Fact Avoidance Disorder

What if Thursday’s atrocious slaughter at Fort Hood only signals that the worst is yet to come? ...may momentarily remind us of a reality that most Americans can readily forget: soldiers and their families are living, and bending, under a harrowing and unrelenting stress that will not let up any time soon. And the U.S. military could well be reaching a breaking point as the president decides to send more troops into Afghanistan.

...That the two wars currently being waged are taking a psychological toll on soldiers is no surprise.

Right down the list of Teh Narrative from 1968.  The only change has been in turning the soldiers from crazed “baby killers” into pathetic victims. More insulting in its infantilization of the very folks we count on to stand up and be sheepdogs.

The most egregious part is this clown’s failure to recognize that most of the tension comes from the Civilian Administration [Executive and Legislative alike] refusing to clarify a Plan for Victory.  Dithering does not create confidence on our side—just for The Enemy.

(As a psychiatrist, Hasan may have been particularly vulnerable: there have been numerous accounts of chaplains suffering from depression and PTSD after counseling returning soldiers. Hearing their horror stories, sharing their pain, and being unable to help often pushed these men over the edge. The fact that they were supposed to be healers, that they had never seen combat themselves, made it much harder to ask for help.)

You buffoonish dullard.  A professional - chaplain or psychiatrist - does not “share the pain” of their clients/patients.  And a properly trained professional has many many ways to help.  PTSD, simply put, is a natural response to too many things happening for the individual to process and put into perspective at the time.  The trauma/shock gets encapsulated so that the individual can continue to function in the circumstances.  The help comes in supporting the individual to recognize that the circumstances have changed and he now has time and space to process the events.  It’s hard work, but it is do-able.  I imagine it would be helpful to have someone who has already been successful in his own process, but it is not required.  All that is required is a trained professional who can keep his own issues well out of the way.
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...In the midst of two wars, those living as military and military family experience a different—often, more distressing—everyday experience of “normal.” And forgetting that, either in understanding this singular case, or making a decision about more deployments, is dangerous at best, and morally bankrupt at worst.

...But the situation is bad, and getting much worse. From there, it isn’t much of a leap to argue that to further tax our military would do as much as anything to guarantee that the homegrown terror on display today could well repeat itself in the future.

This wasn’t “homegrown terror:” it was an act of war.

The goal is the same as the ‘68 meme—to make regular civilians afraid of not only any effort to defend this country but of those who do the heavy lifting in that effort, the soldiers.  It was seditious bullshit then: it is seditious bullshit now.