lives in the hands of their brothers and sisters in arms. There's not a lot of room for individual bulls*t. We find out from hands-on experience that the individuals are only as strong as the weakest link on the team--because we all have our baggage, and that a team working together has all of the strength of each individual or no strength if the team falls apart. We prove that the strength of the whole is more than the strength of the individual--at least we used to. It's that ability to work as in a team, as a team, drive a team, that a lot of civilian companies look for now--and the military used to give that training better than seminar, webinar or book--and hopefully still do.
But let's not be all nicey nice about it. Is the military letting down some military members? Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine who did a couple of tours in Iraq. It's pretty obvious that he's suffering from some PTSD, survivor issues, and some other trauma. He told me he didn't go to the Army, medical or seek any treatment while he was in the Army, because it was a career killer. A friend of mine had a daughter that joined the Air Force. In her first year, the Air Force found out that she had been possibly suicidal as a teenager when her parents divorced. They started putting her through psychological evaluations and said that based on her previous behavior she couldn't stay in the Air Force. How did they find this out? She was honest with them when they asked her some preliminary questions for her duty assignment. If she had lied, she would've been in like Flynn. This all makes me wonder if this SSGT was having problems and not able to seek help. They said he had a brain injury. They said he passed psychological evaluations. Thirty eight years old, a couple years from retirement, a wife and two kids. The man probably couldn't risk his career to tell the Army he was having problems. If they drummed him out of the Army, it's very likely VA disability wouldn't have covered his bills. He could lose everything--only career he's known, family--his wife and kids, his home and livelihood. Is that the message some of these military members who have been through horribly traumatic moments have to carry as an extra burden on them in addition to the average military stresses that they carry, and the memories of buddies lost, being under gunfire, being scared, outraged, and human? Perhaps it's not boot camp that needs the stress cards, but the guys under fire day in day out. Boot camp is supposed to be where we learn to suck it up and get the job done--so under fire we still perform. Maybe the guys on the front lines need stress cards where the Army can't retaliate with a medical discharge.
Frankly, I'm still a bit upset to find out that the little white pills they made us pop before, during and following Desert Storm might increase certain psychological tendencies. Seriously. The pills were supposed to help with the stress of constant operations but have now been linked to certain issues in some veterans. Worse yet, they knew there was a percentage of the military members that took them that could suffer the consequences. The reports vary on percentages--2% to 10%. I've seen one that claims up to 20% could be affected with minor issues. Made me wonder when I read it--I had a buddy, Scott, was like a little brother to me. He'd always had some minor issues that weighed on his mind, but nothing too extreme. Just normal 20 somethinger angsts. I had gotten out, and he had done a third deployment. His wife left him on that deployment, took their two kids and moved back to whatever podunk town she had been raised in up in northern farm country. He begged her to come home. Not happening. A group of us met at a base watering hole, to reminisce, to shoot the breeze, to tell whale tales. Scotty had changed. He'd slumped, but worse than I would've thought. We'd gone to the desert together. He had been fine. But according to one of these reports, the pills can only mildly or not affect someone, and then at some point, an overdose and a resultant change. Scotty had always bounced back, although bruised. Now there was nothing but emotional wreckage. He rallied back after telling me what was going on, but it was different. Kinda like watching someone else have an out of body experience--the best way I can explain it. Right before the holidays that year, less than 9 months later, Scotty blew his brains out in a northern podunk farm town while on leave after dropping his children off from what would be the last days he would ever spend with them. I knew other people who were the suicidal types and they never killed themselves, but I'd have never described Scotty as suicidal. Something changed. The DC Sniper was supposedly a very nice, genuine guy that came back from Desert Storm distant, homicidal, and 180 degrees out from who he was. Perhaps. Perhaps, the natural tendency was buried deep inside of him to go off the reservation, and perhaps, those little white pills transformed him as I believe they did my friend.
Oh, I know. Civilians think the military would never do that. Still, the military thinks it's a numbers game. Risk versus reward--2% of the military suffering from dire consequences mentally versus 40 to 60% in over-stress situations having better coping skills. Hell, yes, they would do that. Funny though--World War 2 veterans never had those simulants and a lot suffered from shellshock (aka. PTSD) but we didn't hear about sh*tloads of them going off the reservation. We can argue that the media wasn't global then--maybe there were 4 off of one base that shot a police officer dead, shot up a military base, and 2 that went on a sniper rampage killing innocent people. With WW2 veterans--hell Korean, even Nam--the military would never volunteer the information. But the truth is--stuff like that would trickle out. There's plenty of memoirs that get out there--Band of Brothers, We Were Soldiers. I don't know of any story I've ever heard like that other than the Army unit in Vietnam that went plumb loco. One story...versus 4 from one base. Seems a bit out of sorts. Not saying that the Army is covering up years of things that happened from old wars long gone by--seems unlikely. Not saying that the US military has calculated risk versus reward in military operations--because of course they have! But I am saying the military has long used us as guinea pigs for new drugs and perhaps the FDA should start regulating what they can make us pop down our throats. I remember how they dispersed the little white pills. "Here, sign this." What's this? "Just sign it." Sign. "Here's your pill." Remember the movie "Jarhead" where the one marine gets smart alecky and starts to read the waiver? Yes, our military has done that and no doubt is still doing that.
Maybe, and here's a novel thought: Maybe instead of the civilians that have never served thinking they know what the military is all about, maybe they'll spend a little time listening to Senator McCain, spend a little time visiting veterans in VA hospitals, volunteer with your local VFW or American Legion and get to know who we veterans are. Maybe the SSGT did go off the reservation, maybe to maintain stabilility in the Middle East he'll be Court Martialed and executed--I'll be sorry for his family if this happens, maybe he was just a nutjob--which I definately don't believe, maybe his actions have put thousands of American soldiers, and civilians for that matter, in the region at higher risk than was already present, but maybe we, the military and our veterans, take a closer look at what has happened, what has been done, and whether those courses of action were the best to take. Maybe it's time that we recognize that PTSD should be treated while in the military--not after the service member is released and certainly not after a tragedy because the service member couldn't get help from the country, branch of service and the team that he or she was taught to depend on.
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