What Fragging? Where?
When the media and the Left learn a term, they apply it to everything. Today’s word is “fragging”. The first place I saw in relation to the incident at Camp Liberty was on a VFP blog of sorts called “Imagine” (recalling the John Lennon song) in which the author, James Starowicz, one of the chief crackpots of the Geezers For Peace writes;
Yeah, just like Vietnam – well, not really. There were 230 deaths from the practice we now call fragging (some Leftist sites say 730 – but that’s including attempts) over the 10 years we were in Vietnam. Since the 2003 invasion of Hussein’s Iraq, there have been three, this one being the third. The second one is unsolved and the motives are unclear. That doesn’t stop the Associated Press from falsely claiming;
There have been several previous fragging incidents in the Iraq war.
Yeah, um, three, including this one doesn’t make “several” unless you call one incident “many”.
During and after the Vietnam War, the Left used the fragging incidents as evidence that soldiers were unhappy with their leadership in particular and the war in general. I disagree, but for the sake of argument, I’ll continue.
Since this one seems to have been targeted towards a counseling clinic and the staff and SGT John Russell actually left his unit with the firearm and went to the counseling center kind of disproves that he was unhappy with his leadership and more unhappy with the medical treatment he was getting.
That doesn’t stop the media from mischaracterizing this one, too;
An American Army sergeant shot and killed five fellow soldiers following an altercation at a military counseling center in Iraq Monday, officials said. The attack drew attention to the issues of combat stress and morale among soldiers serving multiple combat tours over six years of war.
Um, Russell was an electronics technician who was transitioning out of the service after 21 years – not someone who was being ordered to do something that would get him injured or killed. So frustration with the war kind of gets tossed out as an indicator, too. He was leaving the war and the Army for the last time.
He was just one guy who snapped and did terrible things. Are all of those guys going to do what Russell did? Not any more than all Georgia professors are going to do similar things.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Liberals suck, Media, Phony soldiers, Terror War, Usual Suspects
i’d really like some more info on this guy,are we to understand that he was a REMF OR WHAT? My gut feeling is that there was more to this, than just PTSD. My thoughts and Prayers go out to all the family members.
Here is a good Stars & Stripes piece.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=62654
If it turns out to be true that the SGT involved was mentally disturbed, whether it be PTSD or something else, then keep in mind that there have been more college shootings by mentally disturbed students than there have been ‘fraggings’ in Iraq or Afghanistan since the start of the war.
If we can get someone in the media to do some due diligence, I think we would find that SGT Russell is a very unique case. First, he first enlisted in the National Guard in 1988. He signed up while most of us were still in high school. I am not sure if he is Active Guard or what, but at some point he made the transition to Active Duty. Anyway, he has 21 years of service and is still an E-5. That alone should set off some warning lights. How many years has be been an E-5 without going to BNCOC? If I remember, you can only be an E-5 without advancement for so long before they kick you out. Mabye that’s changed recently or this may be why he was having issues. Anyway, this isn’t some 19 year old kid having PTSD. One of the soldiers he killed was, but not him. This guy had some much deeper issues than PTSD.
BohicaTwentyTwo,
You’re right about that. I retired AGR (Active Gaurd/Reserve) in 1997 (13 years AD/7 years AGR) and the Guard was serious about their retension limits. As an E-7 I could only do 20. Re-upping wasn’t even an option. So I would guess he was straight NG if he joined in 1988. As a title 32 he could only earn so many days annually. Which would go part of the way to explaining why he joined up in 1988 and is still just a SGT. There is a lot of solid intel missing here.
On a side note, I would guess that AP is refering to Alberto Martinez (acquitted) and Hasan Akbar (convicted and sentenced to death). Which makes a grand total of 3 in 6 years. Each one of the previously mentioned were unrelated to any fear of deployment or repeated deployments. AP never fails to amaze me.