Soldier diagnosed with mental problems

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Iraq_Soldier_Diagnosis.html

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.

Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel - a drug to regulate his mood - and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."

No follow-up exams or further treatments were scheduled, records indicate. But Green had a conversation with his battalion commander one month after the examination in which he expressed hatred for all Iraqis.

On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.

[PA Democrat]

1. Jesus Christ. If this isn't an indication of how broken the military is I don't know what is.

And this guy isn't the only one being sent back to active duty in Iraq with serious mental problems.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

2. Too damn sad.

I was reading the Dunesbury Sandbox today, and came across a post about this sort of situation. Guys over there popping pills to get thru their tour.

It's a madmadmadmadmad world.

[cassiepriam]

3. I think the levels of drug and alcohol abuse are going to be astounding.

[hashibabba]

4. I wish people would have a little more empathy for those

who suffer with mental illness. Let's see, you can stay crazy, you can be put in a mental institution, turn postal (my personal favorite), or, let's see--take a medication that makes you feel like you used to when you were normal. What would I do, what would I do? Gee, I can't decide....

[cassiepriam]

5. Hard to feel empathy, he raped a child, killed her family and burned them all to crisps.

And his buddies joined in. Hard to feel empathy for them.

Hard to feel empathy for the military who knew he was homicidal and
did nothing. They are guilty of negligent homicide.

Hard to feel empathy for the sociopaths in power who submit
all of them to these horrors.

Empathy belongs to the innocent victims.