From The Christian Science Monitor: Soldier rampage hints at stress of repeated deployments
Sgt. John Russell was charged with murder Tuesday. He was finishing his third tour in Iraq.
WASHINGTON – Military police on Tuesday charged Sgt. John Russell, a soldier on a 15-month tour to Iraq —“ his third deployment to the country —“ with murder in the shooting deaths of five soldiers at an American base.
Details about Sergeant Russell are beginning to emerge. In an interview with a local television station in Sherman, Texas, Russell’s father said his son was facing financial difficulty and feared he was about to be discharged from the Army. The case has focused further attention on the effect that multiple, extended deployments are having on soldiers.
Fifteen-month tours and repeated deployments are increasing the rate of suicide, divorce, and psychological problems, according to Pentagon data. The shootings at Camp Liberty in Iraq speak to the need “to redouble our efforts … in terms of dealing with the stress,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a Pentagon press conference Monday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is requesting to “institutionalize and properly fund” programs to help wounded troops, including those with psychological disorders. Roughly 300,000 veterans have been diagnosed with some form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
But a main source of the problem —“ the repeated, extended deployments —“ will probably continue. President Obama is drawing troops down in Iraq, but he is also sending more to Afghanistan, minimizing the impact that the drawdown from Iraq will have on the health of the force…
I saw a bumper sticker the other day, actually two. The left side of the car sported a huge Obama sticker. On the right side there was a sticker that read: Got War — blame a Republican. My first thought was one of sympathy for the poor deluded person who thought things would change. My next thought was to market an updated sticker:
“Got War – blame a Republican
Still have war – blame a Democrat”
The sad fact is the all of this could be over; we could disengage from our foreign adventures. Unfortunately, the escapades of the Bush neocons are being continued by the social engineers of the Obama administration.
A word to those who think we are getting something out of this: What are we getting exactly? Are we getting plunder? Cheap oil? Security? Labensraum? A resounding no! When these damaged souls return they will be on the street. They will be homeless Vietnam Vets Part 2. They will be the homeless Vietnam Vet but with twice the anger and triple the skills (see the DHS report: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment [pdf] or the everyday experience documented in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s article: Iraq vets’ troubles appear long after return). They’ll know how to construct lovely roadside bombs, how to kill without remorse, how to weaponize and disguise until — boom. Your neocon/socially engineered plunder and security will go up in smoke like the cities those Vets will occupy.
From the Washington Post:
“There is no front line in Iraq,” said Col. Charles W. Hoge of the division of psychiatry and neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the lead author of the report published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Individuals who are patrolling the streets will be at higher risk of being involved in combat, but folks who are largely located at one base are also targets of mortar and artillery, and everyone in convoys is a target.”
In other words, these Vets will have faced years in situations where the enemy is all around, where danger lurks around every corner. That makes for a wonderful stew of psychological problems.
On top of all this consider the lack of funding the VA receives for veterans health care (especially mental health treatment), the bureaucratic mismanagement of the military discharge process, the social cost associated with caring for those who won’t be on the street because they’re too crippled and too sick to do anything, and the overall economic impact these wars have had (think debt, lots and lots and lots of debt — about 10,000 years worth of debt). Those impacts will last long after the last soldier comes home (which won’t happen anyway as there will always be another ‘engagement’).
What to do? First: pray – really pray because it does work. Next, advocate for better veterans healthcare, wiser policies, peace, and most of all — vote differently. Voting for the same two parties is no different than voting for the same corrupt politician, excepting that the faces change.
“Got War – blame a Republican
Still have war – blame a Democrat”
