I split this post because the top half are facts based on available research, and whats about to be posted below is opinion. I didnt want to conflate the two.
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In long's case, I dont buy the PTSD angle. Its a scapegoat used way too often to explain the bad things people do and it minimizes/demonizes people that DO have to deal with PTSD and the way it messes with your head... depending on the variety of PTSD you suffer from.
Add to that a US Marine Corporal in Quantico
allegedly strangling his Lance Corporal Wife after the Marine Corps Ball, a US Marine Lance Corporal
allegedly assaulting an Australian Foreign national, an
Army Corporal riding around with his wife's dead body in the trunk, kids in the car and his girlfriend driving... speak to me of a much larger problem. This is a failure of the chain of command to properly control and discipline their troops as well as the military not screening well enough for mental instability.
Normally Id be a bit more soft hearted about this entire thing... ESPECIALLY because of the Marines involved... but Ive served with jackasses that didnt know when to stop drinking.... male AND female... that then went home and beat their spouses.
This bothers me, on a personal level, because I was an Active Duty US Marine just a couple decades ago. Marines do some fuuuuuucked up shit, especially when we're drunk, but there's no excuse for any of this. For the first time in my life Im actually ashamed to call myself a Marine. Im ashamed because IF the shooting was because of PTSD, then Long wasnt taken care of as he should have been while he was in and sure as shit not taken care of when he got out. If its not PTSD, then I dont want to be associated with a psychopath that killed college kids at a bar.
The other two incidents with Marines that I listed above, are more than just a black eye. Those are an ABSOLUTE failure of the command structure, of self discipline and a lack of "policing your own." Every Marine is responsible for every other Marine, regardless of rank... that simple premise failed LCPL Rivera and her family.. it failed the assault victims in Australia, and it failed the victims in this bar shooting.