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Ft. Hood shootings: Yet another reason to end these wars
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At least 43 soldiers at Fort Hood, TX were gunned down yesterday, 13 of whom have reportedly died.
The alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was a psychiatrist who specialized in counseling soldiers returning from deployment who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to The New York Times, he was "mortified" about being deployed overseas because "he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war" after having counseled many who have been there. While that certainly does not excuse his actions, it does point to an alarming trend in the military and should be a wake up call for those who want to prolong the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The President already has expressed his regrets and condolences to the wounded troops and the families of the dead as a result of this "horrifying" attack. In the next few days, media pundits will talk about what may have driven an Army officer to do such a horrible thing. Talking heads will discuss every detail about the Major's past and ethnic background, and a few may even question what precautions the military may take to prevent something like this from happening again. But so far few people in our government or media have mentioned what should be obvious: The best way to end violence like what happened at Fort Hood is to end the wars. And absolutely no one will talk about how horrifying war is, or show the images that people who are fighting these wars see.
Our troops in combat zones see horrible things almost every day and it affects them in ways most Americans cannot even begin to understand. Some become desensitized to killing, and that is why things like what happened in Ft. Hood yesterday will continue to happen as long as our soldiers are ordered to fight in perpetual wars. If you do not like what you see, then speak out about ending these wars - call your representatives, write letters to your local paper, get involved, do something.
The reality of war is whitewashed and hidden from the American public by the corporate media, but it is harsh reality for the young men and women that have to experience it and live with those memories for the rest of their lives, if they survive. In many cases, the ones that do survive wish they had not. The suicide rate among active duty troops in the Army was higher in 2007 than it has been since records have been kept.
Regarding the shootings at Fort Hood, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said, "This is an isolated and tragic case, and we're obviously in the process of obtaining more information as the events unfold." According to NBC news and the AP, however, it is simply not true that what happened at Fort Hood yesterday is an isolated case.
On May 11, 2009 five soldiers were shot dead at Camp Liberty by Sgt. John Russell. On Sept. 8, 2008 Spc. Jody Michael shot himself to death after killing 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher at Foot Hood. On Feb. 25, 2008 Air Force Tech. Sgt. Dustin Thorson, after returning from Iraq and being diagnosed with PSTD, fatally shot his son and daughter at Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma after a domestic dispute with his wife. On June 7, 2005 two National Guard officers were killed by a grenade allegedly set off by a Staff Sgt. who later was acquitted of murder. On March 23, 2003 Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar tossed grenades into three tents and then fired a rifle at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait, killing one and injuring 14. The list goes on and on...
While most soldiers can keep their wits about them after returning home from deployment and should be honored for their sacrifices, the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan that commit murder are very likely driven to that by eight years of perpetual war and multiple deployments. In Dec. 2008, The New York Times published a special report regarding 121 cases of killings committed in the U.S. by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Denver Post published a similar article in Aug. 2008, warning of the dangers of redeploying soldiers with "pained bodies and troubled minds." The Army is sending soldiers with physical and mental injuries back to war, at times overruling physicians' classifications of soldiers as "nondeployable." Once they are in Iraq or Afghanistan, "commanders sometimes ignored medical limitations set by doctors." And if they survive, they come home to places like Fort Hood.
The casualties of war extend far beyond the soldiers that are killed in action, which right now is 4359 in Iraq and 912 in Afghanistan. 31,527 troops have been physically wounded. Thanks to modern body armor and medevac procedures, a lot have survived that would not have in previous wars. The ratio of wounded to dead is now 8:1 and it was 3:1 in Vietnam. Many of the survivors now, however, are missing limbs, eyes or have traumatic brain injuries that have disabled them for life. Then there are those suffering from PSTD and other psychological effects from being exposed to the horrors of war, whose numbers are estimated to be as high as 320,000. And the Iraqi and Afghani casaulties cannot even be counted.
The soldiers who died or were wounded at Fort Hood are also casualties of war. They were not killed or wounded in action overseas, but they are just as dead or just as hurt as the soldiers killed overseas because of these wars.
A soldier at Fort Hood, speaking on condition of anonminity due to the lockdown said the mood on the base is “very grim,” and that even before this incident, troop morale has been very low. “I’d say it’s at an all-time low - mostly because of Afghanistan now,” he explained. “Nobody knows why we are at either place, and I believe the troops need to know why they are there, or we should pull out, and this is a unanimous feeling, even for folks who are pro-war.”
Is this enough? Do we need any more reasons to end these wars?
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