Americans start feeling the consequences as our troops return home...

[LynnTheDem]

You guys just don't wanna even know about what's happening here around Ft Hood Texas. Just this past week a soldier was caught molesting a little girl in a janitor's closet in a grade school. He just returned from Iraq.

We've had several murders, kidnappings, armed robberies, and a slew of rapes, gang-rapes, and spouse beatings.

Wait until the current bunch in Iraq now get back.

And what really concerns me...a whole lot of our domestic POLICE are also National Guard and Reservists...who have been, who currently are, or who will be serving in Iraq. Some of whom who were/are part of units implicated in rapes, murder, torture, abuse of Iraqi men, women & kids. All of whom are as likely to siffer from PTSD as any other soldier.

But these NG/R troops come home to their civilian job, dealing with the American public. As police officers. With guns. And power. And tasers.

Considering that the US military itself believes at least 1 in 3 soldiers are/will be suffering PTSD and that includes soldiers who return to their civilian jobs as police, I suspect the general American public is going to start feeling the consequences of placing people for long periods in brutal situations.

[mhr]

1. Ah Yes, But Rush Limbaugh Has Conditioned Americans Not To Care

Have faith in baby Jesus and the Republican party and all will be OK.

Besides, the rapture will come soon with Bush in charge so who cares?

/sarcasm off/

[Hissyspit]

2. Lynn, can you find a news article about the molestation case to post?

My students here at Fort Bragg: Do hear the rumblings from them about the war, especially complaints from the Army wives (haven't heard anything from male spouses). An amputee walked by me in the CRV drug store the other day. I stepped out of his way so that he could get through the aisle and said 'excuse me.' What I really wanted to do was start cursing George Bush outloud and scream about lies and manipulation.

[LynnTheDem]

11. On the local radio news, but no idea if elsewhere. Wait, found it....

I find out about them all because my hubby is one of several officers who are often assigned to prisoner escort duty.

OK I found it...it was a bathroom, not janitor's closet.

First Cav Soldier Charged With Touching Young Girl
(03/10/2005)

A First Cav soldier from Fort Hood is arrested and charged with indecency with a child after having sexual contact with a 7-year-old girl.

22 year old Specialist Michael Andrea Larkin, Jr. was arrested just before 2 last night on post by Copperas Cove police with the help of the Provost Marshall and the Armys Criminal Investigation Unit.

Larkin allegedly entered the Halstead Elementary School in Copperas Cove unnoticed yesterday around 2-thirty. According to a 2nd grader he touched her inappropriately in the bathroom.

Cove police say it was thanks to her quick action that led to the arrest. The young student told her teacher what had happened and the investigation began. Michael Larkin is being held on 20-thousand dollars bond for the indecency with a child charge and 20-thousand dollars more for an attempted aggravated kidnapping charge.

http://www.kxxv.com/main.cfm?ID=1&NewsID=1641&Type=Full

[LynnTheDem]

12. And another soldier charged w indecency w a child. 2 within 2 days.

The day before the school bathroom incident.

Local soldier faces indecency/child porn charges
— (03/09/2005)

A Fort Hood soldier faces charges of indecency with a child and posession of child porn.

A Fort Hood soldier faces charges of indecency with a child and posession of child porn.

Army Specialist, Rene Albeiro Droin, was initially arrested on indecency charges, for allegedly fondling his girlfriend's 7 year old daughter.

But during his arrest, investigators found a child porn movie on his military issue laptop computer.

Investigators believe Droin also showed the video to the child.

Bond has been set at $80,000.

http://www.kxxv.com/main.cfm?ID=1&NewsID=1633&Type=Full

[Hissyspit]

13. Great. Thanks! Sorry to be so demanding! I can always do google...

searches myself, but I'm multi-tasking, too.

[LynnTheDem]

14. No problem! :)

Usually I look for links to back up my remarks first before I post, I was just being lazy myself, lol!

[John_Shadows_1]

20. And where do you think he picked up that habit?

He's probably been getting away with it in Iraq.

[Hissyspit]

3. Self-Deleted Dupe

[rodeodance]

4. yes, your are right. We only hear about the tip of the iceberg of what

actully goes on over there.

[HockeyMom]

5. Record number of suicides

That's been downplayed too.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Wow

I agree. I'm sure it'll be worse once a lot of them come home after being over there through all that. Of course the Bush administration doesn't care about any of this going on. They'll "leave it up to the states" or some nonesense like that. Nobody will put two and two together.

[JohnnyRingo]

6. I remember after Gulf War I witnessing a couple bar fights involving vets

of that action. Nothing serious, but it was obvious that the instincts of combat can be lingering for some.
It happens every war I think, when we face a re-introduction period.

I hope the Pentagon steps up to the plate with counciling and de-programming to help make the transition easier.

