The folk at CNN continue to struggle with the “whats” and the “whys” of an Army “stress clinic” in the heart of the Iraqi war zone. Do these electronic yahoos believe that, just because they are able – from the studio comforts of Atlanta – to deal with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of abstract humans, the soldiers for whom such killings are marginally real, should be as unaffected? There have been time periods during which more soldiers died from suicides than from battles: does none of this trigger any greater inquiry than wonderment that soldiers in a war environment might have access to guns? When war so debases the mind and spirit of those conditioned to kill others that they are able to turn their weapons upon their comrades, do these journalism school honor students have nothing upon which to draw for understanding? I’m sure that the war-mongering conservatives and Republicans will find some failure of character in all of this, but for the rest of us – including the troubled minds at CNN – this is what should be expected from participation in the insanity of war, . . . all wars.
There is nothing new in any of this. “Fragging” has long been an unspoken threat, particularly to straight-laced officers intent on leading soldiers into deadly battles. One might recall the earliest days of the Iraq war, when a young soldier tossed a couple hand-grenades into officers’ tents, killing a number of them. Ask the veteran of any war if he has heard of this practice: the sycophantish media will dutifully not inform you of it.
War is nothing but organized madness. Perhaps members of the media should be inquiring into the possibility that soldiers who struggle with the stresses of war might be trying to save their decent sense of humanity from the evil demands of patriotism. Instead of parading retired generals and admirals across the TV screen to lie about the alleged virtues, honor, and necessity of war, CNN – and others – might begin generating the kinds of questions to help soldiers – and the rest of us – rescue themselves from the collective “dark side” into which governments insist upon dragging them!
