MILITARY ETHOS

[Cross-posted at LGF Watch]

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is upset by blog entries at The New Republic which indicate that U.S. soldiers are brutal and callous. He quotes a statement by a public affairs officer and here's a part laden with irony:

recommending that they talk to their Soldiers about Army values and the Warrior ethos, reminding them of the rules for blogging in uniform and also reminding them of integrity and telling the truth.

I don't know if the posts at The New Republic are true or not. Either way, we have good reason to be suspicious of the wingnut meme about our military is above reproach. We have Marines being sent back to Iraq even after they have been diagnosed with PTSD (San Diego Tribune, 3/19/06):

Cmdr. Paul S. Hammer deals with such issues daily. Hammer, a psychiatrist, is responsible for the Marine Corps' mental-health programs during this deployment rotation. He confirmed that Marines with post-traumatic stress disorder and combat stress are returning to Iraq, though he would not say how many.

This will naturally lead to aberrant behavior in a very stressful situation, something Rep. Jack Murtha warned us about over a year ago (excerpts from his 5/17/2006 press conference), speaking in part about the Haditha massacre:

They're under constant and severe stress.

This war is coming at a huge consequence, the unspoken consequence of an overstretched and overstressed force.

Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.

So it's a very serious incident, unfortunately. It shows the tremendous pressure that these guys are under every day when they're out in combat.

I think it was today's paper (that) they have an eight-page report that I looked at that shows some people with psychological problems are being given drugs and sent back into combat.

You may have read about Cpl. Trent Thomas being given bad conduct discharge and reduction in rank to private for his role in the abduction and murder of an Iraqi civilian but you may not know that Cpl. Thomas, in his 3rd deployment to Iraq, was suffering from PTSD and brain injuries (San Diego Tribune, 7/17/07):

Maria Mouratidis, said Thomas suffers from mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Those ailments probably stemmed from repeated exposure to explosions and other combat factors, said Mouratidis, who heads the Traumatic Stress and Brain Injury Program at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland.

The situation in Iraq has deteriorated to such an extent that one Marine described Cpl. Thomas' actions this way (AP, 7/15/07):

Lopezromo, who was not part of the squad on its late-night mission, said he saw nothing wrong with what Thomas did.

"I don't see it as an execution, sir," he told the judge. "I see it as killing the enemy."

He said Marines consider all Iraqi men part of the insurgency.