Moral Injury

--White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
(Zwerger) --
He's a little late

Forgive us now for what we've done
It started out as a bit of fun
Here, take these before we run away
The keys to the gulag

--O Children, Nick Cave

Torture is not just a matter of policy;
it is an addiction, a deadening mindset,
a point of identification, a form of moral paralysis,
a war crime, an element of the spectacle of violence,
and it must be challenged in all of its dreadful registers
--America's Addiction to Torture,
Henry Giroux

_____________________

It took until 1980 for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) to include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a diagnosis, thereby validating the recurring trauma which many returning veterans from the Vietnam War experienced. Today, "moral injury" is the new designation on the medical radar.

Surely the concept of moral injury is solid. However, Ranger takes exception with a Special Forces Lt. Col. Bill Russell Edmonds (then a Special Forces captain) who has written a book about his moral injury in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) based upon his experiences witnessing torture and in which he felt complicit.

Edmonds "volunteered for duty in an ad hoc organization, the Iraqi Assistance Group, which the United States military created to supply advisers to the nascent Iraqi military. He was sent to Iraq, given a brief training course in Baghdad and then loaded into a convoy to Mosul, where he would spend the next year on a small compound Sad­dam Hussein had called the Guest House" (God is Not Here).

Forgive me if Edmond's claim of suffering moral injury does not move me, but as an SF officer he was trained and conversant in the Geneva Conventions and the Rules of Land Warfare. He knew what he was doing, and he chose to "just follow orders."

Moral injuries are real, devastating and corrosive, and characteristically fall upon the average soldier unprepared for what he experiences. It is too much to believe that an SF Captain would go along to get along yet once safely awarded his LTC rank, finally wake up to smell the coffee. It sounds like bandwagon-hopping to this retired SF officer.

As Edmond was purportedly injured when a Captain, he was later rewarded for his transgressions as he is now an LTC. How can one be morally injured and yet still wear the beret and revel in the rank awarded you for your subservience?

Further, what was an SF trooper doing  in the bowels of an Enemy Prisoner of War (EPW) compound running amok with captured  personnel? Is this what JSOC and SOCOM hath wrought both to our Army and society?

There was a time pre-JSOC/SOCOM when interrogations were handled by military intelligence specialists and tip of the spear guys, where the rubber meets the road guys never got involved with enemy prisoners of war. Why was an SF officer performing this duty?

Clearly, the Military Intelligence types would not prostitute themselves by torturing and insisted on following the Rules of War. (At least, Ranger hopes there was an enclave of legality somewhere in this otherwise immoral war.) So, the Special Forces assumed the illegal function.

In short, the Captain insured his own moral injury by playing fast and loose with the morality of soldiering. His self-perversion earned him a promotion, retention in active duty, and a book detailing his experiences. Sorry, but this does not go down well.

Nobody ever said that SF guys were stupid.

A Modest Proposal

 --this table is not really for sale

I'm looking out for the two of us
And I hope we'll be here
When they're through with us
--Long, Long Way from Home,
Foreigner

For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;
he will not forsake thee
--Deuteronomy 4:31
 ________________________

Subtitle: For want of a table.

The trial of Eddie Lee Routh, shooter of American Sniper Chris Kyle, concluded recently with a "guilty" verdict. Sentence: Life, with no possibility of parole. “We’ve waited two years for God to get justice for us on behalf of our son,” Judy Littlefield, Chad Littlefield’s mother, told reporters after the verdict. “And as always, God has proven to be faithful.”

Littlefield's's brother piled on, calling out in the courtroom that Routh was an "American embarrassment" -- the loser, to Kyle's feted heroism.

The NYT reported, "After serving in the Marines, Mr. Routh received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis, and relatives testified that he had been suicidal and paranoid in the months before the shooting."

Surely there is nothing commendable in Routh's actions, but did he get fair consideration? He had been recently released from a Veterans Administration healthcare facility where it is reported he was taking nine different medications including Risperdal, a drug for schizophrenia -- the devil's drug if ever there was one.

Routh is reported to have told authorities that he knew "right from wrong," but he also said evil strode the earth and that he needed to do more killing.

The prosecuting attorney said that Routh could not suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as "he lacked the 'T'". Routh, a former Marine, worked behind enemy lines in a protected zone. Because he was not a shooter, the reasoning goes, he could not have PTSD. While understood that Marines aren't supposed to show anything that smacks of weakness, I feel traumatized when passing a television broadcasting violence such as he program "The Walking Dead", so perhaps trauma need not come from the muzzle of a gun.

