The debate continues as to whether the U.S. soldier accused of killing afghan civilians may be suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales may have experienced too much war when he went on a shooting rampage that left 16 Afghan civilians murdered.
Can we send people into war repeatedly? Can we send them back after being wounded? Can we really expect that someone can witness the horrors and tragedy of warfare and not be permanently changed in some way? After four deployments in ten years and twice being wounded, what can and should we expect that a human being can handle?
I'm not condoning the action, but it just so happens that my latest novel (not yet out) Lapse of Humanity deals exactly with this issue. Society creates warriors, sends them to war (sometimes repeatedly) and then "we" can't integrate them back into civilian life. This is a tragedy for everyone involved. Prosecuting the individual will not fix this issue. The system needs fixing.
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