It blows my mind that even libs got in on the shredding of this guys "journalism".  But yet it makes me think that these libs are the recent converts who still hold a small shred of conscience.  Maybe they will grasp ahold of it and return from the dark side.

If you don't stand behind our troops; please feel free to stand in front of them!

It's kind of ironic

but is weighing the effect of all the negative attention on his wife, who works on a military base

I saw this on LGF, and one of the commenters mentioned how it was ironic that he'd have his wife surrounded by all of these "crazed killers." I guess she doesn't mean that much to him.

I wonder how many of her friends are looking at her strangely now?

Mother nature is a bitch - Ninth Corollary of Murphy's Law

Wow. My post just vanished, but the crude/ironic one it referenced is still-there. What gives??
JMR

As a retired member of our military, who has served three tours in the desert, I take particular offense to this elitist moron's characterization of military "serial killers" and "mass murderers". I served in the states, in the Pacific, and in Europe, as well as the desert, and never once met anyone who caused me the slightest fear for my life. And I met some bad-a$$ed individuals during my 22-year career.

And to top it all off, this witless moron doesn't even have the first clue of what he's talking about.

This article in no way is meant to suggest that all military members will become serial killers or mass murderers. It does point out a serious problem with what is happening in our armed forces and seeks a solution to help the brave men and women on their return back home. - First off, it would have been just a tad bit difficult to state that all military members become killers, even though if he thought he could have gotten away with it, he would have. Who the hell is this Mitchell Moron to say what problems the military has and appoint himself to determine what needs to be done to solve them? And what documentation or basis of fact can he provide that points to this "serious problem"?

"I don't think flat-out 100% if a person goes into the military they're going to come out as a serial killer or mass murderer. I do think that everything in a killer's life determines who they become." - So what percent do you think if a person goes in the military they will come out a killer? And how does the second sentence here equate to the military? It seems pretty clear to me - Military service = ?? % you will become a murderer. Has Mr. Mitchell compiled any statistics on what percent of military members turn into serial killers? How about how many slaughter-house workers decide to hack up their families? Or ex-cops who go on shooting sprees?

After speaking with various military personnel who read this post they assured me that it is very obvious and clear what I was getting at. The military trains people to kill and some of our men and women return home and don't receive the proper care to deal with the horrors of war or even the intensity of training. Not a single one of them thought I was trying to smear the soldiers or call them serial killers. They thanked me for pointing out a serious problem that gets overlooked by the military and needs to be dealt with. - A "serious problem" that is already addressed by the military, and is not as serious as Mitchell would have anyone believe. I can speak for the Air Force (and I know the Army has a similar program). When someone returns from a desert tour, they have a mandatory observation period (3 days) and complete an interview with Mental Health professionals to determine if they have any emotional issues. After 6 months, they are re-evaluated. Support services and programs are available 24/7 for any issues related to such emotional problems. So all these "various military personnel" were obviously lying or clueless (or non-existent, but we won't go there except to point out how there are conveniently no numbers, names, or backgrounds provided by Mitchell). Speaking as what I consider myself to be, a typical military member, I found this insinuation that military members turn into killers to be EXTREMELY offensive. I don't know who these "various military personnel" he's quoting are.

And most perhaps telling, we've been at war since 2003. In that time, how many serial killings or mass murders have we had in the US? How many were perpetrated by military members?

Case closed Mr. Mitchell.

The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers

A. Whitney Brown was a fairly frequent commentator on SNL back, I think, in the late 80s and early 90s. This was really the heyday of SNL, what with Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks, Jon Lovitz, et al. It was a phenomenal cast. I guess AW Brown was a writer, but he would do a Weekend Update segment on occasion. I just remember that while the audience would be rooting for him, hoping that what he was going to say was going to be funny, it just never really was. He's just not funny. And even if he were attempting satire with his Kos post (which he has said he's not), it isn't funny. In fact, he's pathetic.

