6 hours ago, Kalessin said:

 

I think the Whitecloaks are more likely a critical retrospective of the US armed forces in Vietnam - or at least the officer class and the CIA - the "Questioners". Indeed, it's a toss-up between the Whitecloak Questioners and the Myrdraal as to which does the most damage unprovoked ...

That's entirely plausible.

 

One doesn't have to look far to see examples of PTSD in Rand, Faile, Perrin, and even Mat.

 

A topic I'm sure RJ knew all about.

RJ had said the Whitecloaks were partially  influenced by Nazi's.  A group that thought if you didn't act and behave exactly how they thought you should then you were evil.  Who thought only they knew the right way one should live and think.  Like the Nazi's they could also do pretty dark deeds and totally justify it as protecting the world.