Friday 17 February 2017

Canadian Facebook 'Vets for Conservatives seeking more moral clarity by harassing PTSD afflicted Vets - For Shame.

Back a few months I addressed the pathetic line of Canadian Facebook 'Vets for Conservatives' who questioned the 'courage and more moral clarity' of soldiers, serving and retired, afflicted with PTSD, here:

http://olecanadian.blogspot.com/2015/10/regarding-canadian-vets-for.html

But you just knew that these good-ole-boys couldn't leave it alone. Now 'some' of them [ some still in uniform ! as well as Vets] apparently are harassing those same troops, online, here:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/i-think-this-is-going-to-end-with-a-body-cyberbullying-against-veterans-could-prompt-suicides-army-warned


As the article points out, there are a certain number of serving members/vets, who aligned with Steven Harper's petty, moralizing, judgemental conservative brand. Narcissistic douch-bags who have no time, empathy, nor compassion, for those they feel were too weak on the battlefield...undeserving of the respect of their peers, because they had the audacity to be emotionally affected by battlefield conditions/atrocities, or just the madness of it all.

Any soldier will agree that those troops afflicted with PTSD, generally speaking, has experienced feeling inadequate on/in the battle, experience horrors that will not leave the mind, or placed in a situation where they could not adequately respond to a life & death situation, of another soldier, an enemy combatant, a civilian, a child...because of 'rules of engagement' or other factors limiting their effectiveness in responding to the situation.

The key here, is that PTSD is a perfectly normal response, to a perfectly non-normal circumstance or experience.

*Read this last line a 2nd time*

Many troops are of a mind, where they are naturally inoculated against PTSD, simply because they head into battle to slay dragons, slay the enemy...anyone whom is a threat is perceived fair game. They have no doubt in the concept of total war and annihilation of the enemy. They, return after a tour, and after a few months of boredom in a training garrison environment, they submit their release from the military and call Blackwater/Academi, to head over as a mercenary, to slay more dragons.

It's their opiate.

These guys have no time for any so called soldier that would bear any guilt or remorse, any questioning of the battle task at hand. PTSD to these guys is weakness. Weakness means death.
If you read some of the stuff that came out of a FB group 'Veterans for Conservatives' back in 2015, you'll get a taste of their contempt for what they perceive as weakness on the battlefield. I wrote a piece on it:

1st link above...

As I described it then:

it is generally the situation that PTSD is a real or often PERCEIVED shortcoming/inadequacy that results in mental anguish/dreams/nightmares etc... It can and often is simply experiencing situations where one has no power to do anything in a given situation;
  • unable to stop long enough [whilst on a mission with other priorities] to personally care for injured civilians, feed the starving;
  • unable to convert one's training and experience into battlefield confidence; and/or
  • unable to save the life of a mortally wounded comrade in arms... for three, of thousands of examples.
 In the days of Bosnia and initial years of Afghanistan, I believe it's entirely fair to say that the Canadian Forces did not do a great job in conducting pre-deployment training in regards to 'PTSD inoculation'.

In fact, one could claim that it was near non-existant in the combat arms [infantry/armoured/arty/engineers], and virtually unrealized in the preparation of combat support troops [logistics].

My theory is that the CF Medical Branch did not drop the PTSD ball so to speak; rather, they didn't even bother to pick it up, seriously, until midway in our Afghan experience.

It's 2017, and the CF still has yet to develop a truly effective response, that ends up retaining the majority of those afflicted. In my mind, a monumental failure. Even worse, Veterans Affairs Canada [VAC] is to busy vindictively moralizing in reducing the amount of marijuana available, thereby promoting the continued/increased use of narcotic opioids and just as debilitating, alcohol.

So, whereas conservative leaning CF members/vets were previously somewhat careful in condemning their PTSD afflicted breathern, they have apparently become quite embolden via social media in their condemnation.

You who judge your peers, should be ashamed; I feel your shame for you.

I called them cowards [Oct 2015], when they hid behind veiled criticisms, challenging the 'courage' and 'moral clarity' of soldiers, they deemed not quite as tough as they.

Today, I believe the entirely appropriate word is, douche-bag, in the singular. Douche-bags, in the plural.

In injecting your crusader venom onto your brethern, online, perhaps instead of manufacturing imaginary terrorists, CSIS and the RCMP would be better employed with all of their new shiny kit, tracking your IP/MAC addresses, and asses down. Especially those of you who are still in uniform. I'd love to be sitting in on the public courts martial as you babble, trying to justify your actions, to your Commanding Officer....or Brigade Commander, for those of you more senior.

Aside - I had a peer on my Snr Leaders Course, who after 3 tours, came home and found himself repeatedly waking up at zero dark thirty, on top of his wife, pounding the living daylights out of

 'the demons who were attacking/over-running his hasty defensive position' ... 

After the second occurrence...well you can guess what happened to their relationship. 

My issue with this scenario, is the complete lack of empathy displayed by both [a very few] serving and retired vets, accompanied by judgemental ignorance that is staggering in it's vacuous morality.

For anyone looking to understand PTSD, I highly recommend Retired Lt Col David Grossman's book  'On Combat' and this video presentation based on same -- 'Bullet Proof Mind':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDCtMEHFLM

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FTV9nExiDE

His theories and ideas are spot on, however I do take exception with his religious overtones. That said, if you honestly and truly believe that your killing jihadis as God's work, that is a form of PTSD inoculation... 

IMHO, if you are killing people in the name of your religion, you need a new religion or a complete rethink on religion period. 


 

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