5 DEAD IN IRAQ
WHO IS REALLY TO BLAME WHEN TROOPS “GO POSTAL?”
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
A 44 year old Army sergeant is facing murder charges. Five families are destroyed, their loved ones dead at the hands of a comrade. Piling this on the invisible human disasters of war, not the dead civilians in Afghanistan the world press dotes on, but American families plowed into the dirt for no reason at all, this should not have been a surprise to anyone.
So far, the unfolding story tells us of a man “waiting discharge” with serious “stress” issues undergoing testing that he claimed was hurting him, making him worse, and, as we have seen, driving him to murderous rage. What the hell was he doing in Iraq in the first place? Why do we repdeploy the wounded, the seriously depressed, the PTSD victims?
Why are we “warehousing” troops with obvious disabilities inside Iraq and subjecting them to medical treatments that are more likely “accounting” driven than based on what is moral, right and medically sound. Has torture become so natural for us that we think nothing of playing with the lives of our own?
For the better part of a decade we have been fighting two wars. Not for the first time, we find ourselves with soldiers at risk long after the public has lost interest in the outcome. Nobody expects us to win, only to find a way out without looking like total idiots as we did in Vietnam.
This is a privatized war. There are 40 thousand foreign food service workers in Iraq alone, taking care of our troops, saving them for the real dirty work of kicking in doors, year after year, deployment after deployment. In Vietnam, as many soldiers as possible were pulled off the line when they had 90 days left on their tour. Most of those who served more than one tour moved up in rank and out of rifle squads and daily combat.
Now we have troops who can spend their entire career, from enlistment to retirement, in a rifle platoon. This hasn’t been done since the Roman Empire sent their legions across Europe, Africa and Asia 2 thousand years ago. Caligula may have cared more about troop morale and fitness than many in Washington as we have been learning.
War is not meant to be a business or a game. Our military is also our children, our family members and part of our people. They aren’t slaves. They aren’t meant to be ignored, abused, misused and played with just to save a buck or two of disability retirement to free up money for thousand dollar a day private security guards or to keep useless bases open in states with influential members of congress.
The recent incident is only a billboard telling everyone that our “use em’ up and throw em’ away” philosophy isn’t working. More members of our military have families, have children, than ever before. They stay longer, they get more training, they get better at their jobs and they are more valuable. They also are human and need and deserve a life and family environment that isn’t based on having a small military endlessly fighting multiple wars.
Exhaused and stressed troops are our responsibility. Trying to cheat them out of benefits or push them out into homelessness and unemployment after we have “used them up” is immoral, unpatriotic and wrong. It has to be stopped.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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