He is not the victim here, he is the monster. Soldier does not equal violent maniac who tortures little children. His role in warfare doesn’t excuse his sadism (which I’d be willing to bet was there long before he put on a uniform).
BTW, glad to see the site back up, and hope that you’re snug and safe.
I don’t agree. Going to war changes people, and participating in killing makes it that much more likely that you’ll react like this. In fact, his reaction sounds like a classic PTSD episode.
I agree that war changes people, and sometimes for the worse. But my father was on Anzio beach, and it didn’t make him a monster. If this man is so insane from PTSD that he acts like this, then he needs serious, long-term psychiatric care; but I still guess that the seeds for his cruelty and hate were there to begin with.
Having been to war, I totally agree with Susie. Earlier today on NPR an Israeli former soldier who made the award winning movie “Lebanon” explained succinctly and elegantly what happens in war. He said, 50% of the balconies had people capable of shooting at us. If I don’t shoot first, I am dead. I cannot think about civilians, I don’t have options. I either die or live. That the awfulness of war and this kills your soul.
Americans had options – don’t fight wars, we declined. Now the awfulness visits us.
ps: not everyone is affected but many do.
Not quite the same topic but related. Watching the superbowl this evening, I was struck by how militarism dominates, has imbued, every facet of our society. I personally don’t have anything against the military, but as the organizing principle of community I’m getting a little tired of it. Even when we had the draft, life didn’t revolve around paying homage on an hourly basis to the military-industrial complex. Is WAR the new religion of America?
Yes.
Yeah koshem bos, too bad you are so right on this: a terrible, terrible result of our country’s continued military mind-set, i.e. that imperialism, even as it always means occupation and denigration of the ‘host” country—–there are inevitable, horrific consequences to our own soldiers returning home trying to rebuild a life long gone. I hate to reflect back to something the MSM made light of over and over during Obama’s campaign, but there’s a nugget of truth that some of us don’t like to hear: THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!
Dandy,
As my father observed, when the chickens come home to roost, they inevitably bring their strange new friends from the city with them.
What scares me is that this guy just recently got custody. There’s at least a 50% chance that the mother was a perfectly good mother and that dad just spent more money on attorneys than she did. I once had a squeaky clean friend who lost custody of her son to his wealthier father even though dad was in jail for a week when the county did their evaluation. the fact that he had beat mom senseless three different times and put her in the hospital didn’t matter because she wasn’t child therefore it wasn’t evidence that the child was at risk.
The first two stories i read this morning were the one linked here and Eric Margolis’ piece for the Toronto Sun. The bells are tolling for the American Empire, but the people are now so imbued with militarism that they refuse to listen. Ignorance is not bliss. Barring mighty and drastic change, the question is no longer “if” but “when?” It will fall; it is falling.
We had a choice. We’ve ravaged a generation of men (and some women) for nothing. And these men will walk among us for the rest of their days. All their demons will walk among us too. If we had real respect for the military and the people in it, we wouldn’t treat them this way.
Lori, he recently got her from her grandparents. Her mother, according to an article I read, lives in Kansas. It doesn’t sound like she had custody at all.
No doubt this good dad is PUKIE, who wants to bet?? I saw that article and wanted to barf!!!
“What have we done to these people?”
He is not the victim here, he is the monster. Soldier does not equal violent maniac who tortures little children. His role in warfare doesn’t excuse his sadism (which I’d be willing to bet was there long before he put on a uniform).
BTW, glad to see the site back up, and hope that you’re snug and safe.
I don’t agree. Going to war changes people, and participating in killing makes it that much more likely that you’ll react like this. In fact, his reaction sounds like a classic PTSD episode.
I agree that war changes people, and sometimes for the worse. But my father was on Anzio beach, and it didn’t make him a monster. If this man is so insane from PTSD that he acts like this, then he needs serious, long-term psychiatric care; but I still guess that the seeds for his cruelty and hate were there to begin with.
Having been to war, I totally agree with Susie. Earlier today on NPR an Israeli former soldier who made the award winning movie “Lebanon” explained succinctly and elegantly what happens in war. He said, 50% of the balconies had people capable of shooting at us. If I don’t shoot first, I am dead. I cannot think about civilians, I don’t have options. I either die or live. That the awfulness of war and this kills your soul.
Americans had options – don’t fight wars, we declined. Now the awfulness visits us.
ps: not everyone is affected but many do.
Not quite the same topic but related. Watching the superbowl this evening, I was struck by how militarism dominates, has imbued, every facet of our society. I personally don’t have anything against the military, but as the organizing principle of community I’m getting a little tired of it. Even when we had the draft, life didn’t revolve around paying homage on an hourly basis to the military-industrial complex. Is WAR the new religion of America?
Yes.
Yeah koshem bos, too bad you are so right on this: a terrible, terrible result of our country’s continued military mind-set, i.e. that imperialism, even as it always means occupation and denigration of the ‘host” country—–there are inevitable, horrific consequences to our own soldiers returning home trying to rebuild a life long gone. I hate to reflect back to something the MSM made light of over and over during Obama’s campaign, but there’s a nugget of truth that some of us don’t like to hear: THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!
Dandy,
As my father observed, when the chickens come home to roost, they inevitably bring their strange new friends from the city with them.
What scares me is that this guy just recently got custody. There’s at least a 50% chance that the mother was a perfectly good mother and that dad just spent more money on attorneys than she did. I once had a squeaky clean friend who lost custody of her son to his wealthier father even though dad was in jail for a week when the county did their evaluation. the fact that he had beat mom senseless three different times and put her in the hospital didn’t matter because she wasn’t child therefore it wasn’t evidence that the child was at risk.
The first two stories i read this morning were the one linked here and Eric Margolis’ piece for the Toronto Sun. The bells are tolling for the American Empire, but the people are now so imbued with militarism that they refuse to listen. Ignorance is not bliss. Barring mighty and drastic change, the question is no longer “if” but “when?” It will fall; it is falling.
We had a choice. We’ve ravaged a generation of men (and some women) for nothing. And these men will walk among us for the rest of their days. All their demons will walk among us too. If we had real respect for the military and the people in it, we wouldn’t treat them this way.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/eric_margolis/2010/02/05/12758511-qmi.html
Lori, he recently got her from her grandparents. Her mother, according to an article I read, lives in Kansas. It doesn’t sound like she had custody at all.
No doubt this good dad is PUKIE, who wants to bet?? I saw that article and wanted to barf!!!