eleven bravo wrote:
some people should never have been in combat.
This.
I buried more friends in the last two years of high school, than I did in 8 years of military.
Getting a Top Secret+ security clearance, the investigators can do a pretty thorough job of combing through your past, your personality, and your moral/ethical makeup. Large expenditure of manhours and money to get someone a TS+ clearance.
A similar level of rigor should be applied to personality screening of dedicated front-line infantry units (11B, Ranger, etc), but it is not.
SF, SEALs, and other SOCOM units get that level of personality screening, as part of initial assessment training and security clearance process. The line grunts do not. This is a disservice to them.
**
Part of the problem is generational, I think. Too many of the young men in the military now are of two fragile narcissistic personality types.
(Note: these are the problem children at the bookends of the group,
not the majority of the personnel)
One, is the coddled mama's boy, who joined the Army after playing a few too many rounds of MW2, and who has been overly sheltered, told he was unique and special, and generally given a narcissistic sheltered worldview. The civilian world would be enough of a shock to the system for such a kid. The experiences of a war zone are going to completely overwhelm his ability to keep things in perspective, cope with events, and generally keep his head screwed on straight.
Two, is the borderline personality, with no sense of limits, no sense of empathy, and no concern for other people. Could be former gangbangers, could be whitebread middle class brats who were never taught respect for others. If they see a warzone as acceptable behavior, and get a "kick" out of it, they
are going to bring that home - they truly do
not give a damn about anyone or anything.
Too many brats with no moral compass, no empathy for others, and so oversheltered throughout their lives that they have absolutely
no capacity to deal with real adversity. This is what we are growing, here under the American bubble of our Walmart/McDonalds dreamland. And anyone is surprised when these children come back looking like toys run over by a tank?
**
A personal pet theory;
When one is under sleep deprivation, exacerbated by the effects of sleeping pills, antidepressants, and other psychotropic drugs - you're in a semi-hypnotic state, your mental defenses aren't completely there, and any jarringly tragic event is going to stick deeper in your mind, without the benefit of your more conscious mind's perspective and filtering. In other words, wandering around a battlefield in a semi-hypnotic state is
not good for one's long term mental health. Shit
will get stuck in your head like that. Like a song stuck in your head, or a hypnotic suggestion, but nasty nightmarish horrible shit that pulls at you in a personal way.
When a person is well rested, completely awake, and has a stable personality - they are much more "grounded", and a tragic event is going to be easier for them to keep in perspective.
When one is overtired, uncertain, on psychotropic drugs, their normal perspective isn't there. They're running around "half zombied", operating on "training" and "muscle memory". They are thinking, yes - but their normal mental barriers aren't completely up. They just "compartmentalize" those horrific scenes, where they
can (but not always do) resurface later as PTSD or flashbacks or 'twitches'. There just isn't time to ponder topics like 'life, death, killing, war, morality, justice' when someone is trying to kill you.
There are,
in my opinion, a few key traits needed for a healthy soldier (or medical civilians)
- In an emergency, "Do what needs to be done right now. Twitch, cry, grieve, drink, shake, smoke later." Don't forget the later
- Think about what you may have to do long before you do it. After you pull the trigger, and you can't take it back, is not the time to be asking "God, what have I done?". Mo-tard hoorah brainwashing may get someone to pull a trigger - but it won't keep their head on straight if they have no real perspective.
- Need to be rational, well grounded, stable personalities. Kind of people that adversity just "rolls off their backs, like water off a duck". Not the psychotic sociopaths that have no perception of morality or ethics.
- Need to be capable of dialing up the violence when needed, and the self-control to stick within orders or ROE. Well trained guard dog Rottweilers, not slobbering crazy pit dogs.
- Perspective. Always keep perspective. If you can't get perspective on something, keep working on it. Some shit doesn't have a Why, and has to be filed under It Just Is. Don't have to like it, but have to accept it to keep your sanity.The whole "grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference" mantra.
11 Bravo wrote:
the bad apples used war as an excuse to act like the retards they are.
And this.
Always the broken people that look at wars as an excuse to go somewhere where they
think their sociopathic fantasies can be fulfilled without anyone noticing.