"Virtual" Iraq? The Iraq war is only virtual to people who only experienced it on TV and the Internet. Leave it to a bunch of Phds and the Navy to take the fun out of video games. The soldiers I know play video games in their spare time to relax not to process their feelings or explain what happened.
Iraq is an actual experience of war, tragedy, death and loss. War vets aren't retarded or kids who need role play to talk to adults. They need support and help.To the extent this helps, any video game, book or movie could help. Other than that, it's just stupid and insulting.
The research money would be better spent at Vet hospitals and job programs.
And it was used as part of therapy, in sessions with therapists there at all times. I shudder to think how it might affect someone with PTSD alone in his/her living room...
I'm no expert on this, but I'd guess that this is part of exposure therapy, where victims of PTSD attempt to confront the traumatic incident in order to get over it. It's had mixed results, I think.
I guess it's similar to the treatment for phobias, which I understand to be just experiencing whatever you're scared of, until you're not scared of it anymore. Makes perfect sense, right?
@SarahHeartburn: Thanks for the article. Interesting, but I guess I'm biased against the premise. It seems to me the therapists and the vets family and friends are the ones who need to understand the war experience and that such an experience can't really be appreciated through a video game or any medium. And to the extent it could help, it's not the vet who needs to confront war. It's everyone else.
Seems to me, people with ptsd need help adjusting to living and working with people who can't relate to their experience, who, for example, think war can be simulated in a video game.
I think this new Times pensioned retirement plan is great. Send the reporters over, they get rescued from a kidnapping, write a book, and move on to a glorious post-NYTimes life.
Much more dramatic and rewarding than the usual cutting loose.
Oh, great, another reporter who will likely wander off, get himself kidnapped, and require a spec ops rescue. Can't wait to see the book deal (and the body count).
Yeah, no kidding. Considering IED's look like soda cans and other common household objects I'm surprised more weren't killed. Hint: don't agitate or surprise people who are patrolling a hostile environment with high-powered weapons.
@Unsolicited Advice: Um, I know. And I agree! I was commenting on the part of the news item where they said the unlucky bastard suffered from mental illness.
@Unsolicited Advice: Not to argue, but I don't think sympathy for a mentally ill person who commits suicide by soldier is actually misplaced. But for the record, I have just as much sympathy for the soldier. I'm sure he didn't feel great about it.
how stupid is Iraq to torture a journalist and then let him go? i mean thats just asking for him/her to write a book about it in later years...
and if you are going to torture at least make sure theres some permanent brain damage. that way if he does make it out alive, his writing will be complete gibberish... or better yet, wouldnt remember the torture at all
If you compare Shoe Thrower's accuracy and aim with the accuracy and aim of Cutler, one can surmise that it's only a matter of time before Shoe Thrower is signed on to play quarterback for the Chicago Bears.
@morninggloria: do you mean jay cutler? also, despite the fact that i bleed black & gold for my alma mater and i was sad all the other vandy players on bears had to witness that shitty quarterbacking, i definitely indulged in some schadenfreude at cutler's expense... what a dumb douchey dick he is!
I'm pretty sure he's milking this now. And I doubt he was tortured, if for no other reason than the fact that he's extremely high profile and would be in a major spotlight once released. Unless they figured that he'd claim to be tortured either way, so what the hell.
I also find it funny how throwing a shoe at one president is good, and interrupting the speech of another one is bad. Of course, of those two, only one is the messiah, so I guess I see it.
@Thomas Paladino: I also find it funny how throwing a shoe at one president is good, and interrupting the speech of another one is bad.
Maybe I can help you. They guy who threw the shoe? Not a U.S. Congress member attending a joint session of a legislative body with a 233 year history of civility. The guy who yelled, "You lie?" never lived in a country bombed mercilessly and occupied by an invading army whose leader smugly said his presence was a "going away" present just before the offending shoe was hurled. In fact, the guy who yelled "You lie," was distorting the truth of the situation in order to cynically exploit our treasuring draining healthcare crisis.
@Mediahohoho: Ok, no. Democrats booed Bush during the State of the Union when he talked about Social Security Reform. So there goes the '233 year history of civility'.
And everything else comes down to the fact that you agree with one of those guys, and disagree with the other one.
@Thomas Paladino: There is nothing more I hate that having to repeat myself. Last week, Mr Paladino, I had to correct you regarding the heckling of President Obama.
Again - Heckling the President in a Joint Session of Congress = BAD.
Throwing a shoe at the President of an occupying nation during war = NOT SO BAD
Alas, I'm sure I'll be posting the same thing next week and hoping that someone will approve this frustrated n00b's comment.
Shoe thrower: A private citizen, not an elected official. A Muslim showing one of the most extreme forms of symbolic contempt that exists in his culture. An aggrieved man protesting the rape and destruction of his country at our hands.