Noel,

I'm sorry but I don't see what's so offensive about what he wrote. 

 There are plenty of examples of military trained men coming home and doing terrible things.

Should we not examine why they do this?  Should we not look at whether or not they are more predisposed to violent/murderous behavior?  Should we not be concerned about whether troops are getting enough attention when they get home from the war?

I didn't see anywhere in his post where he insinuated that all people in the military are murderers.  He pointed out a number of examples and asked the question, are we doing enough to prevent these types of incidents.

I mean, just last week a 19 year old Army private in Arizona was arrested on a murder-for-hire charge.

So these things do happen.  Troops do use their training for negative things, such as violence.  Obviously, it's a tiny minority, but I'd be willing to bet it's higher proportionally than in the general population.

I don't understand the NBs knee-jerk reaction to this post.  It's not offensive and it addresses an interesting/important question.  Are we doing enough to help our troops when they get home so that they have an adequate support network?

Debunking this pile of rubbish…..

Cross-posted at In Cold Blog

According to the July 30, 2007 issue of The Nation magazine, damning photos of a U.S. Soldier using a spoon to literally scoop out the brains of a dead Iraqi and pretending to eat the gray matter were recently acquired.

- I followed the link, and did not find any ‘damning photos’….   I found a bunch of cherry picked stories.

Of course, everyone is appropriately appalled and make all claims of disgust and finger-wagging. Research shows, however, that such unacceptable behavior happens more often than the United States military wants you to know.

“Research shows…”  Another pseudo ‘journalist’ catch phrase.  Then you add a hint to a military conspiracy.  “…more often than the US military wants you to know.”  Please

When it comes to training killing machines, the military really does create "an Army of one."

- The US military is designed to break things and kill people.  This is not a hard concept.  When was it believed to serve a different purpose? 

Timothy McVeigh

• liquidman's diary :: ::

The list of serial killers and mass murderers borne from the military is astounding.

- Under 100, but hey, who says you can’t paint the entire military?

Full Metal Jacket's proud support of UT Tower sniper Charles Whitman's marksmanship skills notwithstanding, you just aren't going to hear a whole lot about the training ground of killers that are bred to slaughter, maim, and torture and then dumped on our streets upon their return.

- Again, our soldiers are trained to break things and kill people.  Torturing and maiming is your own accusation, Corey.  So, your wonderful pseudo ‘journalist’ title “KILLITARY” would be accurate.  Think about things more before you run off making sensational claims.

Here are just a few of the more memorable individuals who received the best training in the United States military and returned to prowl our country's streets and commit terrorist attacks of a different nature:

Charles Whitman - former Marine sniper who killed his wife, mother, and then proceeded to the University of Texas Tower and picked off sixteen people using his sniping skills.

Dean Corll - former Army man and serial killer known as the "Candy Man" who killed at least 27 young boys and buried them in a storage facility in Houston, Texas.

David Berkowitz AKA "The Son of Sam" - New York serial killer and former Army vet who shot and killed at least six people during the 1970s.

Jeffrey Dahmer - former Army vet and Milwaukee cannibal who murdered at least sixteen young boys and men. He performed experiments on some of the victims and ate others.

Timothy McVeigh (pictured above)- Former Gulf War Army vet responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing.

 - Wow, a whole 5 people…  Seems to me if someone is insane to begin with, you can’t do much about it if it isn’t noticed.

According to The Nation article, written by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, the brain scooping soldier found his exploits hilarious:

- I’d like to point out that this entire… post is based on one article by “The Nation” which is a far left, yes ‘liberal’ (Socialist) web site.  But, anyway…

"Take a picture of me and this motherfucker," a soldier who had been in Sergeant Mejía's squad said as he put his arm around the corpse. Sergeant Mejía recalls that the shroud covering the body fell away, revealing that the young man was wearing only his pants. There was a bullet hole in his chest.

