This is part of why I detest the previous adminstration

[pecunium]

I like to say "they broke my Army" when discussing Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush.

This like this are part of the reason why.

A broader investigation of Fort Carson soldiers returning from Iraq found regular use of drugs and alcohol to "self-medicate," a growing number of waivers allowing troubled personalities into the ranks, and an unwillingness to use programs meant to help soldiers cope because of the stigma attached.

The findings represent the conclusion of an exhaustive investigation following a cluster of 11 homicides and two attempted murders committed or alleged to have been committed by 14 soldiers between 2005 and 2008 that led to the formation of an Army task force and a call for inquiry by then-Sen. Ken Salazar.

Using focus groups and a survey that together gathered information from more than 3,000 soldiers, the report goes well beyond the accused soldiers to offer a portrait of the impact of seven years of war on the Army and its soldiers. ...


The report also found that the Army's programs to detect behavioral problems and deal with them early regularly failed. Only 20 percent of the unit's soldiers who tested positive for drug use were enrolled in the mandatory Army Substance Referral Program after 30 days; only 60 percent were enrolled after 180 days.

The pervasive substance abuse among some troops, mental illness already present in recruits and the failure of Army leaders to get soldiers the help they need likely contributed to the violence, said Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general.

"Those three in combination are a really toxic mix," Schoomaker said.

The investigation also highlighted the impact on an Army recruitment program under strain after years of war. Hard-pressed to fill recruitment goals, the Army began issuing a higher number of "moral waivers" between 2004 and 2007 to individuals with criminal records or drug problems, the report found.

Soldiers who entered the Army with those waivers were two to three times more likely to test positive for illicit drugs and significantly more likely to be removed from the ranks for disciplinary problems.

Three of the soldiers accused of homicide wouldn't have made it into the Army without waivers, according to the report.

This is the sort of thing which took the better part of 15 years to get past the hump of after Viet-nam.

We keep being told that morale is high, that the programs for mental health are working, that the Army is being proactive on the subject. I have my doubts. They are born of personal experience. I didn't want to see a shrink when I got back. I probably should have.

I was probably better able than most to buffalo the shrink, but I think he was predisposed to believe I was "ok." I was self-medicating. Self-medication isn't, ipso facto evil. The trick is to avoid developing habit of dependence. I don't know that physician-directed medication has a better record of avoiding that; absent outside help to deal with the underlying problems. I had friends, and a support network. Not everyone has that.

I love the Army. I like soldiers.

They both deserve a lot better than they are getting.

Comments

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

The notion that it is the duty of politicians to ensure their armed forces are never put in harm's way (however defined) except as an absolute last resort (Churchill - 'jaw jaw is always better than war war') and then to ensure they have the very best care when they return from that last resort appears to have fallen out of fashion.

Not that it ever really was in fashion.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I think your last sentence pretty much says it. I've edited some military histories that touch on this: in the U.S., at least, it seems that WWII was the only war in which we treated veterans at all well.