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    gilbertkittensHamilton Nolan
    10/30/13 2:57pm

    Stories like these make it clear that for all the sheen our culture puts on it, killing for your country is still murder. A normal, ethical person can be trained to pull the trigger by instinct, but the basic revulsion that any sane person feels when killing another person doesn't go away, it just gets buried, temporarily. Hopefully today's wide recognition of PTSD can, over the long term, convince us that, on balance, it's just not worth it anymore.

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      LooseSasquatchgilbertkittens
      10/30/13 3:12pm

      Yes, I agree. And I'm glad that there is starting to be a backlash from Drone "Pilots" about these same issues and how even being away from the carnage geographically and physically, it still affects your mind almost exactly the same. Otherwise we could just see the government switch things to as much remote controlled killing as possible, when the real sensible option is to just STOP FUCKING KILLING.

      Unfortunately we all know that the most likely outcome is:

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      lampost451gilbertkittens
      10/30/13 3:15pm

      There will always be new, fresh soldiers, and killing the opposition will always remain a crude, awful, but technically effective way of winning an argument.

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    eomfdHamilton Nolan
    10/30/13 5:02pm

    These stories and those of their influence will be part of our national dialogue for the rest of this century. Just as the male population of France was devastated in WW1 yet their absence has an effect today, our wounded lived to come home and bring terrible internal pain w/ them. They are changed and if we're to live in this world w/ them we are changed.

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      coldwarkideomfd
      10/30/13 6:38pm

      What are you referencing for France? I am having trouble finding information online of what happened to France after WW1 that was specifically because of the war.

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      eomfdcoldwarkid
      10/30/13 6:58pm

      W/ the loss of so many men from their teens through their 40's France became wary of war, of self-defense even. Had even half of those men lived to come home from war, France would likely not have found itself occupied by the Nazis during WW2. France's reticence to go to war has earned it an uncalled-far reputation ('surrender monkeys' ring a bell?) when in fact they've simply paid an enormous price in war - a price in retrospect they could not afford.

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    SaxamahphoneHamilton Nolan
    10/30/13 5:16pm

    PTSD is so brutal. My brother-in-law got it from being in Iraq, and it continues to cause him problems, like waking up terrified in the night. My sister-in-law won't let him smoke weed to help it though, despite living in Seattle. Not for any good reason either, she's just a bitch.

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      slipdiscoSaxamahphone
      11/01/13 1:40pm

      that sucks for your BIL.

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    whudryewdewinHamilton Nolan
    10/30/13 5:43pm

    Something that's missing from all the talk about PTSD - you don't necessarily descend into psychosis and sociopathic behavior if you have PTSD. Everyone that experiences combat has PTSD, the real issue is severity, detection, and appropriate treatment.

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      dubbsgaloreHamilton Nolan
      10/30/13 4:33pm

      I'm a combat veteran. 0311 Fallujah '05 and Ramadi '06/'07. That's enough info for anyone who knows about that stuff to verify. Both of these stories are overly dramatic. The second one is trumped up horseshit. How many guys died from his unit? probably less than 20 (and that number is unlikely). Out of ~1000. This wasn't fucking Vietnam. Oh he he thought his saj maj was full of shit? Well no fucking shit they all are. Of course, the narrative is some 2nd hand civilian boyhood friend of his. Go back to watching full metal jacket and stop trying so hard to understand. Live and let live.

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        WalbertWeinsteindubbsgalore
        10/30/13 9:26pm

        I, too, play Call of Duty.

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        Leegedubbsgalore
        10/31/13 12:04am

        So, this is the new Navy Seal copypasta, then?

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