"Damn, they really fucked you up, didn't they?" the soldier laughed.

The scene, Sergeant Mejía said, was witnessed by the dead man's brothers and cousins.

How does a seemingly normal, everyday, All-American soldier turn into a brain scooping cell phone camera posing beast?

It's all about the training.

- If these things had really occurred, why haven’t they made it to a news outlet?  The MSM is always all over our troops. Not a second goes by without one of our boys hesitating to do their job for fear of the media destroying him, via spin.

In 2000, CPT Pete Kilner presented his paper, Military Leaders’ Obligation to Justify Killing in War, before the Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics in Washington D.C. He was there to present his thesis that "the methods that the military currently uses to train and execute combat operations enable soldiers to kill the enemy effectively, but they leave the soldiers liable to post-combat psychological trauma caused by guilt."

- Would you feel guilty if somebody was trying to kill you first?  Are you aware of our rules of engagement that virtually tie our hands and leave us vulnerable to ‘civilians’?  You may also want to remember that this enemy hides behind women and children.  That is to say they LOOK like them.

Kilner's paper discussed how the military's training changed drastically after World War II. A survey determined that only 25% of all soldiers during the war actually fired their weapons. The main reason cited was that soldiers were more afraid to kill another human being than to be killed.

- Nobody said killing someone was going to be easy.  Anyone with a heart knows this.  However, when it come to shooting somebody down who wants to decapitate me, I wouldn’t feel a damn bit of remorse. Stop trying to insist military personnel are heartless uniforms with weapons.  You liberals have to analyze the shite out of everything, don’t you?  Psychology is only good to a certain point.  By your logic, humans are just meant to roam the planet and recreate do to our thinking about sex every so many seconds.  Give it a rest.

Needless to say, such mentality does not benefit the military's main objective: kill the enemy. As a result, a new methodology of training was introduced. Military leaders began to stress the banality of the targets.

- Yes, let us examine why we have to shoot the poor fellow whom, if I do not kill will capture either myself, or one of my fellow soldiers, and torture us on camera, and used by terrorists as leverage.  Yes, let’s do that…  HELLO?!

One way to achieve this was with pop-up targets on marksmanship ranges. "They enable soldiers to overcome their aversion to killing by conditioning them to act spontaneously to conditions that are combat-like yet morally benign," according to Kilner.

- That would be called target practice.  Everything takes practice.

Other methods, known as "killology," included shooting at cabbages filled with ketchup to resemble exploding heads and marching to chants of "Kill, kill, kill!"

Soldiers were not shooting at specific human beings. Instead, they were killing people that wanted to kill them. Training methods became less personal.

- Imagine that.

Apparently, the change in methodology was effective. By the Korean War the percentage of troops that fired their weapons rose to 55%, while by Vietnam it had sky-rocketed to 90%.

- It sounds like they got a little more efficient.  How does somebody come to a bad conclusion because more military personnel fired their weapons?  What logic is that based on?

Where do we stand today in the Iraq War?

- Most likely less thanks to you people who have demonized the military.  Don’t you watch the MSM?  There is a camera over practically every soldier.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle's Vicki Haddock in a 2006 article entitled The Science of Creating Killers, U.S. soldiers' killing efficiency and coping mechanisms have only "improved."

- That a boy!  Turn that positive into a negative!

Haddock spoke with one American soldier on what it took to kill another human being:

21-year-old West Texas Army Pvt. Steven Green described shooting a man who refused to stop at an Iraqi checkpoint: "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,'" he told the military newspaper Stars & Stripes. "I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.'"

Green was eventually discharged from the military due to a "personality disorder." He was also charged with the rape of a teenage Iraqi girl and the slaughter of her entire family, including a five-year old girl.

- While that is an extremely horrible story, it is again, only one out of your < 100 examples.  Crazy people are everywhere.  Why don’t you do a study on violent liberal protests versus Conservative protests and see what the results are?

