"Report: 121 Veterans Linked to Killings"

[in_cog_ni_to]

Report: 121 Veterans Linked to Killings

A U.S. army soldier from Ghostrider Company, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Caval...
7 hours ago

NEW YORK — At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a killing or been charged in one in the United States after returning from combat, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said it also logged 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel and new veterans in the six years since military action began in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. That represents an 89-percent increase over the previous six-year period, the newspaper said.

About three-quarters of those homicides involved Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, the newspaper said. The report did not illuminate the exact relationship between those cases and the 121 killings also mentioned in the report.

The newspaper said its research involved searching local news reports, examining police, court and military records and interviewing defendants, their lawyers and families, victims' families and military and law enforcement officials.<snip>

<snip>
The 121 killings ranged from shootings and stabbings to bathtub drownings and fatal car crashes resulting from drunken driving, the newspaper said. All but one of those implicated was male.

About a third of the victims were girlfriends or relatives, including a 2-year-old girl slain by her 20-year-old father while he was recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq.

A quarter of the victims were military personnel. One was stabbed and set afire by fellow soldiers a day after they all returned from Iraq.

http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/national/2008/01/13/Killings.After.Combat/

[Fridays Child]

1. Is the military recruiting psychopaths or turning soldiers into psychopaths?

Or both?

[MadMaddie]

2. Both but I would say more of the latter....

These soldiars are receiving exit questionaiires...that's what this administration considers counseling.. see they can spend billions on bombs and guns...but to hell with the soldiars that have to use them...

To me this is a crime....every civilian death (even if deserved like the gang members trying to attack the military guy) is blood on * hands because the deaths are an indirect result of the war.

This is going to morph the Vietnam in every aspect. I think it's going to be up to each state to establish mandatory counseling for all of their Iraq vets whether they want it or not.

[NashVegas]

3. Both

When a young person goes into the military, post WW2, they are mentally retrained to over-ride everything they learned about "thou shalt not kill." Can anyone wonder why they come out a mess?