Casualties of War: When Killers Come Home Pt. 2 (with audio)

When Killers Come Home

Casualties of War: Part II

Warning signs

By Dave Phillips

Part One Here

July 29, 2009 "The Gazette" July 28, 2009 -- - After coming home from Iraq, 21-year-old medic Bruce Bastien was driving with his Army buddy Louis Bressler, 24, when they spotted a woman walking to work on a Colorado Springs street.

Bressler swerved and hit the woman with the car, according to police, then Bastien jumped out and stabbed her over and over.

(A word of caution about the language and content of this story: Please see Editor's Note)

It was October 2007. A fellow soldier, Kenneth Eastridge, 24, watched it all from the passenger seat.

At that moment, he said, it was clear that however messed up some of the soldiers in the unit had been after their first Iraq deployment, it was about to get much worse.

“I have no problem with killing,” said Eastridge, a two-tour infantryman with almost 80 confirmed kills. “But I won’t just murder someone for no reason. He had gone crazy.”

Hear the prison interviews with Kenneth Eastridge.

Continues...........................

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23155.htm

 

I've heard of numerous other incidence like this, though most of them occurred in Iraq against civilians who were raped and murdered by patrolling units. It's very much reminiscent of Vietnam and it's psychological consequences.

However, it also indicates some declining standards with regards to who we accept into the military; many of these individuals often had histories though in less desperate and war-time circumstances would have made them ineligiable.

 

I think a large part of it is the huge amount of anti depressents being given to these soldiers... a lot of times they are given a prescription with no follow up care whatsoever... now we all know that young adults can become more suicidal with some of these drugs, and the main population they are given too in the military is 18-22 year olds... do the math and we have amajor problem on our hands... I truly feel bad for our soldiers who have to deal with these issues.

 

The soldiers in canada and the states are not given the support and councilling they need to de military them They find it so hard to come back to civil life because all they know is military. The post trauma from the war with no follow up after all they do they are thrown aside. Duty done no use for you no more. I worry for my brother and the others that have done their tours not just one but 2-3 tours how their mind can snap at any minute, Shame on the dam politics for ignoring them the ones that fight for their country and others.

 

I agree, along with that I read that the iraq war is the one of the worst as far as PTSD due to the fact many soldiers see a large amount of death causes by ieds and suicide bombers, yet they only see a small amount of the enemy combatant being killed which is said to give additional feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness.

 

I agree with you both of you. The problem also stems from the fact that, traditionally, PTSD was seen as a weakness by both comanding officers and military culture in general. When it was first observed in greater scrutiny during WWI, the soliders befallen with it were view negatively - and it appears that even now we're slow to act on it.

I recall reading about the derth of medical expertise and assistance available with regard to those issues. Given the increasingly psychological nature of war, we're going to need to overhaul the care system.

 

It is still seen as weakness, i read a poll of vets and something like 70% said they would not speak up as they were afraid they would be seen as weak...

 

Hence the high suicide rate