Soldier drug use increases

By now, everyone knows about the “surge” into Iraq. However, I will spare you from having to read another editorial about this decision. Instead, I want to focus on a growing trend in Iraq, which no one is talking about: the increase in drug use by U.S. soldiers to cope with stress.

In the president’s remarks last week, he basically conceded that for the past four years in Iraq, we have been asking our soldiers to do more with less. Sadly, this wasn’t the first time this administration said something along those lines, as Rumsfeld once told the troops “You go to war with the army you have, not the one you want.” As a result of this stubbornness and warped perception of efficiency, the strain and stress on our soldiers has been staggering.

Just how hard has the government been stressing our soldiers in Iraq? According to Foreign Policy in Focus, the average tour of duty for a soldier in Iraq has been 300 days. During the first Persian Gulf War, the average tour of duty was only 156 days! Furthermore, the very reliable Government Accountability Office (GAO) has estimated that since 2003, there has been an average of 2,500 attacks on U.S. soldiers every month, that’s 83 attacks per day, for four years! Because of this overwhelming fatigue and fear, it is not surprising to learn that more and more soldiers are turning to drugs to escape from their surroundings.

So how many of our soldiers are using drugs in Iraq? Reliable statistics on soldiers using drugs are hard to come by, but the Pentagon estimates that between 3,000 to 8,000 soldiers in Iraq have used marijuana, cocaine, heroin or amphetamines. While these estimated rates are nowhere near as bad as Vietnam, where TV footage of soldiers getting high became a common image, many argue that the Pentagon overlooks the abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs.

Teri Weaver of Stars and Stripes says that alcohol abuse is common throughout the forces deployed in Iraq, since soldiers are only truly punished if they are found to be under the influence before being sent out on missions. Furthermore, according to Terry Allen, reporter for In These Times, soldiers are often being given a multitude of anti-depressants, sleep medications, and drugs for posttraumatic stress disorders. Allen notes that many soldiers are given so much Valium that they reportedly have no emotions when they are in the field; however, these same soldiers are not considered in the Pentagon’s estimates.

Clearly there will always be times when soldiers use drugs to deal with the stresses of war, but Iraq is certainly not one of those times. This growing drug trend is man-made, since it was our government’s poor planning that put our troops in the difficult position they find themselves in today. I still marvel at the fact that our government consistently expects our soldiers to overachieve in Iraq without the necessary troop strength to do so, yet the drug problem among the troops is still moderate. Maybe it’s indicative of the fact that the discipline and strength of our many soldiers can never be destroyed by the incompetence and recklessness of a few politicians.

Patrick Molnar is a buisness sophomore and Mustang Daily political columnist.