Army Base on the Brink ~ 'soldiers are committing suicide, murdering their families'

[Yon_Yonson]

Army Base on the Brink

The Daily Beast

At an Army base near Seattle, soldiers are committing suicide, murdering their families—and in one case, waterboarding their own kids. Winston Ross reports from a base on the brink.

by Winston Ross (/contributors/winston-ross.html) | September 9, 2011 1:56 PM EDT

Back when Jonathan Gilbert was still in middle school, he attended his cousin’s graduation ceremony from the U.S. Army’s basic training, watching men in neatly pressed uniforms marching, saluting one another, and smiling.

“That was it for him,” Gilbert’s mother, Karrie Champion, tells The Daily Beast. “He knew what he wanted to do. He enlisted before he was out of high school.”

The boy had no idea what he was getting into—that he’d wind up in Iraq, driving a Stryker, watching the unit in the caravan ahead of him roll off a bridge and land upside down. Two soldiers were killed, one of them decapitated. Nineteen-year-old Jonathan helped clean up the body parts.

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/43-43/7386-army-base-on-the-brink

[kratos00]

1. The truly depressing thing about this is that

Stories like this used to have an impact on our public discourse, but these days the right could care less or worse view any reporting on the human toll of war as left wing propaganda. Where are the preachers and pastors and priests decrying this situation and demanding a remedy? Where are the Republican politicians demanding that these soldiers get help? Where are the Democratic leaders correctly pointing out that these things are the true result of war? Instead all we will see this weekend is a bunch of fake ass patriotism which serves only to gloss over the truth.

[ensho]

3. kick

nt

[aquart]

5. Bring back the draft.

Everyone serves or no one serves. And cut off the contractor spigot.

[Little Star]

7. People with money and/or political pull did not serve when there was a draft..

A draft now will not change that. "Everyone serves or no one serves" is just a dream, imho.

I think we are better off without the draft because the draft solved nothing when we had it.

[Voice for Peace]

11. under threat of being drafted and sent to vietnam, young people rallied and fought the war

that's the only benefit of a draft but it's not a small one.

[Selatius]

17. It actually made young people more active politically. Because of it, the voting age was lowered. nt

[Voice for Peace]

20. I should have said fought AGAINST the war..

though they did fight the war as well, but most of them not happily.

[mopinko]

16. many of the privileged dodged, but a lot more served than

they do now. at least then they had to actively admit they were chickens. i think that right there is a good thing.
i have no problem with drafting women, either. the world would be a better place if every woman in this country could handle an automatic weapon. not to hurt anyone, just to know that she is not the powerless person some would make her.

[Yon_Yonson]

9. My thoughts exactly but I would rather see them pull out NOW!

[Raster]

13. I agree. It was the threat of a draft that sparked the anti-war movement.

We need the anti-war movement again. The MIC is smart, they will resist a draft at all costs: it cuts too close to home. Bring back the draft WITH NO EXEMPTIONS.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

A diagnosis of PTSD makes a soldier ineligible for deployment. So, the military fights tooth and nail to prevent that....to include claiming your PTSD had to come from some other event in your life...or you just don't have it. (even when you do) Or they claim you have some sort of adjustment disorder not related to anything from the military.

If they say you have PSTD, they have to treat you and they can't deploy you.....but if you have something else or some other cause (as they claim) then they can kick you out without getting you help....or they keep deploying you until you implode (and take others out with you)

Soldiers are being screwed over while America waves the flag and walks in parades. The only difference between screwing vets over 40 years ago and now is - America is bragging about the recent wars.

[ensho]

4. kick

nt

[barbtries]

6. the numbers are shocking.

as is the relative silence of the military and the press. end the WARS. :cry:

[LWolf]

8. "murdering their families"

I know one of those families.

:(

[babydollhead]

15. I'm sorry.

[Fly by night]

10. The same epidemic is affecting Ft. Campbell and every other base.

We read more stories of suicides/homicides (it seems weekly) here also.

One of the saddest was a story from a year or so ago about a young Navajo soldier who had been "stop-lossed" and was about to be sent on his third deployment to Iraq. He must have expressed his concerns/fears to his family and so his father traveled from the Navajo Nation to Ft. Campbell to reassure his son to accept his fate and go back overseas quietly.

The son killed his father and then killed himself.

Our military's "stop-loss" policy is killing soldiers and scarring the survivors for life. This has to stop.

[jwirr]

12. One of our friends out on the reservation in Montana came home from

Vietnam to the cheers of his tribe. For years after he would threaten suicide and cry because he had killed children in the war who looked just like his people at home. He ended up killing himself. Natives have a lot of ideal around honor and when those ideals end up tarnished in a war it is very hard for them.

[BeHereNow]

14. Browning? Blackfoot?

Just wondering for personal reasons.
BHN

[jwirr]

19. Lame Deer Montana.

[Harmony Blue]

18. Not only is this destroying families

but it is undermining our entire military. We are being deprived the future leaders, and veterans to teach the next generation, which surprisingly may force the United States to move to a more peaceful position as a result ironically. But it is still sad, that these deaths will propel the United States towards this new direction.