Comments | zenithblue: an army of one

zenithblue

an army of one

Dec 04, 2006 18:06

People in my family don't talk about my Uncle Donnie. He was the youngest of all Grandpa's brothers. He served in Vietnam. Then he came back, possibly shot a bunch of people (the story is fuzzy here), and killed himself in his garage (the story is decidedly less fuzzy on this point). My dad was about six.

When I was younger, the only way my dad ( Read more... )

iraq, mental health

Comments 11

blozor December 5 2006, 12:02:35 UTC

This is coming from someone who has had a long and rather discouraging history with the the mental health aspect of the military. First of all, to the corporate military machine, human beings are absolutely not human beings. They are commodities - equipment. Military policy regards human beings the same way it regards tanks, aircraft, or ballpoint pens. Every one is the same. If one behaves differently than the norm, attempt to modify it; if it cannot be modified, it must be extinguished. There cannot and will not be an anomaly in the military, and that includes individuality ( ... )

zenithblue December 5 2006, 21:14:19 UTC

I'm so sorry you had to go through that. That's shit ( ... )

blozor December 5 2006, 22:39:10 UTC

First off, the way that cousin was treated was complete bullshit and would not be tolerated had it been reported, at least in the Air Force. They are so terrified of sexual harrassment these days that zero tolerance applies to so much as the accusation. That drill sergeant would have been punished and then dishonorably discharged, period. The drill sergeants these days have their hands so tied that they can't so much as say a curse word to the trainees without receiving at least a reprimand. Unfortunately, kids in basic training are so culture shocked that they're traumatized into not realizing that they have basic human rights, even in that environment. When I went through, kids were treated like shit if they said they couldn't take it and wanted out. Later on, I found out that you have up to six months to separate with no questions asked and your time in the service doesn't even go on your record ( ... )

zenithblue December 6 2006, 19:18:35 UTC

...I have been trying for a while now to think of something to say to that. I have failed. That's...well, you know as well as I do what that is.

wow.

bluescissors76 December 5 2006, 17:55:51 UTC

I heard that story too. I wanted to drive my car into people. Today I'm listening to a This American Life from earlier this month about how the number of civilian casualties has been misstated/not owned up to/etc. So I don't really want to drive my car into civilians any more, but I'm all fired up right now.

zenithblue December 5 2006, 21:15:40 UTC

Some days it's hard to stop feeling pissed off even for a minute. Those are the days I listen to Harry Potter on tape in my car instead of NPR. I think I'm rapidly approaching the need to re-listen to the whole series.

drawgirl December 5 2006, 19:07:52 UTC

I read the NPR thing and one of the things that really stood out to me (among, you know, all the horrible, horrible other shit that those guys have to go through) is the one soldier who said that he wished he had died over in Iraq because if you die then you're treated as a hero. You live and have problems then you're a little shit who couldn't take it, but if you die, then woohoo, medals and parades for you! That is fucked up.

zenithblue December 5 2006, 21:21:02 UTC

No shit. That's ridiculous. Yet another reason of 1001 that this whole enterprise was a fucking asinine idea from the start.

helpimarock December 6 2006, 04:27:18 UTC

I'm so infuriated with this whole thing (especially the fact that your cousin was told to "suck it up", holy fucking shit) and I'm having a hard time coming up with a response, so I'll just show my absolute support of your position by telling a couple stories. (And the paragraph at the bottom where I actually came up with some conlcusions ( ... )

zenithblue December 6 2006, 19:24:33 UTC

That's pretty fucked up, altogether.

Maybe politics does have something to do with it, but more than anything I think it's that as a culture we struggle between notions of personal responsibility and social responsibility. You know, I love the idea of personal responsibility. But I think if we don't take the trouble to find out what made someone how they are and why they did whatever the hell they did, we are disregarding their humanity that is unconscienable. To dismiss someone as "damaged" instead of "ill" or "struggling" is just a way to deny any responsibility we as a culture have towards the people that for whatever reason are struggling, whether it's some internally-spawned hurt like a mental illness or an external one like, say PTSD.

lagizma December 6 2006, 17:58:33 UTC

I'm as angry as you are, even if I don't have any intelligent comments to add.