Abusing the Troops

[Karenina]

The *MIC is HORRIBLY ABUSING those who have stepped forward to join its ranks, for whatever reasons, with impunity. The following article highlights but one of the ways...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/03/934

<snip>

Today Cho; yesterday Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The injured soldiers at the center of that earlier scandal certainly qualify as weak and defenseless people, except that the object of fascination while they dominated the 24/7 churn of cable news was not their career as killers or the preparations that readied them to kill. They were the victims in the scandal. About the perpetrator, Walter Reed, the question “How could this have happened?” was not answered with any of the searching examination the press brings to the biography of mass murderers. Naturally, we aren’t meant to think of soldiers as trained killers or of any military installation as part of an institution of mass murder. It might help if we did. Certainly it would help aspiring recruits better understand what they are getting into, and help wounded veterans understand why they would be degraded as soon as they’d outlived their usefulness to the trade.

The truth is, a system dedicated to transforming psychologically healthy people into people capable of performing what in any other setting is considered a pathological act can’t help behaving badly-not all the time or in all of its realms, not monolithically so that everyone associated with it is scathed. But inevitably the ends deform the means, and inevitably someone pays. No one is talking about it, but what happened at Walter Reed to soldiers injured in war is not shocking at all if one ponders what happens at Army posts to soldiers injured in basic training.

<snip>

It was Family Weekend when I visited, and the PTRP command was on its toes because for weeks my friend, Pat deVarennes, had been writing a blog exposing the routine abuses of injured soldiers there. As a result of her persistence, the Army had initiated an investigation into the actions of a drill sergeant who had kicked a soldier in his bad knee, sending him to the floor screaming, and who had punished and terrorized the soldiers in numerous other ways. That weekend these men, on crutches and painkillers, wearing casts or moving gingerly, were not being called “fakers,” “lady men,” “shitsacks,” “malingerers”-the names that, at other times, were regularly hurled at them. The command met with parents and wives and told them their loved ones would be getting individualized medical attention, something many had not had for months, and reassured them that the soldiers’ well-being was their chief concern.

A week later, on March 19, 2006, one of those soldiers, Pfc. Matthew Scarano, 21, was found dead in his bunk. He had been in the program for more than a year with a shoulder injury and excruciating pain. It was unlikely he would ever be fit for battle, but he could not get out. Shortly before he died he wrote to deVarennes: “I liken being here to being incarcerated. And it often helped during the bleaker points in PTRP history to think of it as such: I’m far from being any kind of expert on the subject, but perhaps it was a psychological self-defense mechanism to try to perceive what was going on as being punitive in nature.”

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Good article. K&R

[frogcycle]

2. damn damn damn

if this is valid, and I assume it is, although maybe not as prevalent as implied (I can still hope), it is a vastly bigger story than the Bldg 18 thing.

ONE FUCKING CASE of physical abuse like the kick cited should have caused a complete purge of the chain of command all the way up through the CinC.


damn

[Breeze54]

3. IF this is valid?? It is!! Read on----->

Recruit’s death highlights brutality of Marine training

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/mari-f25.shtml

By Clare Hurley
25 February 2005

On February 8, US Marine recruit Jason Tharp, 19, from Sutton, West Virginia, died during a training exercise at the Parris Island, South Carolina, Marine base. Under normal circumstances, the tragic drowning of the teenager during the Combat Water Survival Training phase of boot camp might have remained a family tragedy recorded only in military statistics. However, video footage taken February 7 by a local television station turned up documenting physical abuse of the young recruit by his drill instructor. Picked up from local NBC affiliate WIS-TV in South Carolina, the clip aired on the “Today” show on February 18, provoking an outcry and demands for an investigation by his family.

No less than three investigations were swiftly announced by the Marine Corps into the circumstances of the death and the relation, if any, to the abusive treatment of the previous day. Pending the outcome of the investigations, the Tharp family says it may sue the Marine Corps for the wrongful death of their son. But because of the Feres Doctrine, a 1950 US Supreme Court decision that prevents soldiers and families from successfully suing the military for active-duty injuries or deaths, they are unlikely to win the justice they seek.

The Marines are busily engaged in damage control, attempting to place the focus on the technicality of whether the drill sergeant physically touched Tharp while abusing him.

