The X Fact(her): When Soldiers Snap
Soldiers have perhaps the hardest job in the world. They wake up in the morning happy to be alive, strap on their gear and go kill people before they kill them. It’s like being an inner-city police officer but worse.
When news of a U.S. solider opening fire on a stress clinic at Iraq military base Camp Liberty (these military names are great propaganda) broke, it came as no real surprise to me. Monday’s attack is the sixth time that a serviceman was killed by a fellow serviceman since Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003. This week’s shooting ended in five dead. A suspect is alleged to be in custody.
What makes a solder snap?
To help understand this, let’s look at Hip Hop’s weird fascination with the military. The most memorable being Master P’s No Limit soldiers. They even had army tanks in their music videos. Now, most crews emulate the ranks of the military. 50 Cent is probably the hardest drill sergeant there is forcing his foot soldiers to obey command or risk being stripped of their rank. Ask Young Buck what happened when he stepped out of line. For every rapper that goes against his platoon’s orders there is another willing to write away his rights as an independently thinking man and fall right in line.
A good reason why soldiers snap is due to the insurmountable pressure put upon them to perform (in the case of Hip Hop, to sell records) and to not question authority. No-hit wonder Cannibus was actually a former solider yet he couldn’t survive the minefield that was the music industry. In Camp Bad Boy, any artist that doesn’t follow the rules of Master Chief Diddy gets the boot. The Lox questioned things and went AWOL. On the flip side Shyne tried to protect his superior as a show of gratitude and ended up in prison. It’s almost as if being a solder, no matter was field you are fighting on, is a no win situation.
The fact that this week’s slaying took place at a stress clinic isn’t just ironic but sad. How can you help a person that is going to walk out the door and return to the same stressful situation that made them walk in the door?
Imagine waking up every morning with the weighted stress of having to liberate the world, kill people (innocent or guilty) and march blindly into warfare at the command of your superior officers. At some point whether you agree with the mission at hand or not, you will begin to question if this is the right thing for you to be doing. Then comes the guilt of taking part in the killing of thousands of people. Let’s not even get into the soldiers who victimize the innocent people they are deployed to liberate.
Shouldn’t we be surprised that more soldiers aren’t losing it? Hell, in the ’80s postal workers were murkin each other over the pressure to deliver mail on time (hence the term “going postal”).
War doesn’t just kill our enemy; it damages our young men and women, who join the armed forces in hope of having a better life. Instead they come back mentally and physically broken or in a pine box.
- CH
