With the Iraq war in its fifth year, a new subset of deserter is emerging, military doctors and lawyers said: accomplished soldiers who abscond reluctantly, as a result of severe emotional trauma from their battle experiences.

makes a great evening of entertainment for the entire family.

Under the military's pre-deployment screening process, troops with serious mental disorders are not being identified - and others whose mental illness is known are being deployed anyway.
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The military relies increasingly on antidepressants, some with potentially dangerous side effects, to keep troops with known psychological problems in the war zone.

Military investigative reports and interviews with family members indicate that some service members who committed suicide in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants, including a class of drugs known as SSRIs.
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Some service members who experienced depression or stress before or during deployments to Iraq described being placed on Zoloft, Wellbutrin and other antidepressants, with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring. Some of the drugs carry warnings of an increased risk of suicide, within the first weeks of their use.
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Also, the military's top health official, Assistant Defense Secretary William Winkenwerder Jr., indicated in testimony to Congress last summer that service members were being allowed to deploy on psychotropic medications only when their conditions had "fully resolved."

Once at war, some unstable troops are kept on the front lines while on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring. And some troops who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone, increasing the risk to their mental health.

Soldiers mental instability, coupled with the potential of these drugs to induce severe, hazardous effects [see below] put their lives and the lives of their fellow soldiers at risk. "What you have is a military stretched so thin, they've resorted to keeping psychologically unfit soldiers at the front," said Stephen Robinson, the former longtime director of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

1. It's wartime, which explains the military being more highly concerned

2. The number of desertions is much lower than it was before the Iraq war started

For those of us who can do math, that's lower.

It won't happen like that.  Instead, you'll see a massive struggle between the Shia, backed by Iran, and the Sunni, backed by Saudi Arabia.  That will almost certainly lead to regional war, as the Sunni and Shia vie for local dominance.  That could easily involve nuclear weapons.

Now, your reaction to that might be "so what?", but there are a few problems:

1. Oil prices will sky-rocket.  That will impact the economies of every modern economy on the planet

2. Millions will die.  It will make the "killing fields" of Cambodia look like a game - think the 30 years war, but with modern weapons

It won't happen like that.  Instead, you'll see a massive struggle between the Shia, backed by Iran, and the Sunni, backed by Saudi Arabia.  That will almost certainly lead to regional war, as the Sunni and Shia vie for local dominance.  That could easily involve nuclear weapons.

Now, your reaction to that might be ....

LMAOROTF

nice to see that you got in the smoking mushroom cloud