I won't hold my breath

[FreedomAngel82]

16. I remember

late last year reading how the Pentagon was going to start up a PTSD program for soliders who come back and are having trouble and they'll also have a counseling for couples. Only thing I wonder: will they really use this program (which I bet is funded by US citizens)?

[AutumnMist]

7. War Leads Many To Depression and Trauma

these men and women come home shattered. Not all of them mind you, but many. Will we welcome them home with open arms? Can we embrace them when they are missing limbs and their once strong minds can no longer function? Lets get out there. Lets really embrace those who paid a price for the Bush plan. Go to your local Veteran Halls and help them. Help their families. As a side note: I know many soldiers coming home suffer from PT SD. But sexual abuse may be something they took with them, not something they came back with. Maybe we should give these soldiers a safe, healing place to move forward. I think all sexual predators (who don't reform accordingly) need to be kept away from all children...abroad or at home. But there are just as many people that don't hurt others who have suffered through trauma and distress. Lets try to help them. And not let those lost in the Bush regime just a headline.

[Selatius]

8. This is part of the costs of war

People can only point to the number of dead soldiers and the number of wounded/crippled coming back, but it's much more difficult to guage the mental and emotional toll war has on veterans. It's an insidious cost, and sometimes the wounds don't show up until years after the fighting has ended.

With Vietnam veterans, they were far more likely to suffer from things such as drug abuse, alcoholism, suicide, depression, incarceration, poverty, and unemployment. Something like one out of every four homeless people is a veteran, and most of them are Vietnam veterans. For them, the war never ended.

[stellanoir]

9. Two names. . .

Timothy McVeigh and John Allen Mohammed were both veterens of Desert Storm. That conflict only lasted for two months.

What we have done to these droves of kids is unimaginable to me and I fear that the repercussions will last for decades, here and abroad.

Pray for peace at least.

[K-W]

10. The military-police connection is going to become a real issue.

If we dont straighten things out in this country.

Police forces, the FBI, the ATF, they all recruit military people on top of being popular places for military people and a good job for reservists and guardsman.

[John_Shadows_1]

21. Dude, the worst part is when we start seeing them .....

... in the malls and airports, out on the sidewalk in their wheelchairs or with their seeing-eye dogs (if they can afford them). They're going to have tin cups or whatever, and no legs or eyes, with some sign saying they were war vets. Begging.

And George Bush isn't going to be anwhere in sight - he'll be at some golf course, with a slew of people around him, insulated against the consequences of his actions, the same way he is now.

[LynnTheDem]

23. He doesn't care. The man has no soul.

No empathy whatsoever. Sociopath.

[pretzel4gore]

17. unspoken thoughts....

if an older generation thought vietnam was an unfair fight between david (the 'cong) and goliath (the usa) then imagine what these guys will be feeling when it emerges that the fix was in and all that killing was in vain....during vietnam, both china and russia were actively waging cold war against usa, now it's probable that much of the iraqi high command was in the pay of usa/britain and the resitance was/is just that; a vastly outnumbered, outgunned and desperate resistance to overwhelming injustice...

[hootinholler]

18. Hmm. There's nothing special about Hood.

We should see this as a pattern around all bases with returning troops. It needs to be documented so we can fight for treatment for these guys.

-Hoot

[LynnTheDem]

24. Largest base but otehrwise you're right, and Bragg is having even more

problems. All the bases are. I only know Hood problems because we're at Hood; the media isn't being overly concerned with mentioning the problems with returned troops.

[hootinholler]

27. the media isn't being overly concerned

Now there's an understatement.

Is anyone documenting these cases for future reference?

-Hoot

[Generic Guy]

19. That is just disgusting.

I don't know if it is this unjust war that is causing this or not.

[Karenina]

22. You GET what you pay for.

:shrug:

[LynnTheDem]

25. Yes. There are always bad people mixed in with the troops, war or no,

and Hood had problems with rape etc before Iraq, but not even close to what we're seeing now.

The biggest change now are the soldier gangs. We're seeing gang-rapes and gang armed robberies. I can't recall any such prior to Iraq. Or not on the scale we're seeing now.

When people are put into extremely brutal situations, when people kill other people, it's damned difficult to come home & put it all away. That and the troops come home & everyone acts like nothing has happened...because to them, nothing has. The world has just carried on as per normal, and the soldiers will never be part of that "normal" world again.

[Deja Q]

26. Add to that those turned to crime because of the loss of their livelihoods

and the banks' activities, corporate activities, unethical and immoral government (D's and R's), how many parents seem to not know how to raise their children to be civilized, how most people 25 or under countinue to be uneducated, and so on and so on and so on...

never mind peak oil.

America is PLUMMETING to its own end. :cry:

[jazzjunkysue]

28. I think that's why they don't let them come back. cover up.