How Many More Greens?

Via Shake's Sis, who is rightly astounded and angry, comes this bit of mind-boggling news about the alleged ringleader of the group of four other troops accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and then setting her on fire, killing her, and murdering her family.

Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel — a drug to regulate his mood — and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."

On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire.

The carnage first was assumed to be the work of insurgents. That changed in late June when two members of Green's unit told their superiors of suspicions that soldiers were involved in the killings. Now the Army believes Green and four other soldiers are responsible. One of them has confessed and provided information to prosecutors; in testimony at his court-martial, the soldier identified Green as the ringleader.

The Army, according to the AP's investigation:

• Three months passed without Army doctors and clinicians from the Combat Stress Team having any contact with Green. He was summoned for a second examination on March 20, 2006 — eight days after the killing of the family. Green was diagnosed as having an anti-social personality disorder and declared unfit for service. The process of discharging him began a week later and he was sent home.

• The Army's own investigation of Green's initial treatment, prompted by concerns he and others would use mental health problems as a defense in trial, is highly critical. Among the most salient findings from a July review of Green's treatment: "Although a safety assessment was conducted, there is no safety plan addressing how Soldier (Green) will keep from acting on his homicidal thoughts."

• Lt. Col. Elizabeth Bowler, a psychiatrist and Army reservist from California who took over the Combat Stress Team with Green's unit in January, recommended his discharge after the second examination in March. Yet she wrote a final evaluation that said Green exhibited no traits that would indicate dangerously erratic or homicidal moods, according to documents viewed by The AP.

So, knowing that they had a possible homicidal maniac on their hands, the Army kicked him out. Fair enough. But they appear to have done no follow-up to make sure he was being treated and under observation by civilian authority or by the VA. In other words, he could quite easily have gone on to do something similiar in his hometown.

The military's new guidelines in November says that medical personnel evaluating whether a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is fit for service are now required to review all medical records and any mental illnesses that are not expected to be resolved in one year will be cause for discharge. What happens then?

Veteran's right groups have been complaining for over two years that the Bush administration has consistently underfunded the VA and has even cut back on mental health provisions. Yet some studies suggest that as many as 15% of all troops who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan may have mental problems related to their service - and that pool is now around a million strong. In any case, a dishonorable discharge will make any serviceman inelligible for VA benefits and the large proportion of homeless veterans (up to 47% of all homeless males, according to some studies) also makes effective mental health monitoring difficult.

Nor does there seem to be adequate liason between the military and civilian law enforcement. If the military is releasing someone who might be a danger not only to themselves but to others, don't you think they should tell someone? Statistically, Green is unlikely to be a single worst-case scenario.

Yet another way in which the Bush administration has failed and yet another way in which their incompetently run misadventures have become a quagmire.