innocent iraqis

Yesterday when I blogged about the Marine being convicted of killing an Iraqi citizen, I also talked about the problems out troops are facing by being forced into these extended stays. To further that point, here is an article, published today, about a soldier being released from medical care earlier and sent back to Iraq:

A Fort Carson soldier who says he was in treatment at Cedar Springs Hospital for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse was released early and ordered to deploy to the Middle East with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

The 28-year-old specialist spent 31 days in Kuwait and was returned to Fort Carson on Dec. 31 after health care professionals in Kuwait concurred that his symptoms met criteria for bipolar disorder and "some paranoia and possible homicidal tendencies," according to e-mails obtained by a Denver newspaper.

This is a serious problem. Our military is hurting with man power, so they make idiotic decisions like this to get people back to fight. When innocent Iraqis get shot, you can't blame just the soldiers, but must look seriously at the system. The soldiers aren't getting the mental health they need, and when they do the military half asses it. With that, is there any wonder why we have soldiers killing the wrong people?

With the death of Zarqawi brings a new and interesting question - could we have helped out al Qaeda?

To help you understand this line of thinking, let's go back in the near past (h/t to Think Progress on this one):

Jordanian-born al Qaeda militant Abu Musab Zarqawi has been replaced as head of the terrorist organization in Iraq in a bid to put an Iraqi figure at the head of the group's struggle, said a leading Islamist.

But terrorism specialists were divided on whether the move represented a demotion for the figure most closely identified with a wave of suicide bombings and beheadings or a move by Zarqawi to focus his efforts on a larger regional war.

Huthayafa Azzam, whose father is seen as a political mentor of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, told reporters in Jordan over the weekend that Zarqawi, who has not made a public statement in months, was no longer the head of al Qaeda in Iraq and that his role "has been limited to military action."

Azzam, who claims close contacts with leading insurgents inside Iraq, said Zarqawi had "made many political mistakes," including kidnappings and beheadings that sparked popular revulsion and unauthorized operations outside Iraq, such as the November bombing of a Jordanian hotel.

The resistance command inside and outside Iraq, including imams, criticized [Zarqawi] and after long discussions demanded that he be confined to military action," Azzam told the Associated Press and other news outlets.