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发帖数: 901 | 1 So the still-unnamed U.S. Army perpetrator of the Sunday slaughter in
Afghanistan apparently suffered a traumatic brain injury two years ago.
Could this have triggered what by all accounts was an irrational act? You
better believe it, current and former Army mental-health professionals say.
While they stress that such an assessment in this case is premature, they
agree that even mild traumatic brain injuries -- concussions, in other words
-- can cause problems years later. "What you see often with TBI is a
disinhibition," says an Army psychiatrist who recently served just outside
Kandahar, near where the shootings took place. "TBI could be responsible if
it leaves him predisposed to bipolarity or manic episodes."
The Army's one-time top psychiatrist concurs. "A mild TBI certainly can
contribute to irritability and impulsivity, even two years later," says
retired colonel Elspeth "Cam" Ritchie. "I don't think it would cause
somebody to snap, but I think it could be a contributing factor, a straw
that breaks the camel's back."
(PHOTOS: The Afghan Massacre)
U.S. officials say a 38-year old staff sergeant, trained as a sniper, is now
in custody. He arrived in Afghanistan in December following three earlier
combat tours in Iraq. He's the lone suspect in the slaying of 17 civilians
outside Kandahar in the middle of the night (the death toll originally had
been 16, but the Afghan government has upped the count by one, and the U.S.
government has agreed with the higher number).
The suspect suffered a TBI in Iraq in 2010 after a vehicle he was riding in
rolled over in Iraq. But he passed a mental-health exam following the injury
, and was declared fit to deploy at Joint Base Lewis-McCord outside Seattle,
U.S. military officials say. But such mental-health scrutiny is imperfect
and crude, especially if the soldier involved is eager to deploy, they add.
TBIs, along with post-traumatic stress disorder, are the two "signature
wounds" of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. TBIs tend to be caused by the
blasts from roadside improvised explosive devices, although they can be
caused by other trauma, including vehicle accidents. Experts suggest perhaps
one in five U.S. troops serving in post-9/11 conflicts have suffered a TBI
injury. |
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