I fully agree with the John Young column (Hays Free Press 3-28) about the soldier who snapped and killed 17 Afghan civilians. The Military Court ignores that this type of reaction to extreme stress is frequent in domestic violence, road-rage, airline flight attendants or pilots, and bullied persons. The soldier had been wounded and suffered traumatic brain injury on three previous deployments and had seen fellow soldiers wounded or killed as they tried to protect civilians and Afghan government personnel. This is world wide news but a soldier killed while saving an Afghan child from being run over is ignored. If ever there was a reason for reducing charge to temporary insanity due to PTSD, this is it!
David Adams
Kyle