The videotape shows Tharp being grabbed by his uniform and “forearmed” by the instructor in the presence of four other recruits, an instance of abuse that, if anything, seems mild given the reputation of Marine boot camp. The brutal treatment of recruits is hardly a secret. It is, in fact, something the Marine Corps promotes as necessary to forge young people into “the few and the proud” and has already been the subject of such films as Full Metal Jacket (1987).

snip-->

But many young men and woman like Jason Tharp are invariably unprepared for the degree of brutality fostered at places like Parris Island. Such training is designed with the express purpose of rendering recruits capable of razing cities to the ground with overwhelming force, killing innocent civilians, “softening up” detainees and policing a population opposed to US occupation.

The pressure on the military to turn recruits into killing machines has increased, as has its difficulty in meeting recruitment goals. The army has recently had to raise its enlistment bonus 40 percent to $10,000, more than twice the amount of a Pell Grant.

Recognizing the limits to which the human spirit can be forced to carry out indiscriminate acts of homicidal brutality under the guise of fighting to spread “freedom and democracy,” and the increasing resistance this will provoke, the army reportedly plans to spend $127 billion on developing robot soldiers, representing the biggest military contract in US history, driving the already record-large military budget up by another 20 percent (New York Times, February 16, 2005). The military hopes to deploy robots, capable of firing 1,000 rounds of ammunition a minute, as early as this April in Iraq.

more.........

[frogcycle]

4. there have been deaths in boot camp for years

not to diminish them, but my specific point was that if they are applying the same tactics to the wounded then any smattering of excuse that "it builds character and slipups happen," which is used as cover story for the boot camp incidents (and which I vehemently do NOT accept) is not only a non-starter but a clear evidence of sadism - pure and simple.

There have been criminal cases as a result of "overzealous" DIs. The idea that the DI approach is appropriate to get the wounded back into battle turns my stomach. We need some TOP BRASS in jail.

And my "If this is valid" was largely rhetorical. I expect it to be substantiated. But I simply do not make a practice of accepting the first report I see on something at face value. I HAVE read earlier reports of what might be loosely described as excessively tough treatment" of the wounded. I had not yet seen something this damning.

Perhaps that WAPO reporter has more work to do...

Shit, Anderson Cooper would do. Geraldo would do. I'm not picky.

[Breeze54]

5. This isn't the first report on this though, and you

said, "although maybe not as prevalent as implied".

It is prevalent though, just not reported in the MSM.

I understood you were being 'rhetorical'.

I was just providing another dated article.

This shit has been going on for years, as I'm sure you know.

[Breeze54]

7. General who led US Marines in Iraq says “It’s fun to shoot some people”

General who led US Marines in Iraq says “It’s fun to shoot some people”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/gene-f07.shtml

By Jerry White

7 February 2005

A three-star Marine general gave an indication of the homicidal ethos guiding the US occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan when he declared during a military conference in San Diego Tuesday that “It’s fun to shoot some people.”

Responding to a question about fighting the Iraqi resistance, Lieutenant General James N. Mattis—who is in charge of developing Marine war-fighting doctrine and tactics—said, “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you, I like brawling.”

The general, also known as “Mad Dog Mattis,” led the 1st Marine Division during the initial invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq, and returned to command marines during the occupation of Iraq, where he led the initial attack on Fallujah in April 2004.

He presented the invasion of both countries as a civilizing mission, denounced Muslim men and reveled in killing them. “You go into Afghanistan,” he told his audience, and “you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”

This last comment drew loud laughter and enthusiastic applause from the audience attending the panel discussion hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

Despite his yen for killing, Mattis warned that overwhelming military superiority had failed to subdue the popular resistance in Iraq. “Our very dominance of certain forms of warfare have driven the enemy into historic forms of warfare that we have not mastered,” he said. “Don’t patronize this enemy,” he said of the guerillas. “They mean business. They mean every word they say.... They’re killing us now. Their will is not broken.”

Presenting the fight as a twilight struggle between good and evil, Mattis insisted in order to defeat such an enemy the Marines had to recruit and train the “right people”—i.e., those who had no compunction about killing.

In a statement issued Thursday, General Michael W. Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, said, “Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor. I have counseled him concerning his remarks, and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully. While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him,” Hagee claimed, “I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war.”

Other military officials defended Mattis, saying his record showed that he “valued human life” and had instructed his troops to respect Islamic culture and protect innocents during military operations.

This is not the first controversy concerning Mattis. After his marines seized an airstrip in southern Afghanistan in November 2001 at the beginning of the war, the general declared, “The Marines have landed, and we now own a piece of Afghanistan.” Those comments reportedly caused consternation with Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials, who were trying to present the war as “liberating” the Afghan people from the Taliban, not seizing land in a Muslim country.

Mattis was lauded as a hero for leading his 1st Marine Division in a high-speed advance from Kuwait to Baghdad in the early days of the Iraqi invasion. An account by two senior Marine Corps officers under his command gives a picture of the bloody methods he instructed soldiers to employ against anyone who resisted the US invasion.

Writing in the 2003 book The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division, authors “Bing” West and Major General Ray Smith, said, “The jihadis asked no quarter and the Marines gave them none. The Marines knew the difference between these jihad fighters and the militia. Consequently the Marines shot them in the ditches and in the field. They threw grenades into the bulrushes and shot the fighters when they ran out. They threw grenades into the drainage pipes running under the road.... A few of the foreign fighters surrendered, but most did not—they had come to Iraq to die, and die they would. As one Marine put it, this was the perfect war. ‘They want to die, and we want to kill them.’ ”

more.........

-------------------

:puke:

[Karenina]

26. Your sig...

:cry: Our DU "luminary" WP used to have "Anger is a gift" as his sig line. I no longer believe so. I posted the article as it created a "snapping experience" for me. My dearest relative in this life is involved day-in and day-out in saving Vet's lives. I personally have no great fondness for the military, but recognize and embrace the humanity of those involved in it and am AGHAST at the ho-hum attitude to the ATROCIOUS ABUSE being heaped upon them. I AM SO ANGRY and in my "senior moment" naivete thought that expressing it would galvanize some support for the BIG PICTURE with which Americans are being presented. It seems at this moment

NO SUCH FUCKING LUCK

[Karenina]

9. Sadism and wanton, mindless brutality

against those who "volunteered" to "serve their country." The Founding Fathers were opposed to a professional military precisely because of the tendency for it as an innstitution to become a closed society.

Just read the frist 2 pages of DU today. WHAT DO WE SEE happening to America's Servicepeople???

[crikkett]

6. What are the Army's robots - CIWS on wheels?

"the army reportedly plans to spend $127 billion on developing robot soldiers...The military hopes to deploy robots, capable of firing 1,000 rounds of ammunition a minute, as early as this April in Iraq."


:WTF: $127 BILLION? That was in 2005...? I guess they couldn't get the bugs out.



Does anyone else find this alarming?

[Breeze54]

8. Robots May Fight for the Army

Robots May Fight for the Army

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/04/63036

Mark Baard Email 04.13.04 | 2:00 AM

Lightweight, super-strong robots will lead human soldiers into battle within 10 years -- at least according to iRobot.

The robots, called small unmanned ground vehicles, or SUGVs, will detect the presence of chemical and biological weapons, identify targets for artillery and infantrymen, and ferret out snipers hiding inside urban buildings. Today, humans mainly perform these tasks, often becoming the first casualties of battle while looking for snipers or explosives.

The SUGV (pronounced "sug-vee") will be a smaller and lighter version of the PackBot, a 42-pound robot with tanklike rubber treads designed by iRobot, a company based in Burlington, Massachusetts.

IRobot, which was co-founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology roboticist Rodney Brooks, is the same company that developed the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner.

American soldiers are already using PackBots to search inside caves in Afghanistan, and to remove roadside bombs in Iraq. A PackBot proved its worth last week when it uncovered a bomb in Iraq and was destroyed in the process.

"One robot was blown up," said retired Vice Adm. Joe Dyer, general manager of iRobot's government and industrial robotics division. "That was a cause for celebration, because the robot saved the life of a soldier."

snip-->

Video
click to see video
Watch a video simulation of the SUGV in combat.
(13-MB file, requires Windows Media Player)

The Army will be able to deploy these units "from bases in the United States directly into the open desert," said retired Lt. Gen. Daniel Zanini, corporate vice president at Science Applications International."It will ensure the U.S. remains the world's dominant force for land combat."

