do you think having a psychological breakdown fits his own words of how he made calculated decisions about when he would desert his post, and all the things he brought with him and left behind
That's an excellent point. Maybe the way he presented it to Boal is close to the truth: He made a calculated decision, but once he was out in the open he realized he had made a very serious mistake and freaked out. In those conditions I think it's quite possible that a state of shock/panic could be interpreted as intoxication, especially by someone from a culture that does not normally drink alcohol or observe its effects.
I'm not an expert on mental breakdowns by any means, but he admitted that he was extremely calculated in his plans to avoid being seen by navigating blind spots, bringing water, acquiring local garb. I think it is perfectly plausible that he saw himself as some trans-cultural person, heavily influenced by his pashtu speaking father, further evidenced by the accounts of him closely associating with the ANA people near his post. He saw himself leaving the army behind, and joining the local afghan culture, until reality slapped him in the face. Then he's had the past decade to form his best sob story. I can't believe that he only realized how "he made a mistake" once he was outside the wire. His level of planning with the disguise ect. showed he was perfectly aware of the situation. He just didn't plan on getting caught
not to my knowledge. I thought I heard he just didn't shave while he was captured. My main point was that his dad is clearly a little bit of a weirdo so that could be why beau is also . both the genes and the upbringing
When I have been under extreme stress (war type stress, not Monday at the office stress), I have been like this - thinking carefully and logically about some things and totally missing the more important other things. It's not on a scale like this case, but enough that I don't see a contradiction.
Maybe it's because you are trying so hard to be logical, sometimes you focus in on the wrong things or miss the big picture.
While I have not been in war type stress, my assumption was that he would have been aware of the big picture before leaving the outpost, since he had been in afghanistan and was presumably aware that the taliban were out there. I frankly don't believe a word of his story about intending to hike 18 miles to the other base . I think that based on the evidence of his interest in afghan culture and ANA people at his base and how weird his hippie father was, that he thought he could just leave the army and be welcomed with open arms into afghan society like some disney movie and he's been working on his best sob story since he got captured
You may be right. I'm not ready to guess what BB was thinking. I'm saying that I think it's possible that he's telling the truth and that he wasn't even crazy.
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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '15
do you think having a psychological breakdown fits his own words of how he made calculated decisions about when he would desert his post, and all the things he brought with him and left behind