Soldier Accused as Coward Says He Is Guilty Only of Panic Attack

[WilliamPitt]

Soldier Accused as Coward Says He Is Guilty Only of Panic Attack

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: November 6, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/national/06SOLD.html

ORT CARSON, Colo., Nov. 5 — Not since the Vietnam War has the Army punished a soldier for being too scared to do his duty. But on Friday, Sgt. Georg Andreas Pogany will appear in front of military court here to face charges he was a coward.

The Army says he is guilty of "cowardly conduct as a result of fear" and not performing his duties as an interrogator for a squad of Green Berets in Samarra, Iraq. But Sergeant Pogany says he did not run from the enemy or disobey orders. The only thing he is guilty of, he says, is asking for help for a panic attack.

On his second night in Iraq, one month ago, Sergeant Pogany, 32, saw an Iraqi cut in half by a machine gun. The sight disturbed him so much, he said, he threw up and shook for hours. His head pounded and his chest hurt.

"I couldn't function," Sergeant Pogany said in an interview on Tuesday in his lawyer's office in Colorado Springs, not far from Fort Carson. "I had this overwhelming sense of my own mortality. I kept looking at that body thinking that could be me two seconds from now."

...more...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Must be one o them libruls!! Draw and quarter him, I say!...

...that'll teach him to act like a human being.

[ColumbusGirl]

2. Wow

This leaves me almost speechless.

This is the support we have from an administration of cowards who were never enlisted or their leader who went AWOL instead of reporting for his cushy National Guard Duty.

There really is no limit to the depths these people will go to is there?

It's difficult to comprehend how absolutely shameless and evil these people are.

[Voltaire99]

5. Agreed - this is institutional depravity (n/t)

[Barad Simith]

7. um ... no.

"There really is no limit to the depths these people will go to is there?"

No, there really is not. Same goes for the people who vote for them: wolves in sheep's clothing.

[bluestateguy]

3. Let me get this straight

The Bush Administration, led by the likes of Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rice, etc. are going to charge this young man with cowardice?

We heard a lot of talk in the Clinton Administration from Republicans abuot "moral authority", only I never remember the Clinton Pentagon charging a soldier with cowardice.

[uh_Clem]

13. "The Bush Administration, led by the likes of Bush, Cheney,...

...Wolfowitz, Perle, Rice, etc. are going to charge this young man with cowardice?"

Well, if they're not experts in the subject, who is?

Who knows, 30 years from now, the Supreme Court might select this young man for President.

[newyawker99]

23. Hi uh_Clem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[RandomKoolzip]

25. Hey, nice handle!

Welcome to Du, fellow Firesign fan! Gird your grid fo a big one...

[w13rd0]

4. Well...

...Rumsfeld could just order them doped up so the horror is blunted. I'm sure that's in the works. Can't have soldiers having human reactions to the horrors of war, who then would fight and die in the war for peace? The thing that strikes me is that you can't expect someone to be numb to these kinds of atrocities and then march them out to "win hearts and minds" or "win the peace". We're looking at a whole new generation of psychological trauma. One thing I noticed about "Army Operations" that was different from the other first person shooter "games" out there... no gore.

[truthisfreedom]

6. ok, so we have a human being who doesn't want to kill other human beings?

MAKE HIM WALK THE PLANK, I SAY! (not. give him a pillow, a glass of fresh filtered water, a change of clothes after a nice long hot shower, and some therapy, preferably including sexual healing. and a nice visit to a chiropractor the next day.)

[Kinkistyle]

8. Why is does this offense even EXIST?

Can someone tell me why there even is a law against being a "coward" in the military, huh? Please? Why doesn't this fall under "insubordination" or something like that?

[alwynsw]

9. If you have to ask, you don't understand

Soldiers in combat must be able to depend upon their fellow soldiers at all times. Try to imagine yourrself in a shooting situation. Every soldier must do his/her part to assure the effectiveness and safety of the unit. It's that simple and that complex.

I'm neither supporting or bashing those who made the decision to prosecute the soldier in question. I/we simply do not have enough facts to make that judgement. I can say this much. For military members, especially in combat areas, "I don't feel like going to work today" is not an option.

Insofar as the decision to prosecute the soldier in question, the process begins with his immediate superior, either his platoon sergeant or platoon leader (usually a lieutenant) reporting the incident. The ultimate decision to prosecute usually is made at the batallion level.

I can tell you from experience that it generally takes outright refusal to perform to cause this charge to be brought.

Bear in mind that this will be heard by a military tribunal (court). Many civilian laws do not apply, therefore civilian law defenses often do not apply.

That being said, do I like the situation? Not one whit.

[NashVegas]

11. Should be a Medical Discharge or Medical Leave

Someone dealing with anxiety disorder has no place in the field.

[noonwitch]

18. Exactly-the recruiters don't catch all the mental health problems early

I had a friend who enlisted after high school graduation. She was somewhat unstable most of her teen years (she had delusionary boyfriends who drove fancy cars-it wasn't just a lie, she really believed this was true) and they sent her to Mississippi in August for basic. She was lucky to have a sympathetic CO, who picked up on her problems and made sure she got a medical discharge.

