Posterboy for a Meltdown


From Schroeder, this WaPo story coincidentally focuses on Pvt. Steven D. Green...who is now under indictment for raping and murdering an Iraqi CHILD (not, as the press here says, a "woman")and her family.

Subsequent to Green's indictment, we have yet another alleged crime...that we know of (and lord only knows how many we DON'T know about).

"I came over here because I wanted to kill people."

Over a mess-tent dinner of turkey cutlets, the bony-faced 21-year-old private from West Texas looked right at me as he talked about killing Iraqis with casual indifference. It was February, and we were at his small patrol base about 20 miles south of Baghdad. "The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' "

He shrugged.

"I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," he went on. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.' "

At the time, the soldier's matter-of-fact manner struck me chiefly as a rare example of honesty. I was on a nine-month assignment as an embedded reporter in Iraq, spending much of my time with grunts like him -- mostly young (and immature) small-town kids who sign up for a job as killers, lured by some gut-level desire for excitement and adventure. This was not the first group I had run into that was full of young men who shared a dark sense of humor and were clearly desensitized to death. I thought this soldier was just one of the exceptions who wasn't afraid to say what he really thought, a frank and reflective kid, a sort of Holden Caulfield in a war zone.

But the private was Steven D. Green.

If you've got the time, read the entire article. You'll get a taste of Pvt. Green's own patch of hell in Iraq--which doesn't excuse his actions whatsoever, by the way. But then think about all the soldiers we've exposed to this sort of physical and psychological trauma. Amazingly, MOST, indeed, ALMOST ALL, will manage to deal with this sort of trauma without incident--ok, without overt incident. However, some--like Private Green--allegedly snap. They are the statistical anomalies--but this isn't a sterile mathematical universe. These "anomalies" can cause horrific pain and suffering.

And not just over in Iraq. I've mentioned this before, but once again, I'll repeat: I think the odds of Bush's petulant, stupid war of choice producing another Tim McVeigh or John Allen Mohammed are, sadly, quite good. Worse, the odds are even BETTER that we'll see some Iraqi war veterans "go postal," just as we saw some from a previous generation--Vietnam veterans--do the same. Oh--and this administration isn't even TRYING to mitigate this possibility.

That's just plain nuts. But then again, what do you expect from this administration?