War Crimes

LMAO thats me @11:33-11:45!!! the tall ass dude!!!! WTF thats crazy

Excellent - extremely moving as well as disturbing. Thank you.

If I were to cite this in a research paper I am working on, would I cite it as if it were a website, or is there a separate way? Anybody familiar with MLA?

the unseen cost of war... it's hard to watch

In what way have I implied a sense of apathy? If I were apathetic, I'd say nothing when hired killers like flannaphil indulge in the sort of demands for respect that people like him have been brainwashed to base their personal worth upon.

Soldiers and the blind patriots who enable them are the antithesis of humanity. And to base an entire documentary on this group of criminals rather than the victims of their crimes is offensive.

As for your questions - I probably ignored them because they were little more than irrelevant diversions.

Just because I have a developed philsophy which is far beyond that which low level people like you can understand, it doesn't mean I'm a troll.

You're the troll in fact. You are only posting here to insult me, yet it's like having a 'fight' with a 3 year old kid. You just don't have the reach. You should be embarassed, but you don't have the self-awareness to realise when you should stop. A bit like the bastard US Military in microcosm.

How pathetically ironic.

I see that flannaphil has removed his foolish posts. He must have woken up to himself.

You took a job where killing was the ultimate aim. And now you're just a whinging self-important oaf who thinks they deserve special treatment just because you were deluded enough to think that being a pawn for your government and corporate leaders would make you worthy.

You deserve nothing BUT apathy at the very most. Personally I only have contempt for you and all others like you. And if you're wondering, I'd tell you that to your cry-baby whinging face.

You poor little thug.

I support the hired killers, rapists, torturers and thugs? Yes, you can see that by the way I treat with the contempt they deserve, right?. I don't just blame the politicians for wars - I blame the degenerates who pull the triggers and those other degenerates who enable them.

The only concern I have is for their victims.

"people who send us out to kill innocent people instead of defend our country." Who is this 'us' that you're talking about if you're not one of the hired thugs? Do you actually ally yourself with soldiers as being normal citizens or something equally ludicrous?

Soldiers are hired thugs and killers. Soldiers use rape as a weapon of war. Soldiers torture innocent minors. They should never be allowed back into normal society as they are dangerous degenerates.

Are you a hired killer, donkey? Or are you saying that you don't have the freedom to choose whether or not to kill? You murder supporting maniacs are a constant source of wonder with your cries of 'it's not our fault, it's our government which makes us do it'. Hired killers should be kept away from normal members of society - this isn't rocket science.

I'm not American, donkey. Expand your horizons.

As for your insults, that's what I expect from those who put patriotism before humanity.

I'm not trolling, I'm telling the truth - soldiers are trained killers and should not be allowed within normal society. The fact you think I'm trolling suggests that you think you're normal. You're not. You're a hired thug.

I couldn't care less about these hired killers. It's their victims I care about. There are MILLIONS of people in Iraq suffering from the effects of these murderers who are considered 'heroes' by far too many.

Soldiers should be treated as criminals and kept away from normal society at ALL times.

I was diagnosed with PTSD after my long Iraq tour as an Infantryman.Often the overwhelming feeling is that the public doesn't care. They won't understand. They will point fingers at you and criticize you for doing the right thing in such circumstances. Many of us feel very alienated when we come home.

I met jessie through myspace..He was the sweetest guy ever..and he was a very strong Christian man..He IS a very Strong Christian man..I dont have anything negative to say about Jessie..

There needs to be a process to "de-program" these soldiers and prepare them for homelife. We know GIs who served in Iraq who couldn't attend the recent 4th of July festivities because the sound of fireworks triggered their PTSD.

Thank you for your story on this. Makes me wonder...

In 1970 I did a paper as part of a masters degree program in Bio-medical Engineering on Calcium. One of papers that a read during my research was on World War I solders who had been found guilty of desertion were found to have very low body pH. The symptoms that they had were the same as PTSD. They were placed on calcium tablets and their died monitored until their pH level was above 7.0. Every solder in the program went back to the battlefield and many received metals for bravery. This generation of solders have been exposed to the harmful effects of carbonated beverages to they are more likely to suffer from these types of mental illness.

