I agree war is extremely stressfull, however that can not excuse such behavior.
While any case of PTS differs from individual to individual, why in hell would you think to throw a harmless puppy off a cliff. Not only that, but they were talking to the animal as if to mock it (such as "awww" etc).
My dad is in the military and suffered badly from PST when he came back from iraq the first time (90s), and not once would he, or any of his friends (who also suffered) have done anything like that.
The simple fact is, this guy has problems. BIG PROBLEMS, which were obviously there before he joined the military.
He is a adult, capable of judging right from wrong and what he did shows the sick side of humanity.
One thing I would like to note, is that he shruggs his shoulders when told "that was mean" and to some degree it seems as if he could possibly have regretted throwing the animla off the cliff (his facial expression seems to show some level of remorse).
I in no way condone what was done in in this video, but you really don't have much of a grasp of what it is like overseas.
The situation is much different than it was during the very
short time period that was the first Gulf War. I honestly don't
think one could legitimately compare the two at all. Living in
constant fear for your life will make you very callous and
insensitive in regards to life other than your friends or your
own. I would also like to point out that the effects of PTSD
are felt once you are no longer in harm's way. It's, "POST
Traumatic Stress Disorder." If you honestly think that people
had these issues before being deployed overseas, then you
are mistaken. This is the result of war and if you don't like it,
then fine. War is not a pretty and heroic thing. It is mostly
about being scared, confused, and relying on your training to
accomplish a mission and stay alive. The sense of humor that
the Marine in the video has is in poor taste and is disturbing,
but you know very little about that man. In fact, the only two
things that you can be certain about is that he threw a puppy
off a cliff and that he's a Marine. I wouldn't be so quick to
judge, b/c he is doing something that most people are
unwilling to do themselves and this serving in our nation's
military. FWIW, this was likely filmed in Afghanistan, b/c of
the mountainous terrain and presence of random, stray
puppies. Most of the fire bases there have a problem with
overpopulation of dogs. When I was there in 2002-03,
soldiers would actually shoot dogs every few months, due to
overpopulation and this was actually something that they
were ordered to do. I didn't like it then and I don't like now,
but I feel that people have a very poor idea about the stress
that goes with being over there. When I was there we
averaged a few firefights a month and received several base
camp rocketings a week(its actually worse now). That kind of
stress can take its toll on a person emotionally, so I am not the least bit suprised by this video. I can also bet that some of you probably wouldn't even bat an eyebrow if you were there too.