Aas far as this case goes, if the guy asked his commanding officer for help, then I think he was not really showing cowardice, he was recognizing a limitation and being responsible about it.

[Robb]

16. "I don't feel like going to work today"

I would think, frankly, the fault would have to lie with the training. If the military can't keep a soldier who's going to go "uh-uh" on the line off the line, what's gone wrong with the training/selection process? :shrug:

[prolesunited]

19. However

If you read the article, this was not the case at all.

From the article:
When he informed his superior that he was having a panic attack and needed to see someone, Sergeant Pogany said he was given two sleeping pills and told to go away. A few days later, Sergeant Pogany was put on a plane and sent home.
<snip>

Sergeant Pogany said he never told his superiors that he wouldn't go on missions. Rather, he said that he was not fit to work and needed help.

"I wanted to speak to someone who could tell me what was going on," he said.

A few days later, after he was confined to his room and put on a suicide watch, he was taken to a bigger base where he met with a psychologist who evaluated him and wrote, "the soldier reported signs and symptoms consistent with those of a normal combat stress reaction."

[jonoboy]

10. image what the others are going thru

the ones that have suppressed it all so that it comes out later.

Send Bush & co and lets see if they handle the blood and gore, the cowards.

[Maine-i-acs]

12. High profile case = set an example.

They want the other soldiers to see how shameful backing out of combat is.

There has to be some internal reassignment that can be done instead, without bringing this to the news filters. I think he is a scapegoat.

He needs a fan club. "http://savingsgtpogany" anyone?

[Kemet]

14. Maybe the officers should watch

Kubrick's "Paths of Glory"

How much have we evolved :eyes:

[newyawker99]

24. Hi Kemet!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Mental disorders are not allowed in battle.

Personally, I can't think of another circumstance where they're more appropriate or more likely to appear than in battle.

[TryingToWarnYou]

17. What a shame..

That they are going to make this soldier an 'example'...almost reminds me of the one that got slapped by Patton. I have GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and its pretty bad for me at times, but I can't imagine having to witness the horrors of war and not be allowed my little bit of Xanax. At the same time though, if he is special forces qualified, he should have been mentally screened as well as periodically evaluated to ensure he was fit for duty.

[bmbmd]

27. Interestingly enough

Buspar was studied by the Army for just such an indication. Non-sedating, low habit-forming potential-they thought it might prevent
anxiety in battle. Didn't work out for some reason.

[TryingToWarnYou]

31. Really?

I haven't tried Buspar, nor do I really want to. Im on such a small amount of Xanax that it's just enough to take the edge off without making me feel like I took some kind of drug. It's worked wonders in my life.

[JackSwift]

20. Sounds like rational human behavior to me

Same as Bush on 9/11 flying around in circles trying to stay out of harm's way. Or his avoidance of going to Vietnam, etc.

[Maine-i-acs]

21. Rushed into Arabic classes and shipped to the interrogation squad.

I bet he's seen worse than a guy chopped in half by machine gun fire.

That has an ominous ring. I recall that Timothy McVeigh reported seeing something similar when he was a gunner in Oil War I.

[Mandate My Ass]

22. PTSD - a classic case

now he's dealing with secondary wounding, not being understood or cared for but being punished for his reaction to the trauma by the very people who should be helping him. You think the military would be familiar with this disorder by now and treat it appropriately, not exacerbate it by labeling traumatized solidiers as cowards. :(

[Ganja Ninja]

26. He should have phrased it like Bush.

He only wanted to get out of harms way like the preznit.

[bushisanidiot]

28. Oh, Thought They Were Talking about Our Chickenhawk Commander In Chief

AWOL's a scared little boy peein' his pants, hiding from reporters so he doesn't have to answer any hard questions about WHERE THE HELL HE WAS in 1972!!!

[Blitz]

29. The cowardice charge has been dropped

eom

[metisnation]

30. BUSH WAS AWOL

www.awolbush.com

[Zhade]

32. The US military clearly understands that having a conscience is cowardly!

</motherfuckingsarcasm>

[markses]

33. Headline should read: Metaphysical Charge disputed by Science

The symptoms of the "panic attack" are, of course, the same symptoms as those of so-called "cowardice." But "cowardice" is like a medieval understanding of agency; the scientific worldview will not allow it. How does this soldier get out of an outdated and bizarre charge of cowardice? It wasn't me, it was my body. And y'know what. he's absoltuely goddamn right. Of course, the military, since it is involved in archaic operations like war, needs archaic categories like "cowardice" and "honor" both utter bullshit on their face.

[roguevalley]

34. consider this the 'patton slap in the face' to kids with nervous disorders

from this shit. Cowardice? Are there any real men in the repug
party or is that another fallacy? This is being designed to make
a possible hemorrhage of kids falling apart from happening. How
many of them will want this charge hung on them, along with their
own messed up feelings of fear and desperation?

[MadMan]

35. What a terrible ordeal for this guy...

... to see what he saw and then to be faced with a military trial for reacting the only way his body and mind would permit.

Which brings me to them damn intellectually dishonost freepers. Remember how Clinton was not qualified to be Commander-in-Chief because he "dodged" Vietnam? Where are these same morans now to level that charge against Bush and his henchmen? Oh freepers, keep faking that outrage. We see right through your blind hypocrisy.