A few months ago, I had posted about the astonishing rate of military suicides (around 120 per week since 2005), primarily linked to the stresses of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I had written:
"War is not only ravaging the innocent families over in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also those families who have foolishly sent their loved ones to fight these unjust invasions."
That's why it was little surprise when I read this NY Times piece detailing the sad plight of some soldiers who end up committing homicide:
"The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.
Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.
About a third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, among them 2-year-old Krisiauna Calaira Lewis, whose 20-year-old father slammed her against a wall when he was recuperating in Texas from a bombing near Falluja that blew off his foot and shook up his brain."
And that's simply the tip of the iceberg, with many more veterans suffering in other ways:
"Clearly, committing homicide is an extreme manifestation of dysfunction for returning veterans, many of whom struggle in quieter ways, with crumbling marriages, mounting debt, deepening alcohol dependence or more-minor tangles with the law."
[...]
"Today the focus is on PTSD, but military health care officials are seeing a spectrum of psychological issues, with an estimated half of the returning National Guard members, 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of marines reporting mental health problems, according to a Pentagon task force."
As I did in my previous post, I implore you to read the Chris Hedges article at the Nation where he interviews 50 soldiers. The horrifying stories they narrate display the sheer inhumanity and gross disregard for life and law with which these wars are being carried out. Its no surprise why so many vets come home in such a miserable psychological state.
"'He came back different' is the shared refrain of the defendants’ family members, who mention irritability, detachment, volatility, sleeplessness, excessive drinking or drug use, and keeping a gun at hand.
“You are unleashing certain things in a human being we don’t allow in civic society, and getting it all back in the box can be difficult for some people,” said William C. Gentry, an Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a prosecutor in San Diego County."
WAW
2 days ago
6 comments:
unbelievable. or maybe not.
AA. This is a very sad thing. I feel sorry for these very young people, most of them, who go from highschool, most of them, to war zones. Lets not even discuss the type of physical and mental training they get to put them in the state of mind to go fight a war. Ridiculous.
Allah has his punishment for the disobedient. It cannot be escaped. I seek refuge with Allah!
Naeem, have you read anything about soldiers that are going to Islam instead of crazy? Okay, that sounded insensitive.
~Sahra
Alot of times, we so easily feel sorry for the poor American soldiers who were naive enough to go to an unjust war. But it seems as though, we are emotionally far removed from feeling that same emotion or greater for the poor innocent souls, Muslims or not, that these people have gone and mercilessly plundered and killed in their recklessness, ignorance, hatred and injustice.
Apparently the kind of saudi has given some kind of medal of distintion to Bush. This is sickening. Pure sickness.
AA- Anon,
"Alot of times, we so easily feel sorry for the poor American soldiers who were naive enough to go to an unjust war."
I think very few feel sorry for the soldiers *at the expense* of feeling sorry for their victims. Everyone realizes who are the aggressors and where the real tragedy is occurring.
But that doesn't detract from the fact that many of these soldiers are also paying for their own crimes - maybe as a form of Divine justice.
Should the Muslims rejoice when reading articles such as the NY Times piece I referenced above? I for one feel more pity than glee.
How about you?
Salaam Naeem,
I for one don't feel any glee or pleasure that soldiers are losing their minds. I haven't even read the NY Times article but it's something very obvious around here where I live that a lot of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan committing extremely violent crimes--murdering wives/girlfriends and children is the most obvious.
I say 'where I live' because North Carolina has a few major military bases. There is a Marine Corps base further out from here but an Army base only an hour away. But when "major" cases like a murdered wife hit the news, they hit our local news. So we hear about it a bit more often than perhaps national news, because of the proximity to the military bases. And it happens, in fact you lose track of how often and you think that the news is repeating a story only to find out it's just another one.
They mention almost as an aside when describing this when it comes up, that Sgt. so-and-so or Cpl thus-and-such had just returned from serving in [war-savaged nation]. It is very sad--sad that the men are losing their minds (I really think they've lost their sanity), and sad for the victims of such brutal violence.
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