Science Applications International, along with Boeing, is the lead systems integrator for Future Combat Systems.

Some of the robots that are being developed may also be used to shoot at human targets, iRobot suggested. But the company said SUGVs will provide advanced reconnaissance first. The company does not want to be seen as putting human soldiers out of business.

Robot vision systems have serious limitations, and the risk that a robot might kill an innocent civilian is too great, said iRobot CEO Colin Angle.

more.........

[midnight]

13. I can barely tolerate reading this. My sister hopped on a plan

from Dallas over the Easter weekend, landed in L.A., rented a car, and drove to camp Pendleton. She went to see her marine son who also was drowned. I've asked her not to go into details of incident with me until we are face to face this summer. I cannot bare this horror. My own safety in a small community has been challenged by police who are trying to get some criminal record on our family members because of our bring the troops home sign. No one can imagine the spying and lying that is going on while so many are dying. P.S. my big sis is only 4'10". It is the moms who are going to stop this.

[Breeze54]

15. I'm so sorry to hear your terrible news....

:hug: That's awful! Especially so close to Mother's Day!

Yes, it is the Mom's who will stop this!! Seems like they're the only one's protesting this lie!!
Although I know there are many who have and are still protesting.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21485">10,000 MOTHER OF A MARCH

Where:

Assemble for rally in Lafayette Park (DC) at 12 noon followed by march to Congress.

Details:

The time for being polite to our war-mongering politicians and organizations which support them is over.

We mothers have to stand up and put our bodies on the line for peace and humanity.
We must look into the best parts of ourselves that make us mothers willing to care for and protect
all children of the world, not just our own. We need to access our hearts and souls to lead from a
place of compassion and love not from war/fear mongering, hatred and disgraceful threats and use of
bullying force.

I am calling on Mothers of the world to join us in Washington DC for a “10,000 Mother of a March”

on the day after Mother’s Day, Monday, May 14th, 2007.

Marches on the weekends are not effective, we need to shut the city of DC down!

We will surround Congress and demand an end to this evil occupation ...

Meet at Layfayette Park at noon. We will rally then march to Congress

[Karenina]

16. Deepest condolences to you and your family, midnight

Yes, mothers can move mountains to protect the lives and futures of our children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,235864,00.html

[patrice]

17. midnight, please tell your sister that we will NEVER Forget. nm

[midnight]

20. Patice please forgive my hast. .

His buddies found my nephew and he was resuscitated.

[patrice]

21. OH, I'm glad!!

I have a lot of military in my Family; I'm not forgetting ANY of this anyway.

[midnight]

19. Please read this...... My nephew was resuscitated by his buddies.

He is alive. Forgive my haste. I read the original post and was overwhelmed by the similar horror.

[Karenina]

22. Your being overwhelmed is completely understandable!

I'm delighted your nephew is alive! :hug:

[G_j]

10. Unbalanced President holds troops hostage, inflicts severe physical and mental damage upon them

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=825605&mesg_id=825605


http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070504/4pentagon.htm

Mental Health Survey Shows Troops Need More Time at Home

By Anna Mulrine
Posted 5/4/07

The Pentagon this week released its fourth report on the mental health of troops serving overseas. What emerges from the latest Mental Health Advisory Team survey, the fourth in a series of such studies since 2003, is a troubling picture of troops who are experiencing increasing levels of anxiety and depression with each successive deployment. "We looked under every rock–and what they found wasn't always easy to look at," said Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The Pentagon is now examining "how we can do better," he said. "There are ways we can do better."

What has become abundantly clear, say military officials, is that the longer tours of duty for soldiers (who must now serve 15 months in Iraq) and shorter "dwell times" at home with families are taking a significant toll on soldiers and marines (who are in charge of security in the volatile Anbar province and were included in the survey for the first time).

That's in large part because of the clear link that the study found between mental health and unethical behavior. In other words, soldiers who screened positive for a mental health problem–such as anxiety, depression, or acute stress–were twice as likely to engage in unethical behavior compared with soldiers who did not screen positive. Military officials note that soldiers and marines are far more likely to have unethical thoughts than act on them. However, the study found, "the relationship between mental health and unethical behavior holds even when controlling for anger."

