Wartime Casualties At Home

from a dairy today at daily kos:

What follows is a partial list of reports on stateside violence related to PTSD. The aim here is to shine a sliver of light on yet another burden placed on our society by the inept and destructive policies of the Bush Administration.

• September 19, 2005 - 2 charges of theft, burglary, and assault
  Attempting to steal hogs from an Iowa farm, two recently returned (and soon to be redeployed) Iraqi veterans -- one 21, the other 23 years old -- based out of Fort Riley, SD and part of Company-B of the 101st Forward Support Battalion of the First Brigade, First Infantry Division severly beat two 52 year old farmers who'd caught them in the act. After beating them, the soldiers tied them to a fence; the victims were being treated for injuries that included a broken arm, skull fractures, cuts, broken facial bones and bruised eyes. [AP: Soldiers Arrested in Farmer Beating]
  
  
• September 16, 2005 - 1 kidnapping, robbery, and rape
  A 25 year old Army Sergeant (unclear if a combat veteran from this report) based at Fort Campbell, TN kidnapped his former girlfriend at gunpoint, forced her to drive to an ATM to withdraw money, and then returned to her home to rape her. After being placed under house arrest at the base, he stole a vehicle and left the post. He was later arrested. [WTVF: Fort Campbell Soldier Arrested; Charged with Kidnapping, Robbery and Rape]

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i can't help but notice how many wives and girlfriends pay the price for war-related PTSD. atrios recently encountered a recently returned soldier suffering from probable PTSD. susie madrak also wrote about a scary encounter with a messed up iraq war veteran.

and in honor of battlestar galactica's gut-wrenching abu ghraib allegory, i offer up an additional article, via susie madrak just so all you "Amurka, Fuck Yeah!" assholes can get an idea of what price iraqi women are paying for your narcissistic, vicarious pursuit of 'National Greatness.' fuck you. fuck you all:

The guys I was with, this time in “C” company had captured a girl that was about seventeen I guess and [they] raped her for two nights and beat her and then took her outside and told her to run and she wouldn’t run so they threw a grenade at her feet. She just covered her eyes and put the other arm across her chest and the grenade blew one leg off and shredded the other one but she wasn’t dead yet so two guys shot her to finish her off. I took off walking to the American base that wasn’t very far away to report these crimes the first time.

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