Reasons of US solider killing spree in Afghanistan may be misdiagnosed

There has been hours and hours of coverage about the US soldier who went on a killing spree in Afghanistan and there has been a few willing to offer their reasoning for his actions.  Out of all of the noise, I have not heard one person propose that the actions may have been guided by an even more compelling force than Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The actions may have been fueled by a condition called “battle fatigue” combined with the enormous drive to get out of Afghanistan and away from the war zone for good.  I say that because understanding that the breaks you receive from war is never enough time to allow any military member to deal with what they witnessed or took part in before being sent right back to the front lines.  It may have been as simple as getting tired of dodging bullets and wanting to be home to rest.

According to an article written by Heidi Vogt and Pauline Jelinek of the Associated Press titled Accused US soldier flown out of Afghanistan it was reported that “the American soldier accused of shooting 16 Afghan villagers in a pre-dawn killing spree was flown out of Afghanistan on Wednesday to an undisclosed location, even as many Afghans called for him to face justice in their country.  The U.S. staff sergeant, who has not been named or charged, allegedly slipped out of his small base in southern Afghanistan before dawn, crept into three houses and shot men, women and children at close range then burned some of the bodies. By sunrise, there were 16 corpses.    The soldier was caught on U.S. surveillance video that showed him walking up to his base, laying down his weapon and raising his arms in surrender, according to an Afghan official who viewed the footage.”

Regardless of the reason the solider committed these acts, you have to be willing to take responsibility for your actions but it may do us well to try and understand why it happened so that we may do all that we can to keep it from happening again.  Too much of anything can be bad for you but too much war for any of us can be deadly.