Staff Stg Robert Bales

[desimo]

It is going to be interesting to see if Stg Robert Bales becomes the scapegoat for the government. Hopefully PTSD will finally be looked at critically. This is long over due. Chronic PTSD affects people much like Cushing's Syndrom. The long term hyper cortisolism affects and changes structure within the limbic system which directly affects behavior. The government still has people working at the VA who denies that PTSD even exists. PTSD, after time, becomes a physical disability which can be seen in imagining. The government keeps sends our troops into situations without regard for their mental health. They send them to combat with Prozac. This does nothing regarding PTSD. If they wanted to do something about PTSD they would stop punishing those who want to acknowledge that something negative is happening. They punish people and remove their career once they begin to talk about something not being right. Our government has viewed our troops as disposable commodities for too many years. The government worked hard to create Stg Bales to be the way he is. Now the government needs to take responsibilty and not create just another scapegoat.

[John in Kuwait]

It's SSG, not Stg.

Stg doesn't mean anything.

SSG Bales could have left the Army if he was not wanting to deploy again.

[desimo]

My apology for being dyslexic.

[dog53]

Sorry dont really understand your intent. Are you saying he was sick thats why he killed all those people? Ok. So was John Gacy And Jeffery Damer. Hell damer ate his victims. Yes they were all sick. Did they need to pay for their crimes and get sent to he!!. Big 10-4 good buddy

[desimo]

The intent is that PTSD is a bigger issue than the goverment wants to admit. Yes he murdered alot of people. But there should be a lot more people sharing his cell than just him.

[dog53]

The intent is that PTSD is a bigger issue than the goverment wants to admit. Yes he murdered alot of people. But there should be a lot more people sharing his cell than just him.

why because war is hell and it got to him. Sorry man there`s a lot of Vets out there that would disagree with you. Just because you seen some things and done some things. Things you will never be able to let go of. Doesn't make the people that ordered you to do those things responsible. Your a soldier you follow orders. You live through it and you live with it. Its the code. Its war dude

[poppy dinar]

why because war is hell and it got to him. Sorry man there`s a lot of Vets out there that would disagree with you. Just because you seen some things and done some things. Things you will never be able to let go of. Doesn't make the people that ordered you to do those things responsible. Your a soldier you follow orders. You live through it and you live with it. Its the code. Its war dude

Ok let's see 4 tours in Iraq and a tour in Afghanistan and this guy loses it...........what a shocker.............not. That much combat is absurd and I'm somewhat surprised that more of these tragedies haven't happened. I went to Vietnam twice and have been haunted by the memories of the horrors of war ever since. When you hear the screams and death throes of your bodies, not to mention the body parts, in puts you in a mindset of savagery and revenge becomes your overwhelming focus, truly an insane frame of mind. Ptsd is a horrible affliction that from my experience never goes away and what's truly sad is that we send our troops into these useless and unnecessary undeclared wars.............you'd think we would learn our lesson from Vietnam. This guy is a sick person who needs help not to be locked up for the rest of his life IMHO!

If you never spent a night in a foxhole scared out of your mind that you wont see the light of day.........well........STFU!!!!!!!!

[poppy dinar]

Non-combatant talking about combat..........................what a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dog53]

Non-combatant talking about combat..........................what a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes my point exactly . You went through all that and did not slaughter 18 people. My brother was in nam my father was in ww2 he won 8 bronze stars. my best freind did 3 tours in nam all concur you dont kill the innocent without paying a price. And further more as a american I have the right to talk about anything I want

No what I mean Vern

[poppy dinar]

Yes my point exactly . You went through all that and did not slaughter 18 people. My brother was in nam my father was in ww2 he won 8 bronze stars. my best freind did 3 tours in nam all concur you dont kill the innocent without paying a price. And further more as a american I have the right to talk about anything I want

No what I mean Vern

Didn't say I condoned what he did.................five tours of combat is enough to make a person crack.......................totally absurd................I fought for you to have the right to speak............... to bad it includes the ignorant VERN!!!!!!!!!

[smee2]

Well, I have never been part of the military, and never had to face an enemy when both of us are armed to the teeth and out to kill before you get killed. But I can imagine at least part of what a soldier does go through. They say war is hell ... and maybe that is so. War hurts everyone, not just the soldier but his family, friends, community, the people and the economy at home, the vision of the future that young folks have and suddenly wonder if they will live to see any of it. Yes, war is hell on everyone.

But the soldier, the man who has to stand and face that armed enemy, or wait for the earth to open up and blast away the vehicle he is travelling in as well as killing and maiming those soldiers it carries ... that is another matter. All of that is part of battle. There was a time when soldiers were recruited from rural families because their sons were familiar with guns and killing. Granted they were killing animals for the family dinner table, but they could kill. It was a smaller jump to killing people for these young lads than it was for young men in the cities who had never had to kill their food, let alone another man.

But that kind of recruitment became obsolete sometime in the last few decades. Computer games started training our young men about war, combat, confrontation, and killing. In the games they got a certain number of "lives" to get it right and advance to the next level. And by the time they were in the army, dealing with computer enhanced weaponry they were well versed in the use of the equipment, and if not they found it fairly easy to learn. They had, after all,l been "trained" as soldiers from the day they started on PacMan and Kong, going to Doom and other battle games.

So, I look at any soldier as being a killing machine, wanted or not. And if you don't want to do that, don't join up, find a way out, quit before you find the world crashing about you. For those who can fit the necessity of battle into their own personal belief system, a system that supports fighting for whatever local reason because in fact they believe it eventually protects their home and family ... that is the real soldier. And it isn't easy being a soldier.

Ask any vet who came home in one piece, or not, if he ever has nightmares. Ask if he had nightmares during his tour, and especially after an IED took out the jeep or humvee ahead of him. We send our young men to fight our battles and then wonder why they come home used up. I know not every soldier does but an awful lot do. It doesn't always show up right away but ask a soldiers wife and she will be able to tell you when it did start making a difference.

From what I can see, or hear, or read, it does not look like the government of the US is doing enough for the veterans of war. How many come home to find they have no home left, no job, no prospects. How many come back to find that the people who never went and never will go have no respect for him doing his "duty". It has to be devastating to find out that all that he went through was just so much newsprint to so many people.

The case in point is one I couldn't even guess at the reasons or appropriate outcome. But I do believe that whatever happens, the worst part happened in a battle situation, and now that soldier has to pay for what he was made to do, what he was expected to do, and what he may have done without sanction. It is difficult in the moment to know what is right, especially if one feels he or his are in some way threatened.

smee2