Overkill

--Fit for Active Service (1916-17),
George Grosz

Why are the Americans sending
mentally unfit people to war?
--Taliban press release

--They say that I am the lord of war,
but perhaps it is you.
--I believe it's "warlord."
-- Thank you, but I prefer it my way.
--Lord of War (2005)

For days and nights they battled
the Bantu to their knees
They killed to earn their living
and to help out the Congolese
--Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,
Warren Zevon
___________________

The most common propaganda statement from the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) is that our soldiers are fighting for our freedoms. These freedoms presumably include the right of free press and the knowledge of what our troops are doing or not doing, in a general and non-sabotaging way.

After an extraordinary six-day blackout of public information by the Pentagon, Reuters and Fox News reported the name of the soldier who killed 16 civilians in Afghanistan, SSG Robert Bales.

After SSG Bales's identity was revealed on 16 March, various news outlets have tried to fill in the blanks regarding what happened. From Small Town Ohio to Afghanistan (18 Mar 12) was a good personal interest story on SSG Bales from the New York Times; Voice of America did another profile HERE and Army Times reports today that Bales's attorney says his client, now being held in Ft. Leavenworth, recalls little of shooting spree.

Bales had been diagnosed with "mild" Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and possible Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by Joint Base Lewis-McChord, "The most troubled base in the U.S. military" according to Stars and Stripes magazine. But Lewis-McChord has been accused in the past of downgrading and dismissing probable PTSD diagnoses in order to facilitate troops return to active duty. The Times also reports that during his deployments, Bales lost part of a foot

SSG Bales, 38, had been injured twice in combat over the course of four deployments, three in Iraq and the latest in the dangerous Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, long a hotbed of Taliban activity. The NYT reports the day before his killing rampage, Bales saw his buddy's leg blown off by a buried land mine. Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne, said Bales considered his current posting “'grueling,' noting that the soldiers lived in metal cargo containers."

If SSG Bales had TBI, then why was he redeployed and carrying a combat MOS with rifle attached? Are we so desperate for deployable bodies that we send people into combat with psychological problems? More than the events of the early morning of 11 Mar, Ranger questions the chain or command that would send wounded personnel back into the breach, and that without proper oversight.

At the lowest level of leadership Ranger has always stressed the "buddy system" in which every soldier has a habitual partner with whom to team up. This might have prevented a scenario such as that of SSG Bales, but it presumes that the "buddies" are sane and sound, as well. The recent Marine pissing episode and the SS banner insignia suggest a negative leadership versus a negligent leadership environment.

A core question: Why are non-elite units tasked to provide support to Special Operations Forces (SOF)? Since the advent of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and their $6 Billion unclassified budget that also funds gray and black operations, this is a serious concern.

The entire purpose of JSOC/SOCOM is to create a separate command structure for shooters and support, so why are guys like SSG Bales thrown into the mix? This problem far outstrips the actions of Bales alone.

Why was the shooter not spotted before he committed his alleged activities? The Army is a culture of violence that is restrained only with soldierly values developed over the last 500 years, values which include a respect for life. The rules of war respect these strictures and guide soldiers both in their individual and institutional lives.

However, in recent years these soldierly values have been subsumed and subverted by a lizard-brained warrior concept anchored in behaviors of distant pasts. When we institutionally convert our soldiers into warriors, why are surprised when they act as such? Massacring 16 people was a warrior event, yet we hypocritically act surprised when it happens.

The military and a collusive press and citizenry can assume responsibility for SSG Bales's murders, since "going tribal" is what warriors do.

If our soldiers are warriors than our President is a warlord, and he should rescind his Nobel Peace Prize. (The arch Republicans should enjoy the analogizing of Obama to people like Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, whom the war crimes court at The Hague recently found found guilty of using child soldiers, a charge not too far off the mark.) Warrior kings do not wear peace medallions.

Everybody in the chain of command, from the President to the FNG (fucking new guy) to the PFC (Private First Class) is a part of this travesty.

Warriorhood is a losing concept unless one is a fascist or national socialist; the term did not work very well for them, anyway. Maybe we have adopted the term warrior as a kind of overkill, cover-up label, since the since the PWOT © is not aimed at military threats, after all.

Just call me an old soldier, since I never was and never would answer to the term, warrior.