Very few members of Congress or the executive branch have served in the military, so they have no real understanding of the stress of military service, and how it can affect one’s reaction to combat conditions.
But it is Republican “chicken hawks”, and conservative talk show hosts who spout their mouth without any facts, all just to make more money and promote more hate, who have been in the lead in condemning Bowe Bergdahl.
So we have Dick Cheney and many others in the GOP, who avoided service, and talk show hosts who never considered volunteering for military service, who are now being shown up, with the revelation that Bergdahl was tortured, beaten, put in a cage, and has gone through hell in captivity with the Taliban, after wandering off the military base in Afghanistan, without a weapon or any real way to keep contact with the base.
It is clear that Bergdahl had a mental and emotional breakdown, and this can happen to anyone under stress. And now, as a result of captivity for five years, and horrible mistreatment, he has been victimized enough already, but leave it to the hypocrites to do more to destroy whatever peace of mind and sanity he might have left, at the young age of 28!
Any decent human being should denounce the Republicans and conservative talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel, as they have demontrated no common decency or concern, but simply have this compelling need to destroy a soldier who volunteered, and obviously, has suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
We should pray that this young man be given a chance to come back into American society, and his parents stop being sent death threats, and the exaggerated accounts by fellow soldiers should be taken “with a grain of salt”, as they are NOT the judge of another person’s mental stability! There is already much evidence from the New York Times that much of what fellow soldiers say is far from accurate in reality!
Hello Professor,
As I have stated, this posting and others like it, speak volumes to me and my life’s experiences. Here is another poem that was written as a means to deal with those experiences and it complements your posting greatly. This one has not been published.
Memories
Â
A soldier sleeps next to me,
In an uncomfortable chair.
We are both waiting for our flight,
To take us in the air.
Â
He has done his time and headed home,
His journey won’t be long.
I’m sitting there next to him,
In my mind I hum a song.
Â
He reminds me of myself,
Of Forty years ago.
War weary lines on his face,
Delayed stress, his new foe.
Â
Aged beyond his years,
He has seen things no one should.
He has left those who would understand,
The Band of Brother Hood.
Â
He’s supposed to start a normal life,
But he won’t remember what one is.
He will try to start where he left,
The home where his parents live.
Â
Life passed him by when he left,
Old friends have a life of their own,
Everything is gone he use to know,
He will feel lost and all alone.
Â
He will marry the first girl that he dates,
And really needs to pass.
They won’t have that much in common,
The marriage will never last.
Â
People will tell him not to do it,
But there is so much catching up to do.
For now, all their faults he will over look,
But in the divorce, he will get screwed.
Â
I almost woke him from his sleep,
I wanted to give him my best.
After a second thought I changed my mind,
Right now, what he really needs is rest.
Again, Engineer, you add so much to this blog, and I thank you for a moment of sanity and reason in the midst of so much turmoil and division and hatred, endemic to an extreme right now!
“It is clear that Bergdahl had a mental and emotional breakdown, and this can happen to anyone under stress.”
We had a sailor onboard my ship you mentally had enough and while we were in the middle of the ocean late one afternoon, tweeked out and just walked off the side of the ship. We circled around and put over a liberty launch to pick him up out of the water. As soon as we got back into port, the sent him back to the States right away. Basicly…he had more than his mind could handle anymore
I see this happening to Bergdahl.
Virginia GOP is fighting dirty in the battle over Medicaid Expansion.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/09/virginia-gop-bribes-democratic-state-senator-resign-stop-medicaid-expansion.html
Exactly, Engineer! It is a tragedy that happens much more than we realize. It is far better a scenario than to shoot up fellow soldiers or kill one’s family members. 22 military or former military kill themselves each day, and we refuse to accept mental illness as a real problem!
Southern Liberal, it is despicable what is occurring in Virginia, but in the long run, the Republican Party loses–the party of “life”, endangering the lives of 400,000 Virginians! How can they sleep at night is beyond understanding!
Hello Professor,
This latest news of the shooting in Las Vegas has just proven once again of what I have been saying, the reactionary right Tea Party is just recycled Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, John Birch Society, anti-government factions.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/09/justice/las-vegas-shooting-couple/
When i read someone making the claim and identifying themselves as Partoits on blogs such as this, I know this is a person that I warned Jack Kemp about.
Engineer, you beat me to the punch, and I was planning to write about this in the next day or so! Very troublesome!
@Southern Liberal
IMO, that Democrat that accepted the bribe is a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
” I was planning to write about this in the next day or so! Very troublesome!”
Professor…I think you still should. There are so many levels and spectrums to this story that I see many value added aspects. Didn’t “Know Nothing Davy” refer to himself as a “Patroit”?
Yet another shooting today. This time at a high school. Starting to get rather commonplace.
I assure you, Engineer, I will post tomorrow, Wednesday, exactly about this issue! Rest assured! LOL
Rustbelt Democrat, we are living through a never ending nightmare, which no other democracy has to live through, with the 10,000 or more firearms deaths annually in America. In Afghanistan, after nearly 13 years of war, the total is about 2,300, This year it is 29 in nearly six months, while about 30 per day are murdered in America! This is total insanity!