Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I believe that one thing that has to happen to fix is is better mental health support for the soldiers in the field. And also far better training of NCO's and officers, and breaking the wheel of the concept of band of brother hood when it comes to how to report these actions.
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I agree. But here's the problem, especially as it pertains to USA SOF:
The screening for admittance to the SOF world generally works. They're good guys when they get in. But, five, six, seven, eight, ten, 15 deployments later, it is another story. They could do continuous screening, but if command made everyone with PTSD/TBI stand down for treatment, these units could not deploy. This is an important aspect of the conversation about SOF units committing war crimes. Selection works, but the units fail these guys. Can you even imagine commanders telling higher that they are non-deployable because of mental health issues? That will never happen.
It's really, really easy to start dehumanizing the enemy after a few tours, and it's really easy to dehumanize them after they've killed several of your friends. Obviously, there's no excuse for killing for sport, but it's gotta be tough to reign it in as an operator of that ilk.
But, it has to stop. A country can’t ask the same volunteers to fight these wars disconnected from the political will and manpower of the nation. If we don’t have that, maybe it’s time to stop fighting. It's a complex issue for sure, but the politicians are failing these men and their families.
Look at the resistance Trump receives when he wants to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. "Premature" they say. FFS, it's into the 20th year now. There's nothing premature about it.