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mattyrm wrote: Following numerous tales from the past couple of years of military men having "issues" when they leave, I have decided that PTSD is the new "race card" to be played by anyone who feths things up in their lives following their military careers.

In the same way that the victims of genuine racism have their own tales tarnished by the drug dealer with 500k of heroin in his trunk who bleats "it's cos I am black!" when they get hauled off to jail, I propose that the angsty, shame ridden types are in the minority. A huge minority, and a minority that feel safe to play the PTSD card because polticians universally praise the military, and it is expected from our society as a whole. I mean, no MP is willing to call some veteran a bum when he himself never went to Afghanistan, but lets have it said right here, they should be.

A) Bear in mind that some folks are genuinely messed up. One of the areas we can be a bit blind is in empathizing with people who are affected by something which doesn't seriously affect us. If I don't find something painful or traumatic, it can be really tempting to dismiss or disregard the legitimate experiences of people who do.

B) In regards to your larger point about people using it as an excuse, and about fakers and phonies and REMFs, you are a bit late to the party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor

Although we may have experienced more of it (particularly due to the 80s) on this side of the pond, with the Vietnam generation.

The problem is that even when mattyrm says something that might have a kernal of truth in it, it is lost in his usual "look at me and how hard I am" bluster...

That's not bluster.

That's mattyrm being modest.

Monster Rain wrote:That's not bluster.

That's mattyrm being modest.

The scary thing is your probably right...

Mattrym and is harder than a bag of hammers...

I used to be as well, then I took an arrow to the knee...

mattyrm wrote:Following numerous tales from the past couple of years of military men having "issues" when they leave, I have decided that PTSD is the new "race card" to be played by anyone who feths things up in their lives following their military careers.

I hate how prolific PTSD diagnosis has become. I'm not sure if it's in the same vien as what you meant Matty but:
A guy I know got out of the Army to go to school. The longer he went to school the worse things got. He became increasingly irascible and bellicose. Most importantly he started getting paranoid. What traumatized him wasn't BEING a soldier; what traumatized him was NOT being a soldier. Things got progressively worse, and eventually he ended up shooting his best friend (non fatally). No one uttered a word about PTSD.

mattyrm wrote:

I found a guys ballbag on the road in Kabul once, it was hilarious, when I pointed it out to the rest of my multiple, everyone else thought it was funny as well, and we all took pictures and pointed and laughed, and then we all went home happily ever after and nobody needed to see a shrink, and I don't believe that 95% of people that leave the armed forces have a genuine issue. :

What was it Winston Churchill said about us speaking soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready to do others harm for us?

I don't mean that in a bad way at all, but seeing something like that would probably mess me up so perhaps it's a good thing that I'm not in the military.

George Orwell

AustonT wrote:George Orwell

Another fitting Orwell quote:

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

CT GAMER wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:That's not bluster.

That's mattyrm being modest.

The scary thing is your probably right...

Thing is CT, I've never tried to act "hard", my posts are almost always meant to be taken in good humour. They don't exist for me to tell strangers how much of a tough guy I am, but I may appear this way because soldiers really do have that blase attitude towards violence as it's essential to the job!

I can see why you appear to think im a douchebag, but I assure you im only fething about when i come across as an egotistical tit with a Johnny Rambo complex.

Well.. mostly.

Regards mannahins point, I clearly stated that PTSD is real and affects soldiers, that's an obvious truth. I basically said that a great many people who claim to have it don't, and this infuriates me because it diverts the efforts for the real sufferers, and provides a get out clause for donkey-caves who were donkey-caves to begin with, and who will always be donkey-caves!

I wonder if there are actual donkey caves in Afghanistan. As in caves where donkeys are kept.

I also wonder if they're more, or less, pleasant than donkey-caves.

dogma wrote:I wonder if there are actual donkey caves in Afghanistan. As in caves where donkeys are kept.

I also wonder if they're more, or less, pleasant than donkey-caves.

I typed that message on my phone unaware that the word donkey-cave gets changed into donkey-cave.

I cant believe they censor donkey-cave.

I mean, I get gak and feth... but donkey-cave?!

And yes Dogma, I hope that the donkeys have pleasent abodes, because I liked all the donkeys I met in Afghanistan.

Far more than the Afghans anyway!

Well, to be fair the donkeys weren't shooting at you!

In Kazakhstan they let the livestock live right inside their houses.

I saw it in a documentary.

Monster Rain wrote:In Kazakhstan they let the livestock live right inside their houses.

I saw it in a documentary.

Those are the women.