Good article, maybe someone somewhere will start to do something.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... t=0&page=1

It is a problem,and a growing one but how much of it is down to PTSD or were they just dodgy in the first place. We all know there are thieves and vagabonds in the forces too, the only difference is that they wear the uniform. I've always wondered if some of these guys would have ended up in jail whether or not they had joined the army. Bresslaw will know more about this as he's probably seen them coming through the nick.

When I hear expressions such as the one in that article where he kicked the shit out of someone 'just like he was trained to do in the army' I start doubting. Training is around controlled aggression not just going mad and beating someone up. I bet he was the same at school. The British forces are not filled with Steven Seagals and unarmed combat training is never much more than basic for the vast majority of soldiers.

PTSD is a real problem though. But even here there is two sides to it. It's become almost a badge of honour to some people. I know several people who have never heard a shot fired in anger or been in a particularly stressed situation but claim to be traumatised. The real problem is that there is still a stigma. Did you know that even today, if you go for councilling and are diagnosed with PTSD you are medically downgraded in your Pulheems assessment? In my experience the real PTSD victims tend to suffer quietly.

I agree that there seems to be a certain amount of glory to claiming to be suffering from PTSD as there is when slightly unhappy people claim to be depressed, and also that as they recruit from the poorest areas, dehumanise them to an extent and then boot them straight back to where they came from but fitter and angrier that there's going to be inevitably cases like the ones in the article.

What I was hoping for was somekind of release programme which is more than just handing your kit in and shutting the door on your way out. I reckon that's where half the problem lies. They used to have resettlement programmes but I think they closed them down about the same time they stopped ordering body armour.