The week’s reading, straight off the razor wire:
—Ah, the old “Old West” analogy. Would that it were accurate, and we could just hang you, you fucking idiot.
The week’s reading, straight off the razor wire:
From the NY Times:
PURPLE HEART IS RULED OUT FOR TRAUMATIC STRESS
The Pentagon has decided that it will not award the Purple Heart, the hallowed medal given to those wounded or killed by enemy action, to war veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because it is not a physical wound.
—Right. Brains aren’t physical. They’re like…dreams or something…
The disorder, which may go unrecognized for months or years, can include recurring nightmares, uncontrolled rage and, sometimes, severe depression and suicide. Soldiers grappling with PTSD are often unable to hold down jobs.
—Because they’re pussies. And we have to watch them, cuz they might shoot themselves in the head just to get that medal, and the great jobs that go along with it…
“I’m glad they finally got something right,” said Jeremy Rausch, an Army staff sergeant who saw some of the Iraq War’s fiercest fighting in Adhamiya in 2006 and 2007. “PTSD can be serious, but there is absolutely no way to prove that someone truly is suffering from it or faking it.”
—Never been a purple heart awarded to someone who faked a physical wound.
Kevin Owsley, 47, who served in the Ohio National Guard in 2004 as a gunner on a Humvee and who is being treated for PTSD and traumatic brain injury, said he disagreed with the Pentagon’s ruling.
Unable to hold a job, Mr. Owsley supports his family on disability payments. This week he told his Veterans Affairs doctor he was fighting back suicidal impulses, something he has struggled with since his return. “You relive it every night and every day,” he said. “You dream about it. You can see it, taste it, see people getting killed constantly over and over.”
“It is a soldier’s injury,” he said, angrily, in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
—Yeah? Prove it, smart guy. Whoa, put the gun down!
But a Pentagon-supported service group, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, has strongly opposed expanding the definition to include psychological symptoms, saying it would “debase” the honor.
—Fuckin’ A right. And after being one of the losers who manages to get wounded fighting a bunch of cavemen when you’ve got laser guided missiles, predator drones, f-16′s, battleships, aircraft carriers, nuclear warheads, body armor, tanks, Subway sandwich shops, Netflix, Dick Cheney, the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders, nightvision goggles, and a $14 trillion dollar economy on your side, well, you don’t need any more debasement.
There have been recent changes in awarding Purple Hearts. The criteria was expanded in 2008 to include all prisoners of war who died in captivity, including those who were tortured. “There were wounds there,” Mr. Bircher said.
“You have to had shed blood by an instrument of war at the hands of the enemy of the United States,” he said. “Shedding blood is the objective.”
—Objective Accomplished! Where’s my aircraft carrier? Boy, we’re gonna run out of purple dye what with all the American troops being captured and tortured. It’s testament to the courage and fortitude of our troops that none of them have cracked and told the enemy how to make fire.
—Pesky question though, this medals thing. After all, the Purple Heart was originally given to troops who were good at soldiering, they didn’t have to get shot, like, back in the American Revolution days, when all of three soldiers were awarded the medal, George Washington’s “Badge of Military Merit” for “unusual gallantry” and “extraordinary fidelity and essential service.” Then, later, the military decided that you didn’t have to do anything but stand in the way of a bullet to get a medal. Wee debasement there, perhaps. Maybe the thing to do is come up with a new, debasement-proof medal, to be given to any soldier whose life is utterly destroyed by their service in pointless wars which have been totally misrepresented to them by their leaders! Like, the “Bloody Brain” for those with PTSD. The “Pallid Womb”for women who don’t conceive because their hubby got blown up by an IED. How about the ‘Torn Hair” for civilians whose government carries out policies over which they have not a speck of control!? We gotta open this thing up a little….
— Scot Crawford
The week’s reading, straight off the razor wire:
From HuffPost
MIAMI — State troopers are looking for a charity to take thousands of shoes that were dumped on a Miami expressway, tying up rush hour traffic.
—Wow. Quite the press conference. Try the Islamic League of Journalists, they’ll take them.
Lt. Pat Santangelo says the Florida Highway Patrol received a call about the shoes Friday morning. Santangelo says he’s not sure where the shoes came from.
—Isn’t it obvious? They came from the feet of all the dead Islamic journalists our Special Forces guys eliminated. It’s a fucking warning: America never forgets. Not even the little shit.