Joe Wilson: NOT A PRIVATE CITIZEN, an elected official, of whom a certain level of civility and decorum is not only expected, but required. An unreconstructed Confederate apologist whose motives had less to do with a disagreement over the President's policy and a lot to do with his aggravation at being spoken to by an uppity negro.
@Dickdogfood: Brilliant point. I am so sick of self-righteous idiots who equate two completely different situations to support an intellectually dishonest argument.
@lionel-mandrake: So, what is it about unreconstructed Confederate apologism that you have such a special problem with? Oh, and would you like a Mint Julip?
@Thomas Paladino: Er, also the fact that the Iraqi shoe bomber is, um, Iraqi. There's a vast difference, and one of the most important is that what I think about what he did doesn't matter because he's, again, Iraqi.
Boy, are you guys glad some dems booed Bush's ridiculous Social Security proposal in 2005. It's all you've got. I'm also glad they booed it, mostly because it would have been insane to put SS dollars into the stock market in 2005.
But go ahead and keep putting an equal sign between everything the two parties do if it makes you happy.
It's part of the culture now - this guy probably would have felt disgrace if he went to prison and didn't withstand a little torture he could tell his friends about.
@Hamilton Nolan: Well, stateside I'd be more concerned with non-consensual manlove. That sort of thing would not fall under the category of martyr-iffic exploits, so I reckon I'd skip telling my friends about that.
09/29/09
Iraq is an actual experience of war, tragedy, death and loss. War vets aren't retarded or kids who need role play to talk to adults. They need support and help.To the extent this helps, any video game, book or movie could help. Other than that, it's just stupid and insulting.
The research money would be better spent at Vet hospitals and job programs.
09/29/09
[www.newyorker.com]
And it was used as part of therapy, in sessions with therapists there at all times. I shudder to think how it might affect someone with PTSD alone in his/her living room...
09/29/09
I guess it's similar to the treatment for phobias, which I understand to be just experiencing whatever you're scared of, until you're not scared of it anymore. Makes perfect sense, right?
09/30/09
Seems to me, people with ptsd need help adjusting to living and working with people who can't relate to their experience, who, for example, think war can be simulated in a video game.
09/24/09
Much more dramatic and rewarding than the usual cutting loose.
09/24/09
09/16/09
09/16/09
Lesson two: fuck it. Don't throw shoes at armed patrols.
09/16/09
Yeah, no kidding. Considering IED's look like soda cans and other common household objects I'm surprised more weren't killed. Hint: don't agitate or surprise people who are patrolling a hostile environment with high-powered weapons.
09/16/09
09/16/09
Me next! Lesson four: this is not an example of "The United States Being An Objectively Evil Country."
09/16/09
09/16/09
Indubitably! I just like the idea of a compendium of basic rules of Not Getting Shot In Iraq And Prompting Misguided Sympathy.
09/16/09
09/15/09
and if you are going to torture at least make sure theres some permanent brain damage. that way if he does make it out alive, his writing will be complete gibberish... or better yet, wouldnt remember the torture at all
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
USA! USA! USA!
09/15/09
09/15/09
I also find it funny how throwing a shoe at one president is good, and interrupting the speech of another one is bad. Of course, of those two, only one is the messiah, so I guess I see it.
09/15/09
Maybe I can help you. They guy who threw the shoe? Not a U.S. Congress member attending a joint session of a legislative body with a 233 year history of civility. The guy who yelled, "You lie?" never lived in a country bombed mercilessly and occupied by an invading army whose leader smugly said his presence was a "going away" present just before the offending shoe was hurled. In fact, the guy who yelled "You lie," was distorting the truth of the situation in order to cynically exploit our treasuring draining healthcare crisis.
It's called context, Sherlock. Get some.
09/15/09
And everything else comes down to the fact that you agree with one of those guys, and disagree with the other one.
09/15/09
Again - Heckling the President in a Joint Session of Congress = BAD.
Throwing a shoe at the President of an occupying nation during war = NOT SO BAD
Alas, I'm sure I'll be posting the same thing next week and hoping that someone will approve this frustrated n00b's comment.
09/15/09
Shoe thrower: A private citizen, not an elected official. A Muslim showing one of the most extreme forms of symbolic contempt that exists in his culture. An aggrieved man protesting the rape and destruction of his country at our hands.
Joe Wilson: NOT A PRIVATE CITIZEN, an elected official, of whom a certain level of civility and decorum is not only expected, but required. An unreconstructed Confederate apologist whose motives had less to do with a disagreement over the President's policy and a lot to do with his aggravation at being spoken to by an uppity negro.
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
Boy, are you guys glad some dems booed Bush's ridiculous Social Security proposal in 2005. It's all you've got. I'm also glad they booed it, mostly because it would have been insane to put SS dollars into the stock market in 2005.
But go ahead and keep putting an equal sign between everything the two parties do if it makes you happy.
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
Not well played, Mr. Muntader. Not well played at all.
09/15/09
Pretty dumb, please don't let him come here. I'd hate for him to throw a shoe bomb next time.
09/14/09
09/14/09
09/14/09