Pentagon, Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War

Pentagon, Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted January 10, 2008.

The DoD is flirting with the idea of medicating soldiers to desensitize them to combat trauma -- will an army of unfeeling monsters result?


In June, the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health acknowledged "daunting and growing" psychological problems among our troops: Nearly 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines and half of National Guard members are presenting with serious mental health issues. They also reported "fundamental weaknesses" in the U.S. military's approach to psychological health. That report was followed in August by the Army Suicide Event Report (ASER), which reported that 2006 saw the highest rate of military suicides in 26 years. And last month, CBS News reported that, based on its own extensive research, over 6,250 American veterans took their own lives in 2005 alone -- that works out to a little more than 17 suicides every day.

That's all pretty bleak, but there is reason for optimism in the long-overdue attention being paid to the emotional and psychic cost of these new wars. The shrill hypocrisy of an administration that has decked itself in yellow ribbons and mandatory lapel pins while ignoring a human crisis of monumental proportion is finally being exposed.

On Dec. 12, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called a hearing on "Stopping Suicides: Mental Health Challenges Within the Department of Veterans Affairs." At that hearing suggestions were raised and conversations begun that hopefully will bear fruit.

But I find myself extremely anxious in the face of some of these new suggestions, specifically what is being called the Psychological Kevlar Act of 2007 and use of the drug propranalol to treat the symptoms of posttraumatic stress injuries. Though both, at least in theory, sound entirely reasonable, even desirable, in the wrong hands, under the wrong leadership, they could make the sci-fi fantasies of Blade Runner seem prescient.

The Psychological Kevlar Act "directs the secretary of defense to develop and implement a plan to incorporate preventive and early-intervention measures, practices or procedures that reduce the likelihood that personnel in combat will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other stress-related psychopathologies, including substance use conditions. (Kevlar, a DuPont fiber, is an essential component of U.S. military helmets and bullet-proof vests advertised to be "five times stronger than steel.") The stated purpose of this legislation is to make American soldiers less vulnerable to the combat stressors that so often result in psychic injuries.

more...

http://alternet.org/healthwellness/72956/?page=entire

drugs have been 'dispensed' soldiers, and the military have been "studying" suicides in Iraq and US since 2003.

Yet, multiple deployments continues, soldiers are separated with 'personality disorders' and left without benefits, and we spent 2B a week in Iraq?

on steroids.

I have to go find the bill and see if it also prevents mentally unbalanced people from using one...that would quickly shrink the size of our military...

"Nearly 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines and half of National Guard members are presenting with serious mental health issues. "





War is not healthy for children and other living things....

Will work perfectly if implemented.

It's my understanding from luminaries such as Jonah Goldberg, Rush Limbaugh, and other cheerleaders for this war that all our military personnel are volunteers, and once they sign on the dotted line, our government can do anything it wants with these citizens because it's all cloaked under the impenetrable rubric of "national security" and "common defense." Naturally, the 17- and 18-year-olds being recruited are fully cognizant and informed about the rewards and the risks involved, so it's their own darned fault and why are we pantywaists and pacifists worrying about this anyway?