When i was in high school I lived on a military base. I took part in a program designed to help our men and women without actualy addressing the fact that they had PTSD. One day a soldier snaped and attacked one of the voluntiers and kept screaming about her having a bomb. he didn't cause her any actual damage but she was scared shitless. Shortly after that incident the program was cancelled and none of us ever found out what happened to him. These are real problems, and thankfully some people are finnaly paying attention

This is very relevant story . Well done Current !

Nafsidan,
I have been trained to diagnose mental disorders, and although I have not worked with veterans, I have worked with many trauma survivors. I thought they did a good job creating awareness of at least some key issues. As for the emotional "exploitation," those of us who advocate for people in need have had to come to terms with the fact that people generally need an emotional connection in order to remember information and act on it. Neurobiologically, it's how we are hard-wired... our emotional (limbic system) brain has many more connections going up to the "thinker" cortex, than there is going down from our thinker into our emotional system... In other words, the emotional system is the engine of the human brain, and a big motivator for behavior.

It sounds like you also have some information to share with our community. Instead of ripping on the program outright, would you please add to the conversation by posting what you think they left out, or how they misled the public in this particular program?

Not one person interviewed in this documentary is a licensed professional capable of diagnosing or treating PTSD, and this documentary reeks of the same ignorance about the condition that it accuses the public, the Army, and the VA of having. PTSD is a very emotionally charged subject, and Vanguard once again is exploiting people's stories and the ignorance of its viewers in the guise of journalism. Vanguard is not journalism, but rather it is infotainment.

Oh my so so sad. How can a mother help! I thank God everyday my son didn't come out of the Marines with this to deal with.

With an annual budget of 600 billion dollars I wonder how much of that goes to weaponry and how much to wound treatment (including PTSD)?

I'm guessing not nearly as much for PTSD as they're spending to buy bunker busters, predator drones, and MOABs...

As with Dejan, I'm always thankful for the stories that the Vanguard team covers precisely because they are often stories not on my radar. I knew PTSD was an issue, but I had no idea the extent at which it has become a problem with Afghanistan/Iraq vets.

Another great one Vanguard. Well done.

Interesting report, though I was disappointed at the air of sympathy shown. The condition has been known and understood for decades, so there's absolutely no excuse for any soldier/anciilary to be unaware of the risks they face.

We have soldiers killing, when they get back and to make it worse they kill innocent civilians in Iraq & Afghanistan. The rich will never be in war because they use the naive poor people to do the dirty work for them.

Religion a tool used to keep the common man quite once said by Napoleon Bonaparte. We have promises of a better after life however in the current life the poor keep getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer.

When will people see these rich cocksuckers don't give a fuck about us. Quoated by the late and great George Carlin!

I thank Current-Vanguard a lot for this reporting. The reason i really appreciate this website and the whole current management is the fact that they bring attention to stories that haven't had any attention.

So thank you so much CURRENT!!!

P.S please do not let the MTV workers mess up Current

Thank you
-Dejan

Thank you so much for this reporting. VERY necessary for all of us to be looking for these symptoms EARLY and advocating with our soldier neighbors, family and friends to view PTSD, brain-injury, and other impacts to mental wellness AS EQUAL TO PHYSICAL INJURIES.

You don't get PTSD because you are sick or bad or weak. You get it because you are human. It's a result of our hard-wired, biological responses to extreme stress, which are designed to keep us safe.

Tell everyone you know who is or knows a soldier... THERE ARE CUTTING EDGE TREATMENTS THAT ARE VERY EFFECTIVE: EMDR, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, and others. Some of them don't even require disclosure of event details, for those who can't yet or wish to never tell what really happened to them. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER!

Note to families and friends. If you can't get them to get help, enlist their combat buddies, often a very special bond. They may do things for their buddies they will not do for themselves.