You're very right, although TBIs are brain damage. My dad's TBI is so severe that he is functionally paraplegic and no longer lucid at all, but in TBI support groups, my mom and I have been introduced to people who "healed" (you can't even really ever fully heal a TBI) but suffer from extreme mood swings that border on terrifying. They drive away their families, friends, everyone. Rages are very common with TBIs. You just can't process the world anymore.
I think one of the other things I've learned is that very few people really understand them. You hit the nail on the head. This man is horribly broken, the system failed him, and he did an unforgivable, horrible, disgusting thing probably as a result. It's worse that it doesn't surprise me that someone with MULTIPLE TBIs would do something like this. And what he did just disturbs me. And the way it's been treated since has disturbed me. Really, nothing about this doesn't disturb me.
I am not excusing this man for his actions, either. Justice needs to be done. The system failed him, but what he did... It's just unspeakable. I don't want the system to also fail the victims. I only want to back up the information about TBIs because they're so misunderstood and it's an issue that I'm immersed in on a daily basis.
I also know a soldier who served in Iraq and suffered a TBI. He said that he, too, experienced intense rages, but they've mellowed over time. There are moments when you can tell he wasn't always this stable, though.
Sorry, I probably wasn't very clear. English is not my first language, and sometimes I'm not as good at it as I think I am!
Bales should never have been sent to Afghanistan.
I remember seeing in one article that his family had put in for a non-deployable post - three years at home, give or take - and they got it, they were just transitioning from their old command to the new one...and he got shipped overseas anyway because the powers that be were short-handed. To me, this just reads as a massive failure on every possible level. The tragedy of it is the people in these two villages who were made to pay.
They'll probably write him off as a lone lunatic and give him a dishonourable discharge.
The system won't change one iota, the victims will be forgotten or never mentioned at all, and because of the discharge he'll lose access to even the limited level of help the Veterans Administration might be able to give in healing him.
Shitty outcome for everyone. Congratulations, you all lose.
I think one of the other things I've learned is that very few people really understand them. You hit the nail on the head. This man is horribly broken, the system failed him, and he did an unforgivable, horrible, disgusting thing probably as a result. It's worse that it doesn't surprise me that someone with MULTIPLE TBIs would do something like this. And what he did just disturbs me. And the way it's been treated since has disturbed me. Really, nothing about this doesn't disturb me.
I am not excusing this man for his actions, either. Justice needs to be done. The system failed him, but what he did... It's just unspeakable. I don't want the system to also fail the victims. I only want to back up the information about TBIs because they're so misunderstood and it's an issue that I'm immersed in on a daily basis.
I also know a soldier who served in Iraq and suffered a TBI. He said that he, too, experienced intense rages, but they've mellowed over time. There are moments when you can tell he wasn't always this stable, though.
Reply
Bales should never have been sent to Afghanistan.
I remember seeing in one article that his family had put in for a non-deployable post - three years at home, give or take - and they got it, they were just transitioning from their old command to the new one...and he got shipped overseas anyway because the powers that be were short-handed. To me, this just reads as a massive failure on every possible level. The tragedy of it is the people in these two villages who were made to pay.
Reply
The tragedy of it is the people in these two villages who were made to pay.
Yep. And it's still not enough to get this system to change. I don't think anything will ever be.
Reply
The system won't change one iota, the victims will be forgotten or never mentioned at all, and because of the discharge he'll lose access to even the limited level of help the Veterans Administration might be able to give in healing him.
Shitty outcome for everyone. Congratulations, you all lose.
Reply
Leave a comment