Therapy for Our Veterans

    If you have family who has served or are currently serving in the army, I bet you could ask them about their emotional battle and they would tell you how tough it was or is. I want to talk to you about what soldiers go through when they get home from fighting. Why are the after effects never actually brought up to a soldier signing up for the army. The war affects the soldier's lives while they are serving and long after.
    The veterans from the current wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan are still fighting, just not a physical fight. There personal battles are with them everyday. Think about it for a second. You go from seeing traumatic things happening almost everyday to living a normal civilian life. A soldier puts his or her life on the line daily. They are often forced to view unthinkable images of war. Most soldiers lose a close friend who they have trained and fought beside from day one. Dealing with such things causes emotional distress. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is leading to depression, suicide, and substance abuse. This is a staggering number. The suicide rate in the US army rose by 80% when we announced our war on Iraq.
    I feel like we should have our soldier's therapy ready when they come back from war. I think that it should be mandatory that a soldier go through evaluations for PTSD before being released. If the soldier shows emotional distress or signs of PTSD we should give them free treatment. We as people do not understand what they go through. But we need to do everything we can to help them. I know a man, SGT. Jay Powell who served in the army, and he is now in a VA hospital. He would be fine when we were hanging out but when he was alone he would break down. He is getting help now and taking a lot of medicine. These men fight for our country so we should give them all the help they need when they get back. Do you think that we should have a mandatory therapy for soldiers and veterans to help them cope with whats happened in their lives?

The Hurt Locker Film Makers Sued?

   Did you know that in the movie The Hurt Locker, James was based on a actual person. Sgt. Jeffery Sarver was a bomb specialist and he holds the record for the most bombs defused. Sgt. Sarver felt like he was being ridiculed by the film. He felt the film ruined his reputation in the army. 

  The film makers based some of the scenes on his experiences. Those include firing a handgun at suspected car bombers, placing the gun to the forehead of an Iraqis driver to get him to move away, and setting off smoke screens to avoid snipers. This film shows him as a reckless soldier and a soldier who does not follow protocol. He claims this is a bad reflection on him at work, home, and with friends.

  Sgt. Sarver wrote to the court and announced how he felt and wanted to sue the film. Sgt. Sarver wrote in a declaration, "Defendants have essentially placed a bulls-eye on the back of my army uniform and bomb suit for my current and future deployments." Jeremy claims that he never gave the film director Mark Boal permission to use personal details in the story. He feels this ruined his reputation. Sgt. Sarver believes that Sgt. James is based on him and this led other soldiers to question his abilities. Sgt. Sarver also feels that the Army thinks he sold his tales of his experiences so that it could be made into a movie. In which Sgt. Sarver thought hurt his chances at a future promotion. I actually contacted former Army Ranger Jay Powell who coached me in high school. I asked him if things like that would actually hurt your chances at promotions. He told me that things of that nature are looked down upon in the Army. He talked about the core values in the Army, that if you tried and sell your story or do anything for a personal gain it would not be looked well upon. Powell said, "It's awesome that he stepped up and let people know he wasn't insane, and that he followed protocol." 

  Sgt. Sarver lost the case,because the film was protected by California law and the First Amendment. I believe that Sgt. Sarver had a right to file a lawsuit and voice his opinion as he did, but the film should not use his story without his permission. Jeremy Saver had a point when talking about the scenes where the film used his experiences, but I do think he went far when saying it ruined his reputation and all this other stuff. Think about it, when you're done watching the movie do you run and look up the character and if there based on real people and their actual actions? I think that the court got it right in this case. What about you? Do you think the court made the right decision?  

Battle of Mogadishu Good Cause or Bad?

   Violence in Somalia had been on the rise since the start of the Bush administration. Bush then sent American troops to the region to counter the warlords and protect the starving citizens. Aidid started to become to powerful, his men were firing into presses and killing civilians. On October 3, 1993, the US intelligence learned of a secret meeting that was taking place in a two story building. They confirmed that Aidid himself, would be there. So US forces would try and seize the building, and in the battle, we would have a Blackhawk down. There were 18 US soldiers who were killed, and as many as 500 Somalians who died over a 17 hour period. The US forces were on a UN sanctioned mission to capture warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid. This was the biggest fire fight since the Vietnam war.  Aidid started to become to powerful, his men were firing into presses and killing civilians.  During the fire fight the Somalis downed five US helicopters. The war cost many US soldiers their lives and some the use of there limbs.  They placed special forces in positions in which they were not trained for - civilian crowd control and urban fighting. They could have done a better job of planning the attack out. They went straight into the heart of civilians and could not control the crowds or the fighting. 

   Decisions were made and they are lived with. You cant take back what is already done. But the US has learned from the mistakes and have grown as country and military because of it. US citizens were shocked when they saw US soldiers being drug through dusty Mogadishu streets, and Bill Clinton immediately ordered the US forces to return home the next day. The Black Hawk Down Incident shaped the US policy in the long term with the restricted American contact and involvement in somewhere we should not be.

   With all this being said, we should not have fought in this war. We got nothing out of it but dead soldiers. We did learn that we should be more prepared and have better planned missions. But we lost to many lives to try and capture one man. Do you think that this battle was a success or failure?