On his way to the shooting range on the day of his killing, Kyle texted Little field that Routh was "straight-up nuts." What sort of discernment does it show to tote such a person to a live fire exercise? What was Routh's mental condition upon entering and exiting the Marine Corps? What was his diagnosis at the VA hospital? One does not just develop schizophrenia, one is born with it. Are the pickings for today's volunteer Army that slim?

If Routh's sister and mother had already reported they were afraid of him, how did Routh get on the roster for Kyle's non-profit shooting rehab program?

When we send troops to fight we know many will return suffering reintegration issues, so why is their trip home so piecemeal? Why are there mostly shooting and hunting and extreme sports type of programs for these returning veterans? Why not something like a VA creative arts campus where rehabilitation could be effected via artistic construction?

Something which allows the soldier to give voice to or transform his angst would seem a more constructive outlet. The gun is a mute tool which can only explode and cause damage. With this veteran population, the damage needs to be mitigated.

 --this one's not for sale, either

Eleanor Roosevelt developed a similar program to what we are suggesting at her Val-Kill campus in upstate New York to teach furniture making and various crafts to the unemployed of the Depression era. Why not a WPA-type program for those veterans more inclined to the visual or language arts? Why must vets poke around willy-nilly in the hopes of stumbling upon a vet-friendly program on a college campus, or something like the Combat Papermaking Project?

Why not a Veterans Administration initiative creating a woodworking campus in North Carolina, to re-create the once thriving and quality American furniture-making tradition? It's not an unreasonable thought to impart a marketable skill to a returning contingent; why should creativity be so hard?

In the past weeks I have unsuccessfully attempted to source a small, well-made small table from several outlets. The company All Modern has featured a stylish 28" square model on both the NYT and Slate's homepage, but when contacted the company admitted they did not carry the table (they would be happy to sell you the stools at $325 a pop, however.)

Next was a rustic cross-leg model featured in the recent Grandin Road catalog. No go, as it was "privately-owned" and the company explained they sometimes featured private items which complemented their stock. They admitted several people had inquired of the table before me. Why can't we get nice, American-made things if one cannot afford a bespoke item or make it oneself?

If we were an optimally-functioning society, we would take up John McCain's idea of two years of mandatory post-secondary school service in an area of one's choosing. Americorps/VISTA or Peace Corps would be as valid as joining the armed forces. Of course, the "S" word (socialism) is verboten in the United States and war is our racket, so young people must join the Armed Forces to earn their educational benefits, even if being an artist is ultimately what the soldier wishes to pursue.

But why risk the medical damage which will have to be treated on the taxpayer's dime if the enlistee would actually have preferred another line of service in the first place?

Apprenticing would be recognized as the legitimate good that it is, and needful work could be undertaken both for the good of society and of the individual. PTSD could be bypassed, and lots of meds could not be prescribed. Of course, everything is political, and following Clinton's administration his civic improvement program, AmeriCorps, was soon gutted.

Mrs. Littlefield was "elated" that Mr. Routh will be locked away for life, but is she elated that her tax dollars will be housing and feeding him for the rest of his days which will be spent doing nothing of benefit to his society? Will anything good come of this incarceration? Will he be a lesson to anybody?

Unlikely, as all sane people know that murder entails a prison sentence.

The Duke of Death

 People seldom go to the trouble of
the surface of things to find the inner truth 
--The Shop Around the Corner (1941)

Informers inform, burglars burgle,
murderers murder, lovers love 
--Breathless (1960)

The way your head works
is God's own private mystery 
--Wild at Heart (1990)
________________________

[We said we were done with American Sniper; never say "never".]

Pity that American Sniper director Clint Eastwood took the advice of Kyle's widow to omit the sniper's killing at the hands of a fellow soldier on the gun range. It would have been a Hollywood-perfect wrap and would have provided far more nuance than the final cut allowed, but Mrs. Kyle wanted the happy, if not correct ending ("This is going to be how my children remember their father, so I want you to get it right.") Presumably, she will leave out the means of Kyle's demise from her family lore, as well.

Eastwood has long explored the ideas of revenge and reconciliation. His most recent films chasten the  braggarts and he is not kind to the too-proud gunman-for-hire, the Chris Kyle's of the world.

His first foray into complexity began with The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). The protagonist Wales must reckon with his enemies, lest his life become one of relentless murder ("...the war is over. I reckon we all lost a little bit in that damn war.") A life of revenge is supplanted by one of necessary reconciliation. It was a message to a war-weary nation which did not win in another war.

