Does that make US CRAZY?

At first, it seems like one of those studies with obvious conclusions: when soldiers experience lengthy and repeated tours of duty, they begin to suffer both mental and physical consequences.

Then we find out there's more: 30% of the troops in close combat missions are at increased risk for long-term mental and psychological problems. More than 40% of our troops support the idea of torture. More than 10% of our troops report harming Iraqi civilians and property, when it was not directly necessary.

Furthermore, we come to find out, this report came out in NOVEMBER. BEFORE the troop surge. If you don't release a report, it was never written. Of course, what is and was most US soldiers' primary concern? You guessed it: 40 percent of soldiers rated uncertain redeployment dates as a top concern. We're only PAWNS in THEIR game.

It seems that soldier mental health and stability are issues that we've known about for quite some time. How do we plan on PREVENTING the increased mental health risks our soldier's carry? Intensive pre-service training? Fixing the Walter Reed veteran's health care clusterfuckery? Providing mental health care on site? Nah. "So the first step is that we've got to ... make sure that folks remember that that's a foundation for our moral compass ... anything we do that violates that is done at considerable peril," General David Petraeus said. He's also "drafting a memo."

When will moral compasses and memos CEASE to be our answer to everything?

• When SUPREMACY releases us from its relentless grip.
• When the NOLA levees are repaired and fully functional.
• When we stop calling our problems SILENT EPIDEMICS (check here, here, and here) and START dealing with them.
• When we stop killing each other.