[Vision2020] vets and PTSD

[J Ford]

Mr. Reynolds:

As a vet, a Vietnam Vet, I was never trained to drop or sacrifice my love or 
respect of life and exchange it for a view that a life, any life, in front 
of me not of my unit was expendable.  Despite what you or others believe, we 
were never taught to go in and kill, kill, kill.  Rather, we were told to 
shoot ONLY when necessary and ONLY at those posing a threat to the unit or 
ourselves.

I am not sure where you have picked up your opinions about the training that 
the military does, but I can tell you from personal experience, it is 
NOTHING what you present it to be.  Nothing!

PTSD is not a military-only disorder - many, many rape victims, child abuse 
victims, spousal-abuse victims, and people who have lost someone close 
(family member or friend) also suffer from this disorder.  There is a 
greater number of incidents of those type of situations producing 
gun-weilding reactionaries than the personnel coming back from in-country 
action.

Do I support the action in Iraq - no.  But, I have, do and will always 
support our troops, some of which are members of my immediate family and 
circle of friends.  And I certainly will not look at them as potential "News 
at 11" stories of violent reaction to the war when they return.

One other note:  This country does NOT train "children" - we train young 
adults.


J  :]




>From: "James Reynolds" <chapandmaize at hotmail.com>
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] vets and PTSD
>Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:01:57 -0800
>
>The article Mr. Hansen posted this morning concerning Post Traumatic Stress 
>Disorder should open our eyes to the full impact of what military actions 
>entail. A front line soldier coming back to try and fit into society gets 
>the headlines but he is only a small part of the entire tragedy. There are 
>no clear cut fixes for PTSD because there has been a fundamental shift in 
>how that soldier fits into society. He has undergone training and 
>situations that have reduced the fundamental sacred nature of life to its 
>biological simplicity and the soldier's own life as worthless.
>
>If a child goes through infantry training it is taught that it is no better 
>than a bug and that its life is forfeit to the country. Our own boys and 
>girls become expendable objects for our Commander-in-Chief to do with as he 
>pleases. This training and the final mindset is mandatory for a good army.
>
>If we add the fact that the current war (as Vietnam) has no clear 
>justification, no clear enemy, and no clear victories what we end up 
>bringing home are many, many, many messed up young people.
>
>We have to put ourselves in the boots of our young soldiers. We need to 
>think about ourselves being trained to understand our lives are nothing; 
>put ourselves into a foreign land surrounded by our potential killer every 
>minute. We have to make the greatest effort to give these young people 
>their humanity back.
>
>A non-justified war means nothing more than a sentence of death or the loss 
>of humanity to our children without any benefit to the Nation. How can 
>anyone support such a war? What is our nation becoming? We allow our 
>children to be sent to death or destruction on the words of liars and by 
>the deceptions of war profiteers and then allow these same maggots to take 
>our money from the treasury to line their pockets while declining to allow 
>the best care for our young soldiers when they come back to us.
>
>As was said...The drum beat goes on...
>
>James Reynolds
>
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