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Ped
Interested In Your Brain
Registered: 08/30/99
Posts: 5,494
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
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Iraq War Vets and PTSD
#2913350 - 07/21/04 06:24 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Recently, I saw a documentary on one of CBC's independent film channels here in Canada. It was a documentary hastily put together by a Canadian journalist who brought his camera team to the United States to interview ex-soldiers who are now undergoing treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after returning from the second American attack on Iraq. Some of the information in this film was very, very disturbing. I figured I'd like to initiate some kind of dialog about it.
It was an interview with one soldier that was most upsetting. He lamented about how his commanding officer would play music over the headsets of his squadron during battle situations. The songs would be such aggressive tunes as "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by Drowning Pool," Marilyn Manson's "Fight Song", among others. He talked about how he was trained not only to accept killing as a necessary consequence of a justified war, but to enjoy killing "in the name of American supremacy". In tears, he confessed to the journalist that hatred for Islamic people had been installed into him and his fellow soldiers since they first left for Iraq last year, talking about how he was told to see Iraqi civilians and soldiers alike as "diseased dogs" instead of people. He confessed that he had killed dozens of Iraqis with his weapon, and had actually enjoyed watching them die. He and his fellow soldiers, he said, used to fire a few extra rounds into the bodies of dead Iraqis for entertainment.
This was a well built man, very large and muscular. His hair was short and black; he looked like a hardened military man. To see him on the screen shaking in tears was absolutely surreal. After talking about all the atrocities he committed, he moved on to talk about how he felt as though the war in Iraq, and the suffering happening as a result of the occupation, were both unjustified and unnecessary, calling it a "War of Racist Hatred".
There were also interviews with US Army generals stationed behind desks on American soil. They talked very smoothly about how war was indeed tragic and brutal, but sometimes necessary. After some jargon about total allegiance to the President, he reminded everybody that soldiers are trained to be desensitized to killing. "Our enemies are ruthless monsters", he said, "and a moment's hesitation means they kill you. In battle, It's them or you." The ethical implications of training soldiers to see human beings as "targets" to be "deleted" were greatly downplayed.
The soldier is now an in-patient at a psychiatric hospital, completely delibitated by feelings of guilt and remorse. In the documentary, doctors said that he moves back and forth between extreme denial and extreme delerium. Some days he acts naturally, claiming that he'd spent his time overseas in Europe on vacation, "to sample fine Italian wine". On other days, he has to be restrained from killing himself.
Wow. The thing that gets to me the most is that the person on my TV screen actually exists out there in the world. At the time of writing this post, he might be talking to doctors about some of the vintage he sampled during his visit to Rome, or he might be attempting to claw out his own throat. Either way, this man, who is no different from any other man anywhere in the world, is condemned to live out the rest of his life with the memories of killing others needlessly churning around in his brain. His life, and those of his entire family, will be forever impacted by that violence. To his parents and siblings, he may as well be dead. In a way, that might have been better. The man they knew before the invasion began may never be with them again, but is still alive and suffering.
-------------------- Dark Triangles - New Psychedelic Techno Single - Listen on Soundcloud Gyroscope full album available SoundCloud or MySpace
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Anonymous
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: Ped]
#2913376 - 07/21/04 06:28 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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let the bodies hit the floor! let the bodies hit the FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!
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Lightningfractal
Nutcase
Registered: 06/24/03
Posts: 14,899
Loc: Heaven and Hell
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: Ped]
#2913878 - 07/21/04 08:54 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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He should'a got up....grabbed his shoes, and started a gettin' his kicks down on the corner of Lincoln and 46th....let's dance!!!
-------------------- Hi how's it going, wanna kick Heroin basically painlessly on your own, in your own house, without any government "help" ,or the "help" of a crazy condescending, judgmental medical doctor? Read this: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=42&Number=7342616&page=0&fpart=all
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trev
comming out of retirement
Registered: 04/02/03
Posts: 871
Loc: Aussie
Last seen: 12 years, 11 months
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: Ped]
#2922905 - 07/24/04 03:57 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Thanks for sharing that with us, Everybody talks about how you sacrifice and "die for youre country" well no one talks of the impact killing has on the human psych. If you talk to old veterans then you can figure out who has really seen action as the ones who brag about there active service obviously have not seen much. The ones who have when you ask theyll simply say "I`d rather not talk about it" or words to that effect. I live in australia and most of our vietnam vets are fucked up the pain they have gone thru affects there entire familys they often drink exessively ,beat there kids and wives and sometimes go nuts with guns. The US possibly the same. Get ready for another bunch of fucked and very dangerous generation of men. Oh isnt there an alarming number (6 or so)of afghanistan vets have come back and killed wives and spouses?
-------------------- Anonymous #14 [quote]There are billions of people on this planet. The world does not revolve around the united states, moron. I hope terrorists crash their collective cocks into your asshole. [/quote]
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: trev]
#2923446 - 07/24/04 11:28 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Get ready for another bunch of fucked and very dangerous generation of men.
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Anonymous
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: trev]
#2923451 - 07/24/04 11:33 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
trev said: Thanks for sharing that with us, Everybody talks about how you sacrifice and "die for youre country" well no one talks of the impact killing has on the human psych. If you talk to old veterans then you can figure out who has really seen action as the ones who brag about there active service obviously have not seen much. The ones who have when you ask theyll simply say "I`d rather not talk about it" or words to that effect. I live in australia and most of our vietnam vets are fucked up the pain they have gone thru affects there entire familys they often drink exessively ,beat there kids and wives and sometimes go nuts with guns. The US possibly the same. Get ready for another bunch of fucked and very dangerous generation of men. Oh isnt there an alarming number (6 or so)of afghanistan vets have come back and killed wives and spouses?
none of the vets iv met do that..
but they are pretty damn crazy
one of my best friends dad was a vietnam vet and he supposedly has a picture of him and his buddies holding a chopped off head and everything
that dude...is seriously crazy ..you should see how hard he is on my friend, its pretty funny though
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downforpot
Stranger
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 5,715
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: Vvellum]
#2923454 - 07/24/04 11:35 AM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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I doubt that it will be as many. Plus we have more drugs today and more treatments for these people. However, some will not benefit from any of these treatments but many will.
-------------------- http://www.myspace.com/4th25 "And I don't care if he was handcuffed Then shot in his head All I know is dead bodies Can't fuck with me again"
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: downforpot]
#2923981 - 07/24/04 04:13 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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well, dont forget to factor in slashed veterans' benefits courtesy of George "Support the Troops" Bush.
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downforpot
Stranger
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 5,715
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Re: Iraq War Vets and PTSD [Re: Vvellum]
#2923984 - 07/24/04 04:16 PM (19 years, 8 months ago) |
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Ben Stein was on CNN a few months ago talking about raising taxes for the upper classes in order to help the troops. The dude was about to cry, he was really pissed about the low salary for soldiers who have families.
-------------------- http://www.myspace.com/4th25 "And I don't care if he was handcuffed Then shot in his head All I know is dead bodies Can't fuck with me again"
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