...and, as an aside, reports are coming back that he walked back to his barracks, set down his weapon, and surrendered...that would make it pretty clear to me that he was in no way legally insane at the time of the murders.

Usually the "support our troops" crowd and the "tough on crime" crowd are the same crowd...this time they'll have to pick a side, without being hypocrites, which will be very difficult.

For me, at least, I'm fully in the "support our troops" crowd, but when one of them goes apeshit and shoots a bunch of innocent civilians, well, it's hard to throw much support his way. If he's found to be innocent by way of insanity, then I'll accept that. If he's not, and gets gassed, I'll accept that. If they find a lesser sentence, and base it on his service, then I'm even more ok with that.

He'll get no excuses for what he did from me, though.

If there were folks at the VA or wherever who knew or should have known that this guy was no longer fit for service, then I think they should be run up the flagpole right after him.

I feel sorry for him, and others like him, because it's pretty fukked up to be trained to be a killer, then not be one, but there are a few hundred thousand other soldiers over there, and a few million more in the past, that managed to kill the enemy without going on a rampage and shooting up a family or other civilians.

Fish on...

Todd