Marine who murdered Iraqi soldier given drugs....

[Bigmack]

The story about the Marine found guilty of stabbing an Iraqi soldier while the two were on guard post was posted on LBN yesterday... not much traffic on the item. I guess we all figured "Yaaaawwn...so what's new".

Turns out there was a little kicker added to the story this morning.

"In the months before he killed Hassin, military doctors were treating him with drugs for anxiety and insomnia. The medications included Ambien, a sleep agent; Trazodone, an antidepressant; and Valium, which is often used to treat anxiety disorders."
- - - -
I'm not making excuses for the kid... just pissed at the military and the Corps in particular.

Fucking gung-ho Reservist gets sent to Iraq, can't hack it (this has deep meaning to all the ex-jarheads out there), and the Corps gives him drugs(!) and sends him out. What kind of fucking country is this? (Rhetorical question... I already know.)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20071213-13 ...

[Contrary1]

1. Kick

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20071213-1304-bn13holmes.html

[glowing]

2. Those drugs induce a delusional state... Ambien use has been shown

to be particuarly nefarious... People have been known to "sleep-walk" through many episodes.. Trazodone induces a zombie like existence, its similare to putting somone out on the operating table... but the person is still awake.. And valium is supposed to mellow you out.. I guess it didn't work well enough in combination with the other 2.

[tridim]

3. And Blackwater ops are allegedly on Roids. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. The only drugs we could get when I was in the marines was GI gin.

AKA - cough syrup with codeine. The clear stuff not the red stuff. And, you had to bribe a pharmacists mate to get that.

[Bobbieo]

5. Not all men are born to be warriors!!!

[Bigmack]

7. You must have been an Air-dale....

gettin' all that good stuff like cough syrup.

Grunts got aspirin and a hearty Tough Shit.

Well... not counting SE Asia. Good shit there. Not in the field, but I do remember those joints with the line of opium painted on.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Yep. An AirWing pogue.

But, we just about had to have pneumonia to get the good stuff.

[fed-up]

6. if he was really bipolar and not just depressed the anti-depressant could have really f*cked w/his

moods and trigger a major manic-depressive episode

just what is not needed in a war zone

why the fuck aren't they sending these guys home???

[Dangerman]

9. Kick.

[flashl]

10. Read DU Post: Bag of Pills

Bag of Pills

In Iraq and Afghanistan, when “suck it up” fails to snap a soldier out of depression or panic, the Army turns to drugs. “Soldiers I talked to were receiving bags of antidepressants and sleeping meds in Iraq, but not the trauma care they needed,” says Steve Robinson, a Defense Department intelligence analyst during the Clinton administration.

Sometimes sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers are prescribed by qualified personnel. Sometimes not. Sgt. Georg Anderas Pogany told Salon that after he broke down in Iraq, his team sergeant told him “to pull himself together, gave him two Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, and ordered him to sleep.”

[Selatius]

11. They fed soldiers amphetamines during the last world war and in Korea.

Now, that stuff is largely banned unless one has a prescription because it turned out a lot of war vets became addicted, and amphetamines were starting to be abused by the general populace. Of course, since PTSD was never recognized in those days, war vets predictably suffered a much higher rate of alcoholism as well as drug addiction. Nevermind other problems such as high incarceration rates and suicide.

[flashl]

12. The military still give amphetamines. Remember this?

Drugs involved in friendly fire deaths
20 December, 2002

Two American pilots accused in a fatal "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan took amphetamines before it occurred, an enquiry has found.

The pilots were taking the drugs prescribed by the United States military when they killed four Canadians last April, according to US Air Force investigators.