Battle fatigue

Same shot, different day. | Photo liberated from the BBC.

This Atlantic article from Phil “Redeployment” Klay about the effects of endless war on U.S. troops seems especially pertinent in light of this evening’s news regarding Syria.

This entry was posted on April 13, 2018 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Bad news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Battle fatigue”

Pat O'Brien Says:
April 13, 2018 at 8:55 pm | Reply
Shit. Damn chicken hawks at it again.
khal spencer Says:
April 13, 2018 at 10:10 pm | Reply
I just don’t get the impression that these people know what the fuck the big picture is.
- David Rees Says:
  April 13, 2018 at 10:19 pm | Reply
  Understatement of the week, maybe the month, quite possibly the year.
larryatcycleitalia Says:
April 14, 2018 at 1:06 am | Reply
As the Comey stuff came out it was hard not to begin the countdown for when Orange Hitler would lash out with more than lame tweets. So will this episode of “your tax dollars at work” do any more than the last one launched by Cadet Bone Spurs?
Gawd help us all–Morons Are Governing America.
Patrick O'Grady Says:
April 14, 2018 at 6:38 am | Reply
Whenever I see this sort of barroom braggadocio writ large I think back to a moment from Michael Herr’s “Dispatches.”

Herr, Sean Flynn and Tim Page were somewhere in Vietnam chatting up the grunts when the CO choppered in. Writes Herr:

At one lz the brigade chopper came in with a real foxtail hanging off the aerial, when the commander walked by us he almost took an infarction.

“Don’t you men salute officers?”

“We’re not men,” Page said. “We’re correspondents.”

When the commander heard that, he wanted to throw a spontaneous operation for us, crank up the whole brigade and get some people killed. We had to get out on the next chopper to keep him from going ahead with it, amazing what some of them would do for a little ink.
- Pat O'Brien Says:
  April 14, 2018 at 7:41 am | Reply
  Authorization For Use of Military Force. That’s the blank check the presidents use for all of this insanity. Once again, I blame congress.
  
  But, the economy of Tucson could use a little boost. Shoot those Tomahawks Mr. Dumpster, Raytheon will build you more.
  - khal spencer Says:
    April 14, 2018 at 8:15 am | Reply
    Since 2005, we in BombTowne are officially part of the military-industrial bombs for profits complex. So I guess I should be cheering this shit on. But as O’Brien says, where is Congress to do its job according to the Constitution? You know, that document that our last few presidents use for toilet paper?
  - Patrick O'Grady Says:
    April 14, 2018 at 8:22 am | Reply
    Charlie Savage at the NYT has a good explainer on the legality of the strike. Basically it boils down to “You could take all of the balls you find in Congress, put ’em in a thimble, and still have room for your thumb.”
    - Pat O'Brien Says:
      April 14, 2018 at 10:52 am | Reply
      Patrick, thanks for that link. The AUMF probably did not apply to that strike; it only applies to the poor 2000 service members deployed to that “shit hole country.” Must be a shit hole if Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, and the good ole USA can go there and totally fuck it up with impunity. War is peace.