January 12, 2008 /

The Perils of War

While the right pounds their chests and and has their little wargasms, it’s easy to forget that war actually has consequences he New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those […]

While the right pounds their chests and and has their little wargasms, it’s easy to forget that war actually has consequences

he New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

This is a very long article by the New York Times, but one that merits a good reading. Sadly the ones who really need to read it are the same ones wanting even more war.

More IntoxiNation

Comments