U.S. Army - Post-Traumatic Stress Increasing

The Fort Hood shooting, dealt with by Riz Khan and his guests ("Riz Khan Show") on Al-Jazeera, English edition, on November 12 :
Both guests, Ahmed Rehab (left), an activist of the American Muslim Community, and Dahr Jamail (right), a known journalist and author, expressed their opinion that the Ft. Hood shooting had been a singular incident and should not necessarily be linked to the Muslimic belief of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychatrist who killed and wounded many of his comrades in that shooting on the biggest military base inside the U.S.A.. Instead, the behaviour of Maj. Hasan might be "deeper rooted" and should rather be seen as the expression of a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sooner or later to show effect within the 1.5 million U.S. troops on active duty.



That post-traumatic stress disorder has been observed with 11% of all Afghanistan veterans and 20% of all Iraq veterans. While 188.000 troops are currently serving in both countries and more than 750.000 U.S. service members have been deployed at least twice, this should not come unexpectedly. An increasing suicide rate among U.S. soldiers since 2004 obviously underlines that development. Even military leaders like General George Casey, U.S. army chief of staff, are clearly aware of that fact.
[All data were presented by CNN on November 8, the day of the incident, in the frame of an interview with Gen. Casey.]


Now President Obama, decided to increase troops in Afghanistan, said that war time killings of soldiers on home soil are "incomprehensible".