In Unforgiven (1992), Eastwood's gunman William Munny returns to killing to avenge the knifing of a prostitute. The past always creeps up, and Munny cannot holster his guns for long. Despite the aging gunman's desire to leave his murderous ways, the film ends in an orgy of violence.

Instead of a simple matter of avenging one wrong, he becomes caught in a spider web requiring the final revenge killings for the killing of his friend. The viewer is left to wonder if the best that can be hoped for in this Old Testament eye for an eye world is that someone might avenge Munny's death one day.

An interesting side story in Unforgiven is that of Richard Harris's English Bob ("The Duke of Death"). He is a foreigner of vague British background who repurposes himself in the American West after writing a book embellishing his prowess in the art of killing. His bragging earns him a serious whipping by the town's sheriff (Gene Hackman), as Bob must be taken down a notch for his braggadocio.

The Duke does not realize his hypocrisy:  "A plague on you. A plague on the whole stinking lot of ya, without morals or laws. And all you whores got no laws. You got no honor. It's no wonder you all emigrated to America, because they wouldn't have you in England. You're a lot of savages, that's what you all are. A bunch of bloody savages." The irony is that English Bob is the same as "the savages", though he imagines himself otherwise.

In Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Eastwood follows the stories of the men who raised the flag at Mt. Surabatchi on Iwo Jima in World War II. The character singled out for censure is the money-grubbing Rene Gagnon, who attempts to exploit his chance appearance in Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo to raise his social and economic position . 

Eastwood's sympathy is reserved for Ira Hayes, who was unable to surmount his combat trauma and could not reckon that with the celebrity thrust upon him. Hayes died drunk in a ditch of water some years after the war and his exploitation as a U.S. Bond salesman.

His treatment of gun fighters Josey Wales, William Munny, English Bob and Gene Gagnon differ from that of Chris Kyle. Kyle is every bit the self-promoter as English Bob or Gene Gagnon, but there is no repercussion that accrues to him because of Eastwood's restricted ending.

If Eastwood had shown the death of Kyle at the hands of another soldier, he would have been consistent in his message -- the past catches up with you. Unfortunately, in his decision to omit the story's end he delivers a film lacking in his previous gravitas.

After Seal team member Robert O'Neill decided to go public about his killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (following Matt Bissonette's firsthand account of the operation in his book, "No Easy Day"), Rear Admiral Brian Losey, head of the Naval Special Warfare Command, condemned the pair's decision. He warned serving members of special operations forces that Navy leaders "will not abide willful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety and financial gain."

Director Eastwood has detracted from his oeuvre's message that braggadocio in killing is neither noble nor an action without consequence. Had he hewed to the actual storyline, he would have maintained his consistent and solid position.

--Jim and Lisa

Rethinking Resrepo, II

We say "We'll never forget" our soldiers,
but we will forget their needs 
--Ranger observation

 The tough part is, uh...
Not knowing if you're doing any good.
That's the hard part
--The Thin Red Line (1998)
 _____________________

Returning veterans from the recent wars suffer a 20-30% incidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to recent pieces in the Purple Heart and Disabled American Veterans publications. What does this signify?

It is hard to imagine that an Army which fought in Corregidor, Bataan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, Anzio, Normandy, The Bulge, Huertgen Forest or the Imjin had a PTSD rate roughly equivalent to today's (with a PTSD evacuation rate of 10%, according to most histories.) This casualty rate seems appropriate for the intense level of combat sustained by those troops.

But have troops in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) experience those levels of sustained violence? All of the battles in the PWOT were small unit actions, not sustained significant battles. So why the high PTSD rate?

The questions arises not from malice, but concern. The answer seems to devolve to the questions of legitimacy and truthfulness. Regardless of the propaganda, the troops know the Truth. They see the poverty of the people, the meaninglessness of their mission, the corruption of the host nation's government for which they and their fellows die and sacrifice.

Our soldiers are sacrificial lambs on an altar of deception. They know they are not fighting for liberty and freedom, and it is this tension which causes the long-term stress. In the documentary Restrepo it was evident in the eyes of many of the soldiers interviewed.

They know that their service will change nothing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that is the rub -- so how do they deal with this understanding?

Our society must recognize the dire loss of fitness suffered by these soldiers and citizens. Forget compassion, but on a pragmatic level alone, we should recognize that some missions are not worth the effort, and that our soldiers are not unfeeling G. I. Joe's; while they may escape physical harm, they will not escape the mental effects of warfare.

Soldiers should not live or die in vain, and when we place them in a position of futility, we are imposing that nullity upon them. Moreso than the violence it is rather the meaninglessness of the entire effort that damages their psyche. The soldiers know that their lives means less than the mission; that's what they signed up for.