Haddock spotlighted another soldier and his conditioning:

(T)op Marine sniper Jack Coughlin writes from Iraq: "So far in this war I had fired six shots and had six kills -- exactly the right ratio. I considered the ill-trained, poorly led soldiers of Iraq to be hamburger in my scope, practically begging me to kill them, and I was more than ready to grant their wish."

Such mentality leads to instances such as the Vietnamese Mai Lai massacre where more than 500 unarmed civilians, including women and children, were slaughtered by American soldiers, to the 2005 Haditha massacre in Iraq where 24 unarmed civilians, including women and children, were also slaughtered by U.S. troops.

But what happens when these trained killers retire, leave, or are discharged from the military? Does the military provide a delousing of the mind? Do they attempt to purge the death training from their young impressionable brains?

- I didn’t know the military had such a large lice problem…   Anyway, they learn valuable skills and job training.  I’d rather work with an ex military member than one of you “Celebrate Diversity, Accomplishment is punishable by tax, That offends me.” Crowd.  ANY DAY.

According to Kilner:

(W)hen soldiers kill because of military training that has effectively undermined their moral autonomy--they conduct their personal moral deliberation of their actions only after the fact. If they are unable to justify what they have done, they often suffer guilt and psychological trauma.

- War is hell.  No one likes it. 

Many soldiers suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, others commit suicide, and still others go on murderous rampages.

- Has there ever been such a lifeless, empty, politically correct, term than PTSD?  I don’t think so.  Liberals think that if you change the label, it changes the condition.  Shell Shock was the correct and proper term before you historical revisers came around.

According to Kilner, the United States military is doing absolutely nothing to help soldiers deal with the psychological effects of their murderous training. They merely pat them on the back, thank them for a job well done, and pull up the next impressionable young man or woman and stick them in the meat grinder.

- That couldn’t have been filled with any more rhetoric than you stuffed in there.

To deal with the problem, Kilner suggests justification "because, at least some killing in war is morally justifiable, military leaders have a duty to understand that justification, to train their soldiers to kill only when it is justified, and to explain to their soldiers why it is justified." In other words, if you give a soldier a supposedly legitimate reason to kill another human being, such as self-defense, it may be easier for the soldier to cope with the outcome of his actions.

That seems a bit simplistic, especially when soldiers are firing randomly at civilians because they believe everyone in Iraq is a "terrorist." Unfortunately, killing, whether justifable or not, is going to warp the killer's mind in some fashion, and probably to an unrecoverable point.

-  Again, “randomly firing into civilians does not happen.  Rest assured it would be plastered all over the MSM.  I resent the fact that you assume our men and women in uniform behave in such manner.  YOU disgust me.

Americans should begin to see the effects of the Iraq war veterans' killing sprees here in our own country very soon. Most serial killers and mass murderers tend to be in their mid 20s to mid 30s.

- Concluding with just a sprinkle of fear mongering.  It is a staple in any liberal talking point.

The newest crop of Charles Whitmans and Jeffrey Dahmers should be prowling our streets any day now -- and for many years to come.

Here Are A Few More Not So Good Men:

All served in the military. All went on to become serial killers, mass murderers, or assassins.

John Allen Muhammad ("The Beltway Sniper"), Arthur Shawcross, Lee Harvey Oswald, Randy Kraft, Dennis Rader ("BTK"), Howard Unruh, Robert Lee Yates, Gary Heidnik, Charles Cullen, Charles Ng, Henry Louis Wallace, Julian Knight, Courtney Mathews & David Housler, Daryl Keith Holton, Wayne Adam Ford, Richard Marc Evonitz, etc.

This list is by no means comprehensive and does not include military personnel who murdered their families, loved ones, or friends upon their return from training to kill or war.

- You, sir, are an uneducated, arrogant, hack.  It’s no wonder this piece of garbage was shredded by Democrats and Republicans alike.  Disgraceful…   

What the MSSM doesn't report can kill you.