Last week we saw yet another tragedy at Ft. Hood, Texas, as a distraught Iraq
war veteran killed three of his fellow soldiers before killing himself. It
is nearly five years after the last Ft. Hood shooting, where 13 people were
killed. These tragedies are heartbreaking and we certainly feel much sympathy
for the families of the victims.
While there is much focus on the mental illness that appears to have driven
many of these men to murder, what is left unsaid is the cause of the tragedy.
Government officials and the media only talk about the symptoms that lead to
these tragic events. They will tell us that there are people who get post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and kill themselves and others. They will all call for
more government intervention into the lives of those in the military to root
out and "treat" mental illness.
But they will never question the two causes of these tragedies: the disastrous
decade-long US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have destroyed the minds of
so many service members, and the government psychiatrists who prescribe extremely
dangerous psychotropic drugs to treat these damaged soldiers.
On the drugs, it is true that in almost every story we read about these kinds
of mass killings, whether on a military base or in a school, the kids or veterans
have been treated with these dangerous drugs. When will the medical profession
wake up and realize that these drugs are often worse than the illness they
are designed to treat?
We need to understand that the problem of veterans returning home with serious
mental illness is increasing at an alarming rate. We are not talking about
a few thousand people returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are
talking about a hundred thousand people. And according to government statistics,
about 20 percent of returning vets will suffer from PTSD, and a further 20
percent will suffer from traumatic brain injuries.
The numbers are significant and they are frightening. While some will ignore
these statistics and point out that these wars are producing far less deaths
than previous ones, the fact is these brain injuries and disorders are a living
death for the victims. And increasingly, those living in such horrific circumstances,
full of deadly drugs that are supposed to treat the problem but only make matters
worse, are striking out against those in their communities or committing suicide.
But what of the other main cause of these tragedies? What no media or government
representative will admit is that US military members are suffering horrible
mental illnesses because they have been sent over and over again into senseless
wars overseas. That is the real cause of this crisis. The real horror comes
when these soldiers return to the US to realize that the wars have not been
won and all of the suffering and dying on both sides has been in vain. Just
think of how many individuals over the last 15 years would not have suffered
death or injury -- or post-traumatic stress disorders or brain injuries --
if we didn't go to war unnecessarily!
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be winding down, but the war against
our veterans continues. Why are the people who are really guilty, those who
lied us into war, not being called to task?
Unfortunately, the truth is that these same people who lied us into war in
Iraq are still getting us involved unnecessarily overseas, in Syria, Egypt,
Libya, Ukraine. The problem, the interventionism that creates these deeply
troubled service members, continues to thrive, unpunished. And even worse:
these people continue to plan our future disasters even though they will not
suffer the fate of those they send to be broken on foreign battlefields.
We must end the aggressive wars that break our military, and end the dangerous
drugs that turn deeply-troubled victims into killers. Let's have no more Ft.
Hoods!