..more..

[Karenina]

11. Something's happening here... What it is IS EXACTLY CLEAR

Ya know G_j, these times are NOT "bidness an usual."

"Everywhere in the world I dread that same self-deception which holds that 'it can't happen here.' It can happen anywhere. It becomes unlikely only where the mass of the population is aware of the threat, where there is accordingly no relapse into lethargy, where the character of "totalitarianism" is known and recognized from its very inception and in each of its aspects-as a Proteus which is constantly putting on new masks, which glides out of your grasp like an eel, which does the opposite of what it claims, which perverts the meaning of its words, which speaks, not to impart information, but to hypnotize, divert attention, insinuate, intimidate, dupe, which exploits and produces every type of fear, which promises security while destroying it completely."

-- Karl Jaspers, a German psychiatrist

Maggiegault‘s brother has been killed. His vehicle took an IED hit.
Deepest condolences to her and her family.

Stress on Troops Adds to U.S. Hurdles in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=vie
w_all&address=389x831236

Deployed troops fight for lost custody of kids
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x830080

CSM: Key US Army ranks begin to thin
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832581

Congressional Memorial Honoring U.S. Dead In Iraq, Afghanistan Runs Out Of Room
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832472

Six U.S. soldiers and a civilian journalist killed near Baghdad
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x833371

Some Gulf War veterans have different brains
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x833071

"Be a good American, hug your Flat Daddy or Mommy and don't question the war."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x833095

House leader Boehner acknowledges GOP nervousness about troop increase
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x833157

Injured Iraqi Soldiers Are Left To Fend For Themselves
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832989

WP: For Iraqi Soldiers, A Medical Morass-Lack of Facilities Leaves Wounded To Seek Own Care
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x833084

'America Needs a Draft' Says Stephen Heller; PLUS Brad on Thom Hartmann Today
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x825468

Want To Be SICK? Boston.com Compares War $ Spent vs. What War $ COULD Have Bought
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x823948

[G_j]

12. a litany of horrors

depravity, the worst crimes

These folks have made sure we have now have a working definition of "evil".

[Solly Mack]

14. K/R

...

[Warren Stupidity]

18. When it comes to despising and abusing soldiers

nobody does it better than our own 'negligence as an art form' criminal cabal in the white house.

[bigtree]

23. My son was sent home, discharged from boot camp (thankfully)

because he hurt his back severely in training. No compensation, nothing. We let it go at his request, but it still hurts to remember his treatment. That said, he didn't really have a negative impression of the commanders and the system which chewed him up and spit him out. Go figure.

I remember my brother-in-law's experience where he was subjected to the Kill Kill Kill regiment of his boot camp, was disgusted by it and finally begged out, successfully, and was sent home.

There is a divergence of opinion as to whether the training is too rigorous, or if it's not rigorous enough in preparing these soldiers to fight and risk dying.

My impression is that tto prepare these troops for the sometimes horrendous duty, they have to be pushed to their limit. However, we are dealing with human nature as we rely on the instructors to care for these recruits. There are good ones and bad ones. There are positive experiences in camp, and there are the nightmares.

I hope that these experiences highlighted in the article lead to a closer examination and some kind of way for recruits to register their complaints outside of the command, and for there to be a more influential arbitrator who will have a renewed mandate to identify problem areas and those recruits who are taking on more stress than they can handle.

[Karenina]

24. All the best to you and your family, Bigtree

Your sig line says it all. :hi:

[bigtree]

27. .

back at ya, Karenia

:kick:

[Karenina]

25. Looking the other way... Nothing to see here...

The Army Says It Was Suicide, Her Father Thinks She Might Have Been Raped & Murdered
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x802359

Military sexual trauma — the new face of PTSD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x837660

[Time for change]

28. Very interesting and sad article

It really makes one think about the morality of our militarized society.

"The truth is, a system dedicated to transforming psychologically healthy people into people capable of performing what in any other setting is considered a pathological act can’t help behaving badly..."

I haven't thought much about that, but I don't doubt that it's true. Perhaps that goes a long way towards explaining things like Abu Ghraib.