New York Times Special Report: 121 Veterans Of Iraq And Afghanistan Charged With Killing Upon Returning Home

New York Times:

Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the Army.

This particular 7-Eleven sits in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino-hotel in a section of town called the Naked City. By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, "like Falluja."

Mr. Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when, seized by a gut feeling of lurking danger, he slid a trench coat over his slight frame -- and tucked an assault rifle inside it.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[SouthpawSass]

Question:

Okay, say the majority of the American people decided to revolt, change our form of Government, and oust those "public servants" who do not represent our interests, a coup d'état, if you will... Who would the military back, would our military protect the Government or would they protect the American people?

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

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"New York Times Special Report: 121 Veterans Of Iraq And Afghanistan Charged With Killing Upon Returning Home"

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Probably happened when they found out their veterans benefits were slashed by the clusterfuck!

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[LaFeminazi]

BushJustdrivesdemscrazy (See profile | I'm a fan of BushJustdrivesdemscrazy)

What if them islamofascist Martians launch an attack , waddya do then, huh libbs?

Reply | Parent | Favorite| Flag as abusive | posted After Kool aid on 01/13/2008

Interesting theory BJ.

[pennyfortheguy]

The smell of napalm in the morning.
It smells like sad, morning after realizations.
Like America doesn't matter any longer.
That we've deficit financed our way to Third World Nation status.
That our vaunted colleges which graduate semi-literate product, men and women who cannot compete in the Global Market so that Bill Gates has to boo-hoo before Congress for US H1B visas to allow for foreign talent to supplant our Grads.

Good Sunday Morning in America.
Our main export is Death.

[JaneC]

The trolls, without missing a beat, and with not a word of disgust at the fact that the WH monkey cut medical benefits for PTSD and head trauma victims carry on in their usual manner and:

a) deflect
b) deny
or
c) trivialize the damage done by their monkey Messiah

Troop support indeed.

Just remember people, when you go to the polls in 2008... Republicans support the war, not the troops. Democrats support the troops, not the war.

[HumeSkeptic]

Why do we allow civilians, and especially these veterans with mental issues, to carry AK-47s, or any gun?

It is insane.

Guns don't belong in a civilized society. And if the Second Amendment indeed gives the right to civilians to carry guns, change the bloody thing. It is out of date in that respect. It makes no sense.

[BushJustdrivesdemscrazy]

What if a report comes out alleging that many soldiers are troubled because so many liberals in the media insist that our cause in Iraq is not just? What if a survey "proves" that all of these soldiers began developing adjustment problems when they detected a disconnect between their honorable actions in Iraq and media/culture driven disapproval of and disinformation about the war? Many Vietnam Vets would claim this experience as their own.

What will you say then?

Will you blame the liberals who daily inflate Iraqi death statistics or insist on routinely impugning the motives of the Commander-in-Chief and thus the legitimacy of the mission? Will you complain that specious portrayals of their service caused them emotional conflict about their service?

Somehow, I don't think the liberals will be too enthusiastic about any speculation which does not bolster their own worldview.

[LaFeminazi]

All this proves....

Is that war is a dangerous occupation with long lasting side effects.

You better have a damn good reason for starting one.

PS Lies don't count.

[StillAmused]

Doesn't even pay, any more, to respond to an idiot like B.B Bob... he just gets scrubbed and takes everyone down the chute with him.

Anyone who doesn't recognize that sending (mostly) young men and women into a no-win, impossible situation -- their heads pumped full of BushCo jingoistic bullshit -- will return some of them with ugly demons on their shoulders is delusional.

[Beelzebul]

This reminds me of Green Beret vet Johnny Rambo when he wandered into the wrong small town to find a fellow 'Nam buddy who got the shit kicked out of him by a pack of liberals who hate all troops.

He decided to strike back the only way he knows how, leading to a visceral flight and fight through the local mountains being pursued by a rabid pack of liberals chanting "death to all US troops."

These Iraqi vets are now being subjected to the same type of treatment by delirious libs that Johnny Rambo was, and they're reacting in the same way.

Until all liberals treat our vets with the same respect and honor as conservatives, look for more killings as these honorable men come back home only to find they once again are faced with an evildoer: radical troop hating frenzied libs.

[godlessclif]

What Bush did to Walter Reed is a whole story in itself.

Bush just doesn't believe in medical care for the poor. They do not deserve it. Want medical care? get rich. Buy it. That is the Republican way.

[ceasenake]

I live in a neighborhood full of Iraq veterans. I feel much safer around military veterans than I do around the general public, and I know the crime rate is low here.

Even in the article 2 of the examples given were of thugs challenging the veterans and losing.

Hundreds of thousands of troops have been to Iraq and Afganistan - you have to expect that some of them will have problems when they return home. Most are the salt of the earth and great people - don't be afraid of them HuffPoers!

[thepainter57]

Looks to me like PTSD is real.

Too bad the BUSH crime family cuts benefits to soldiers who served if they can change the diagnosis and ''dis'' their discharge.

BUSH crime family also has cut services to the returning soldiers.

I would like to know if any of the above ''criminals'' were treated on outpatient basis after their homecoming from Iraq.

Anyone got stats on that?

[massimo1]

Well, well, well. What did anyone expect? Luckily it's not more -- or at least not that we know of. Yet.

[tumblewind]

What's been even worse about this war. These poor slobs have not been in normal combat. They have been forced to fight a urban war that Bush created. Where it involves old men, women and children. Where they are an occupying army imposing our style of government on the unwilling populace. Where most of the population is out to kill them. Where even an innocent child might be a suicide bomber. Where our leaders view these people as 'sub human' and their superior attitude has been allowed to infest the Army. Where most of our troops are acting like Storm Troopers. Where living conditions have deteriorated to a deplorable state under our rule. Bush has placed these men in the middle of a raging civil war. Which should never have happened to begin with, when it turned into a civil war we should have left. I can well imagine these are trying circumstances for troops. Coupled with the fact a lot of these men are coming back with mental defects that are a product of urban warfare. The government isn't bothering to treat a lot of them. They are trying to cut the cost of this war by not treating them. They are just being dumped on society to cope with. I would image that it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. We only have 121 to date. What's going to happen when Blackwater thugs are released into society and this lousy war of choice ends. It's going to be a nightmare!