Stoned in the Sandbox

Anyone that knows any Vietnam veterans knows that drug abuse among the troops reached epidemic levels as soldiers turned to a variety of cheap and easy to obtain narcotics to cope with the horrible conditions of combat. Hash, heroin, marijuana, and alcohol flowed into the military biomass as soldiers faced day after miserable day in a hopeless war that had lost its purpose. Surviving minute to minute became the task at hand.

Fast forward 40 years to Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have a story you’re not going to read on CNN.com or see on the evening news. The US military has banned even alcohol consumption in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of the cultures of those countries. As a result, no soldiers drink alcohol, right?

The full story is suppressed as hell, so good sources are not easily found. ABC News took a glance (by restricting the story to veterans, not active troops) pointing in the right direction. Readers are invited to provide additional links.

This New York Times piece just barely scratches the surface of the surface restricting its focus to alcohol. Alcohol is just the first pit stop down this ugly rabbit hole that the mainstream media won’t go near. If you don’t think the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are making it through each day via a widespread epidemic of substance abuse, you’re in la la land.

Further, how are the soldiers supplied the alcohol and narcotics condemned and banned by the military? Where does it come from? Who is supplying drugs to US soldiers? It’s right in the link above. Read the second line of the article. In case you can’t access NYT, I’ll furnish the sentence:

In May 2004, Specialist Justin J. Lillis got drunk on what he called "hajji juice," a clear Iraqi moonshine smuggled onto an Army base in Balad, Iraq, by civilian contractors, and began taking potshots with his M-16 service rifle.

What civilian contractors operate in Iraq under the cloak of darkness possible to establish an entire distribution network for narcotics and alcohol to our troops? What type of profit oriented "black operatives" might be able accomplish this lucrative business without oversight?

Afghanistan might be a little different from Iraq. They make what in Afghanistan? What is happening?

The epidemic permeates throughout the network just like gossip. This British article dates back a year and a half as does this piece from Scotland. Think things have improved?

I’ve posted repeatedly about PTSD. One in six of the 589,000 veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, a rate expected to climb higher since it can take months and sometimes years for the condition to manifest.

I have an idea. Let’s incarcerate the returning addicted and mentally ill soldiers on drug charges so they can turn a healthy profit for our prison industrial complex.

God Bless America.