But when the mission means zilch, you enter the realm of the surreal. When the rational mind meets with that, you end up with a crash-up.

Post Traumatic Society Disorder

--Net Warriors, Deng Coy Miel 

If you're in it for love, 
you ain't gonna get too far 
Watch out boy she'll chew you up
She's a maneater 
--Maneater, Hall and Oates

Temper filled with blindness
Leads this lost and lonely man
Dragged around your whipping tree
A scourge you can`t command 
--Another Bag of Bricks, Flogging Molly
 ________________

Ranger met a fellow Vietnam Army veteran last week and they discussed Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and related topics. The Marine has stayed away from the diagnosis of PTSD, but it took him over a decade to begin processing his experience of profound anxiety, nightmares and the whole constellation of related symptoms; this got Ranger thinking.

We vets get labelled with the diagnosis of PTSD when in fact we are perfectly adapted to live and survive in an environment which requires hyper-vigilance, violent instantaneous reaction and all the other related behaviors of a predator in a prey environment.  The "problem" arises when we return to the civilian world, and our finely-honed responses are deemed inappropriate.

The situation is, we (I) do not consider PTSD to be our problem, but rather a problem for members of a too-lax society which does not know how to deal with self-contained and self-sustaining individuals like us.  "Okay", you say, "so, WTF?"

Well, aside from the fact that your government is producing more of us daily, we are -- in addition to our predator sensibilities -- resentful that we are held to a standard that our own government clearly does not adhere to.  After over a decade of involvement in a Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©), we as a nation have still not fessed up to the fact that our national reactions are no longer appropriate or applicable to leading functional lives; that in fact, they never were functional. 

The events of 9-11-01 were extremely short-lived: one day of madness.  The recovery should have been implemented immediately thereafter, except a disingenuous government pumped us full of fear and kept us in a heightened state of alert. Contrast this reaction with those of a soldier who must live a tour or more of tension, something that takes more than a moment from which to recover.

We tag our vets with PTSD, yet our National policy is as aberrant or non-adaptive as is the behavior of the most afflicted vets in our midst. We do not call our government "disordered", however.

When our society partakes of maladaptive behavior we call this "an action plan"; when vets do it we call it PTSD. Maybe a new meaning for the acronym could be, "Post-Traumatic Society Disorder."

[NOTE: There will be a follow-on called, "Good Soldiering".]

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.

Lost Between the Cracks

How can I go home
And not get blown away
Ain't nobody gonna
Steal this heart away
--When the War is Over,
John Farnham

PILE the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all
--Grass, Carl Sandburg
__________________

The number of soldiers being discharged from service for having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has increased almost 40% between 2005 and 2009 (Mental Illness Costing Military Soldiers). For now, these soldiers are lost between the cracks in their psyche:

Soldiers discharged for having both a mental and a physical disability increased 174% during the past five years from 1,397 in 2005 to 3,831 in 2009, according to the statistics.

Army Lt. Col. Rebecca Porter, an Army behavioral health official, says research shows "a clear relationship between multiple deployments and increased symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD."

In addition, 150,000 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have officially been diagnosed with PTSD; however, the number may be as high as 300,000. The perceived stigma attached to the diagnosis has kept many soldiers from seeking help, medical professionals say (PTSD: New Regs Will Make it Easier for Vets to Get Help.)

A recent study on violent dreams "frequently involve episodes in which an attacker must be fought off" shows a connection with later onset of mental illness, including Alzheimers (Violent Illness May Predict Illness in Advance.) While the study did not target PTSD patients, such violent/acting out dreams are a frequent symptom of the disorder. The implications are depressing.

It is quite simple: If our soldiers are exposed to long-term combat stress associated with stressful deployments while working for stressful organizations, then we must expect a great influx of PTSD cases. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the onset of clinical PTSD -- chronic and severe variety -- is often long-deferred, known to erupt decades after the precipitating events. So if the stats are trending up now, strap down your gear and tighten your helmet, for they will get worse as time goes on, even were the wars to stop today (which they will not.)

These men and women will be or are your co-workers, spouses and early responders. The ramifications of the damage wrought by the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) will ripple out for decades and generations. There is no tidy package in which to tie it up or armistice to hide behind for those who suffer war's lingering impact.

Sandburg wrote about the grass which would inexorably cover the earth's scars, but many humans will not regenerate so easily. Their grass is often a hard carapace of indifference or hostility -- a callous developed to protect the raw meat of the brain.

War does not end when the war is over.