How U.S. Soldiers Learn To Kill

U.S. Department of Defense

Timothy Kudo, New York Times: How We Learned to Kill

THE voice on the other end of the radio said: “There are two people digging by the side of the road. Can we shoot them?”

It was the middle of the night during my first week in Afghanistan in 2010, on the northern edge of American operations in Helmand Province, and they were directing the question to me. Were the men in their sights irrigating their farmland or planting a roadside bomb? The Marines reported seeing them digging and what appeared to be packages in their possession. Farmers in the valley work from sunrise to sundown, and seeing anyone out after dark was largely unheard-of.

WNU Editor: This is a sobering essay on a topic that many soldiers rarely talk about.

Is Lying In The Military Common?

CNN: Study: 'U.S. Army officers lie' routinely

Washington (CNN)U.S. Army officers often resort to "evasion and deception," and everyone at the Pentagon knows it, according to a new study conducted by the U.S. Army War College.

"In other words, in the routine performance of their duties as leaders and commanders, U.S. Army officers lie," reads the study, which was conducted by the War College's Strategic Studies Institute.

The 33-page report, compiled following interviews with officers across the Army, concluded that the Army's culture is rife with "dishonesty and deception" at all levels of the institution -- from the most junior members to senior Army officials.

Update #1: Lying in the military is common, Army War College study says -- Washington Post
Update #2: Report: Army officers admit to (and defend) their lying -- Army Times

WNU Editor: The study is here.

A Look At The CIA's Secret Psychological Profiles Of Dictators And World Leaders

Davie Gilson, Mother Jones: The CIA's Secret Psychological Profiles of Dictators and World Leaders Are Amazing

Psychoanalyzing strongmen, from Castro to Saddam.

Last week, Politico and USA Today reported about a secret 2008 Pentagon study which concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin's defining characteristic is…autism. The Office of Net Assessment's Body Leads project asserted that scrutinizing hours of Putin footage revealed "that the Russian President carries a neurological abnormality…identified by leading neuroscientists as Asperger's Syndrome, an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions."

Putin's spokesman dismissed the claim as "stupidity not worthy of comment." But it was far from the first time the intelligence community has tried to diagnose foreign leaders from afar on behalf of American politicians and diplomats. The CIA has a long history of crafting psychological and political profiles of international figures, with varying degrees of depth and accuracy. A sampling of these attempts to get inside the heads of heads of state:

WNU Editor: Forget about the CIA's analysis of the world's leaders and dictators .... I would love to know what do the world's intelligence agencies think of President Obama .... and what are their psych profiles of him.

Chronic Insomnia Is A Continuing Problem For U.S. Soldiers Who Have Served In War Zones

An infrared light illuminates U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Bobby M. Scharton, a platoon sergeant with 17th Fires Brigade, 7th Infantry Division, during a sleep study at Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Nov. 22, 2013. Physicians use data from the studies to diagnose severe sleep disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia. U.S. Army

Soldiers Lost A Lot Of Sleep In Iraq, Afghanistan -- Stars and Stripes/San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO (MCT) — A new medical study has determined that the Army had the highest rate of chronic insomnia among the armed services over a long decade of war.

The study showed a sharp increase among men and women as the U.S. fought in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2013 and found those veterans were more likely to have high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

“Insomnia is a common complaint in active-duty service members,” the authors of the study wrote in a report issued by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. “Of those returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, 41 percent reported problems sleeping.”

Read more ....

My Comment: I suspect that for most (if not all) U.S. soldiers who have served on the front lines .... this is a huge problem, and the impact on health is long lasting and probably very damaging.