Jimothy McFakename (Note: Not his real name) was a mental health specialist at Camp Bucca: He took 19 weeks of specialized training to be able to help counsel his fellow soldiers ... and also, any insurgents the U.S. military captured. Yes, a big part of Jim's job was providing therapy to the enemy. So it's theoretically possible, albeit unlikely, that Jim was at one point the official government-mandated shoulder-to-cry-on for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
So, what kind of patients did Jim deal with on a day-to-day basis? "We had a guy who got his arms blown off once trying to plant an IED [improvised explosive device] not far outside the prison. He'd actually been released from there recently. ... [He had] wired his personal telephone up to the IED he was planting when someone called him. Blew off the side of his head, a chunk of his shoulder, and both his arms, and he lived." It became Jim's job to talk to his guy, to try to lift his spirits. "He was suicidal due to him failing to kill any of us. I literally had to hold back the laughter as he wild waved his stumps around while my interpreter informed me he was demanding to be released or he would kill himself."
U.S. Army
If you want to be taken seriously, maybe don't act like a Monty Python character.
204 Comments