Extending Tours, Stressing Troops

There is no question that our troops have been stressed to the limit. Not only are they serving extended tours, they are doing it to attempt an impossible goal

Posted by whattheheck on Sep 2, 2007 at 10:22 AM

This is the sort of thing that feeds reincarnations of Tim McVeigh. PTSD isn’t the only psychological issue to be concerned with. I also have concerns about the mental states of those soldiers and marines who come back alienated, disillusioned, bearing feelings of betrayal, perhaps looking for paybacks. Not those who go to hospital and get ill-served by the VA or whomever, but those who never even seek treatment though they may need it.

It will be only a few at most, but the small size of the conspiracy to blast the Murrah Fed Building in OK City didn’t affect the destruction a bit. It only needs a few guys in whom ordinary restraint has been scorched out.

I imagine the litany in a young man’s mind, “why the fuck am i here and why won’t they let me leave”. A bit like being imprisoned, and we all know how doing a stretch can change some men, and not for the better. Serving in Iraq isn’t jail, but arbitrary dangers, hyper-vigilance for prolonged periods, punishing circumstances that can’t be escaped or avoided… learned helplessness takes a lot of forms, and also can bring a number of coping responses, including learned detachment. Take that mindset some way further, and you have one ugly potential.

International help, yes, definitely needed (this unilateral bit is a losing game) but the problem is that almost no one else will go near the place, wouldn’t touch it with a 10-timezone pole. Can anyone blame them?

Posted by Kuya on Sep 5, 2007 at 1:34 AM