U.S. Sending Medicated Soldiers To War

The United States has been fighting the war in Afghanistan for over 10 years now, and some soldiers have been deployed to a war zone for two, three, or even more times. Any reasonable person would think this is a prescription for disaster, and would result in mental problems for many soldiers -- and that is exactly what is happening.

According to the U.S. Army surgeon general, there are at least 110,000 active-duty soldiers that are currently on some fairly serious psychological medications -- antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics, and anti-anxiety drugs. About 8% of active-duty soldiers are on sedatives and another 6% are taking antidepressants -- eight times as many as in 2005 (four years into the war).

Now these numbers would be shocking enough if all these soldiers were stateside and under the supervision of doctors. But it is much worse than that. Many of these soldiers are serving in combat situations in a foreign war zone (where they can receive little or no medical supervision). When they are sent back to Afghanistan, they are given a six month supply of whatever drug or drugs they are on -- leaving them free to take too much of the drug after a particularly hard day, or even sell or trade the drugs to others.

Knowing this, should it be a surprise to anyone that the military is experiencing a rise in suicides, and other types of violent behavior? The government not only is repeatedly sending soldiers into high-stress combat situations, but continues to do so even after the soldiers begin to exhibit psychological problems. And they're doing it for a "nation-building" war that cannot be won. They continue it because the politicians (of both parties) are too cowardly to admit they were wrong and end the war.

A large majority of Americans now believe it was wrong to wage the Afghan War in the first place, and want it ended as soon as possible. Americans don't want to be in Afghanistan, and the Afghani's don't want us in their country. It is time to stop this insanity and bring ALL of our troops back home (where we can take care of those who have been physically or psychologically damaged).