Sad and fascinating.

If you're ALWAYS in a 'state of war' or a state of 'emergency' then you can pretty much do whatever you want with the troops, huh? Bastards.

Thanks for bringing this up.

Surprised I was the first to flag this.

I continue to say that there is NO WAY, none, zero, zilch that these men and women in the US Armed Services are going to turn against their fellow countrymen. These troops are glad to be home with their friends and family. I wish people would stop talking about our troops being used against us....

I appreciate all those that are sacrificing for us to live our lives in safety. Thank you!

S and F

This guys experience is not just confined to the US but UK too.

I was a 17 year old in the first gulf war, then 3 and a half years on special ops in northern ireland with a stint in the balkans intermingled for good meassure.

The balkans was the worst. We had no mandate or rules of engagement, we were there to observe for the UN and be close protection for the UN observer.

We would visit people and find them crucified to thier front doors the next day, or burnt to a crisp. We also had to watch as old women crossing the road had their heads blown off by snipers. We had to watch as cattle trucks full of dead "meat" were placed in huge trenches, then had to ask "permission" to wade through that "meat" to treat people who were still alive but thrown in with the dead! Had to listen to the demonic laughter of the serbian commanders who would watch as we were chest deep in human blood, excrement, bone and flesh to get those screaming people out of the pit who those bastards had placed with the dead.

A lot of my guys tried to commit suicide when they got home. The rest forgotten by the goverment who sent them.

Plus a lot of SF guys who i served with, and are still in theatre in afganistan, suffer from ptsd. These guys are SAS! The most elite regiment in the world. Lots of them have also tried to kill themselves, some have suceeded. Yet to admit it is to ruin your career so they go untreated and things get worse.

I am a reserve with the UK land forces, and was asked if i wanted to deploy with aregular unit as a section commander to afganistan, i said no.

The duty of a goverment is to look after those who will risk their lives to enforce their wars but they do not! They leave you for dead!

I say to young people who want to enlist to not do it. Our goverment isnt worth fighting for, dying for. And the war is not just, it is was started on a lie.
Let them fight their own goddam war, send their own sons to the slaughter!

Peace V

Young people, in my country go work to the army as the last resource as work, but because so many of young boys and girls haven't studied enought to get a better job, they are "forced" going into the army or to the police.

Most of people are from poor rural lands or from the poor suburbs.

This world crisis has give a BIG, BIG hand to feed the army "blender"

This was very hard to take.
It was painful to watch.
It withered my soul.

To live it, to live through it, and to later come to a full realization of the demented atrocities that he, at first, willingly participated in....I can understand why anyone would become an alcoholic or suicidal.

This man is courageous to come forward with his story. I am sorry that it took such horrors to cause his introspection; the only redeeming value is that it caused a catharsis for this young man. I hope through his story he will be able to reach others and change minds and hearts.

When guys came back from Viet Nam some were in hospitals being used as guinea pigs for new drugs. Others lived in parks and sniffed freon. Some could not get a job because they couldn't pass polygraph just because their nerves were shot and would register crazy on the machines. No one 'respected' them for having been to war.

Wars have always been fought on false pretenses.

It has to be pretty much over by now...unless we are going to do the final nuke thing. The earth is already so contaminated and destroyed that there is really nothing that can be done to bring this planet back to any "pristine, paradisical" state..no matter what the magicians say.

There are unexploded bombs in our oceans that are leaking and killing the sea creatures. The spent uranium in soils in Iraq will guarantee grotesque fetal deformatities for generations to come, if this planet continues to go on.

And for those who think it is just too bad for people over there...guess what. Jet streams will carry the dust from continent to continent. No one will be untouched from what has happened.




[edit on 7-10-2009 by Alethea]

Anytime a soldier admits to having any symptoms of PTSD the first thing they do is take away his weapon. Your still in a combat zone, still working and doing some form of duty but now you have no weapon and you can no longer take care of your brothers in arms.

Most soldiers would rather let them cut off a nut than go through that. So what you have are a huge number of people with PTSD trying their best to hide it and a few who either had an incident of some kind where they can no longer hide it or have gotten so bad they've become a danger to themselves and everyone else and were strong enough to admit it.

The hard truth is that PTSD is the normal reaction to the horrors of war. Forcing our troops to hide it, be ashamed of it and so on makes it worse. Given time they'd recover to some extent though the cruel thing is that every soldier and civilian who experiences war will be a casualty, even if they walk way without a scratch.

If we could admit that the reaction is normal and develop ways to treat it without treating those who suffer it like they're all going to pull a nutter we might just improve the health and function of our military.

ETA: How many fine soldiers are we losing because of stop loss and the military policy of punishing those who end up needing treatment for PTSD? How many incidents of criminal behavior, alcohol and drug abuse, accidents causing injury or death and so occur because we have soldiers on the line, on duty who are suffering and hiding it out of fear of persecution or a misguided sense of duty?

I don't like seeing this guy join up with the leftist peace groups but unfortunately there are not many options coming from my fellow conservatives. Most of them are just as extremist and flat wrong as the opposing leftists.

I hope this guy realizes and soon that his life is not over, his options are not limited just because the military screwed him over and gave him a GD - Misconduct. Its one of those myths of our society that a less than honorable discharge, mental illness or even a criminal record destroys your ability to get an education and a decent job.

I've seen it again and again, you can become anything you want to bad enough, you just have to be willing to work for it and to sell yourself when needed. I hope he recovers and is able to rise above it. Given his record as a soldier I feel he has what it takes to do so. One way or another he'll be at the front of the pack and be a leader again. He just needs to regain that sense of self worth and self confidence.

[edit on 8-10-2009 by ecoparity]

These aren't stories from a few, they're stories from many.

I don't get it How can Christians watch these video's and read the news coming from these poor solders and still want to send them into Iran, which is nothing but another corporate death trap?
S&F

I stopped watching when he started compaining about stop loss. Anyone care to break down what the rest was about.

No government is worth dying for. Good women and men are dying in wars because their guvernement told them that if they don't fight their freedom at home will be in danger. I'm not sure if an Afghani on the back of a mule in the slums of Kandahar can be a threat to a loving fahter of 2 little kids and a kind husband back home, wherever that is.

I suppose it doesn't matter that there have been many frauds found within it's organization? Its clear they have an agenda and look for people telling a certain kind of story. As a veteran myself, its hard for me to take this group seriously given their history.

Originally posted by Amagnon
This guy reminds me of dooper who likes to post here on ATS - he is always saying; "Yeah we should go bomb Iran and kill them all etc etc" spewing his violent mindless rhetoric.

Being honest i don't think many people take Dooper seriously on here. I for sure don't.

Regarding Selahobed, that story chilled me to the bone. Truly the stuff of nightmares. I'm so sorry you had to experience that.

War is evil.