First the Koran Burnings, Now This; I Think We're Donesies in the 'Stan

[PanzerJaeger]

In this thread:

The murderer is the victim, and this is coming from.....PJ of all people.

and

Everyone who has actually been in the US military and dealt with buddies who have suffered from the war are ignored and called ignorant by armchair generals/psychiatrists.

I think my 'victim' comments have been misinterpreted. They came off as way more definitive than I meant for them to be. I should have said 'he could be a victim'. Nothing is known for sure at this point. I was attempting to make a narrower point about the Army's rotation policy and the wisdom of having troops with documented brain injuries in the field.

It goes without saying that the Afghans killed were innocent victims. And indeed, this guy will rightfully pay for his crime with his life in one way or another, whether it be in a military prison or a mental facility. There really is not much more that can be said about that. The incident is an unmitigated tragedy from every angle.

My comments were not about excusing his actions, but rather establishing motivation. We cannot change what happened, but there is a possibility that we can learn lessons from it that will help prevent future tragedies. There seems to be a rush by some in this thread to dismiss this incident as the actions of one evil man. Kill him and be done with it. Nothing to see here, folks. It is much easier to take such a position as it does not require any uncomfortable retrospection or deeper critical analysis of the environment in which he operated.

That may be the truth. There are plenty of genuinely evil people out there, and alcohol can certainly turn evil thoughts into evil actions. However, from the very early information that has come out about the man, the situation seems much more murky. This man served four tours in Afghanistan, apparently without incident. I'm just not ready to write him off as evil. I want to know why this behavior manifested itself at this late date. What triggered it? And yes, what part, if any, did his TBI or any other mental condition play in it, and how much did the Army know about his condition? There's no armchair psychology going on here. I simply stated the symptoms of TBI, which do not appear to preclude this kind of activity. At this point, everything is speculation, but those claiming that TBI absolutely could not have had any impact on this situation have no medical basis for their certainty.

The interest in TBI has nothing to do with finding an excuse. It is about preventing future incidents. How many more troops with documented TBI are in their fourth tours in combat areas? Should Army guidelines surrounding who is allowed to reenlist be reassessed? Are the myriad of mental health initiatives the Army has taken truly effective, or just wastes of time as those in this thread have insinuated? I do not have any answers, but I do not think such questions should be dismissed outright.

Yes we've had our problems but why do you think the number of detestable incidents involving our troops is significantly less than those involving your troops?

Calm down and think. How many US troops are in Afghanistan? And how many British?