Posted on 07/13/2007 11:51:48 PM PDT by Nitro
I think neither. War IS horrific, and there are truly some people that psychologically cannot handle it. The effects can definitely be profound. There are many times that soldiers come back damaged, as different persons than before they left. I can empathize with it.
Besides, since he hired a guy to shoot him in the knee, he can’t be TOO much of a coward. That takes a certain amount of guts to stand there and get shot.
How do you pose?
Well, now he can look for a rich widow to marry and run for the Senate from Massachusetts.
My pose will be going for your throat!
He will have endured combat, unlike haircut John.
What are they charging him with, attempted suicide? Or perhaps conspiracy to cause physical harm to oneself.
Believe it or not....
the charge is.......
damaging Government Property.
Well, let’s see. He had someone shoot him, because he was afraid to go somewhere where he might get shot...
If you don’t want to be John Wayne.....
don’t strap on the pistols.
Omg!?!? See what the draft does to people!!!!1111
Oh.... wait.. It’s a volunteer force.. Hmmm..
I get it now. Hiring someone to shoot you beats killing the enemy and possibly getting shot. I’m kinda slow..
The USA used to be about doing your best and good things would come...... Now, every last A-hole is trying to do the very least...
“He is as much a casualty of the war as someone struck by a bullet.”
Very much so. :P
Aponte? Looks like Gunny Highway has to go after him again!
"Honey, get me a hitman, would 'ya?"
Somehow, I don't think this is the All-American couple. . .
How many people causally know a Hitman, let alone the ability to just text message them? Is this a New Yorker thing were one has to have a Lawyer, CPA and Hitman on call?
Probably something like destruction of government property.
“Hold still, I am going to shoot.
How do you pose?”
....aaaand your point is?
I’ve seen firsthand the psychological damage that war can bring. It ain’t pretty. Some people - yes, even ones that VOLUNTEERED for service (the volunteering vs. the draft argument is irrelevant here) — simply break down when faced with real combat, real death and destruction, and the very real threat of being blown up by a roadside or suicide bomb at any moment.
It’s a hell of a lot of stress, and despite all of the training one goes through to prepare, some people simply are negatively affected by it more so than others. ALL people are affected to some degree; there is no escaping it; the psyche is ALWAYS affected and will ALWAYS carry the impressions of its experiences forward. It is simply a matter of degrees.
I don’t condone this guy’s actions in the least. But I can understand them, and having seen what war can do to a person, I can empathize with them. There is a psychological cost that goes well beyond the physical “X killed, X injured” statistics.
I do wonder how one actually hooks up with a hitman. Yeah, probably not your typical American family. But all-consuming fear and desperation can push people to such lengths. If you want to call it cowardice, I think you’re wrong. If you are not affected at all by war events, then you are not human. Again, the extent to which one can handle the inevitable horrors of war is a matter of degree that varies from person to person, and this guy just couldn’t bear any more of it. It happens in every war that has ever been fought.
Let’s just be thankful that we have soldiers that CAN handle the daily and nightly pressures. (Many of these come home after their duties as changed, more aggressive individuals in their civilian lives, though, too. Many military wives throughout the history of the military can attest to that.)
You know he could have just wet the bed 6 times in a row and the army would have kicked him out.
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