AWOL soldier says he's had enough of war

forever ... it's simply unthinkable ...

being arrested and facing court martial.

Heritage high school is really close to where I live. I don't know any of the Meeks', but it is a sort of familiar name.

In the course of my business, I was talking with a mother from Carroll County, Arkansas. She was worried sick because her son was diagnosed with PTSD but was refused psychiatric treatment by the Army. According to her, they just "gave him some pills and shipped him back to Iraq".

The republicans (and over 40 democrats) passed the house resolution on Iraq last week, with many saying they were doing so to support the troops. Support the troops? Support the troops? Do they have even a fucking clue what the troops need? How many Ryan Meeks will there be by the time this war is over? How many PTSD burned out Iraq vets will be strung out on H, begging for spare change on the streets on america? Sorry for the rant, but this is soooooooooo much like Vietnam it makes me cry. One of my good friends in VVAW in 1972 (a silver star LRRP guy) just couldn't deal with the stress from PTSD and became a heroin addict. Last time I saw him, I searched for almost a week before I found him strung out in a shooting gallery. I begged him to come with me and stay at my place. He couldn't do it. That's the last time I saw him.

Please get these troops home now.

But then he never saw any war.

first instance.

We must shine as much light as possible on the courageous war resisters (I noticed this article didn't use the term conscientious objector) like Meeks and Ehren Watada. They will show the way to others who will walk away from the military and they will inspire ordinary civilians to speak out, or get even louder.

You don't have to be enlisted for your conscience to tell you war is not the answer - in that way we are all conscientious objectors. WE DO NOT CONSENT.

the term "Pansy" was coined by German frontline troops. German soldiers would claim to be suffering from "shell shock" which now falls under the blanket term "post traumatic strress disorder". These German soldiers would be sent to the German Psychologist, Dr. Pansy who was delving into the new fieled of electro-therapy. Dr. Pansy would take the young shell shocked soldiers and run electrical current through them until they were "cured". This might be more aptly named "electro-torture therapy." Stalin was quoted as saying that in the Russian army, soldiers were more afraid to take a step backwards than to take a step forwards. He didn't bother with electricty but rather had machinegunners placed behind the frontline soldiers who were ordered to kill anyone retreating. The point is, there has never been a lot of support for soldiers who refuse to go back to the front lines. War is hell. I don't recall these problems cropping up during Clinton's war in Yugoslavia...oh, that's because that was an example of how to succesfully conduct a war.

war crimes indictment, one would hope. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and every single Congress person who abetted this disaster by continuing to spend our resources to massacre Iraqis, is a war criminal. They are all collaborators and they should be very worried about their souls or Karma. Every soldier who ever allowed themselves to be sent to Iraq, is also a war criminal, by definition. That is just the way it is... Just say NO!

The history of wars is written by the winners and we are destined to be the big losers again, just as in Vietnam in 1973, when the USA fled, completely defeated.

I have no idea, of course, what Patrick Meeks conscience is, or was, telling him, but he is truly a strong person to stand up for himself and not continue being another victimized pawn. I would have even a little more respect for him if he had resisted going to Iraq.

I was fortunate (I grew up in Berkeley, CA) to be aware of the options available in 1965 when I filed as a CO, not an easy decision, even then, I have always been very proud that I knew, at 17 years old, what was an honorable option.

Now I am living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam about half of the time. Ironic or what...

I hope his illness is contagious.

She had been taken the previous evening by local police and she was in jail, awaiting the military police to come and collect her. She was also diagnosed with PTSD and under a doctor's care, but that didn't matter. Did anyone hear what happened with her?