Speechless, Revisited

On Friday I briefly posted about PFC Steven Green and the atrocities that he has allegedly caused during his stint in Iraq.

I'm not going to say much, because I think that Shaun Mullen's piece on the subject speaks volumes, but there is one resounding point that glares at me when I read about this: Why was Green permitted to enter combat with his criminal history - and why was he permitted to RE-enter combat with his military-diagnosed - and medicated - state of mental health. This quote sums it up for me:

In February 2006, Green matter-of-factly told a reporter for Stars & Stripes that he had come to Iraq "because I wanted to kill people" and bragged that he had "shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza'."

Yikes. I wouldn't want that guy sitting next to me with an assault rifle.

I think that this story goes to prove the point of a greater problem. Our troops are grossly over-worked and over-stressed. The fact that some soldiers and Marines are being sent back into combat for a third, fourth or even FIFTH tour is evidence enough of the strain on our nation's military.

I'm not offering the idea of an over-stretched military as an excuse for PFC Green. What he has (allegedly) done is indefensible - and completely disgusting. BUT, his "story" highlights the bigger picture when dealing with the difficulty that our men and women in uniform are facing.

Think about that when you head into the voting booth in November 2008. Hopefully, we will already be out of (or in the process of leaving) Iraq by then...

filed in: Afghanistan, Iraq, Troop Supportshare: