Pentagon Wants to Medicate Soldiers to Numb Them To The Horrors of War

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Pentagon, Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted January 10, 2008.

The DoD is flirting with the idea of medicating soldiers to desensitize them to combat trauma -- will an army of unfeeling monsters result?

In June, the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health acknowledged "daunting and growing" psychological problems among our troops: Nearly 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines and half of National Guard members are presenting with serious mental health issues. They also reported "fundamental weaknesses" in the U.S. military's approach to psychological health. That report was followed in August by the Army Suicide Event Report (ASER), which reported that 2006 saw the highest rate of military suicides in 26 years. And last month, CBS News reported that, based on its own extensive research, over 6,250 American veterans took their own lives in 2005 alone -- that works out to a little more than 17 suicides every day.

...

But I find myself extremely anxious in the face of some of these new suggestions, specifically what is being called the Psychological Kevlar Act of 2007 and use of the drug propranalol to treat the symptoms of posttraumatic stress injuries. Though both, at least in theory, sound entirely reasonable, even desirable, in the wrong hands, under the wrong leadership, they could make the sci-fi fantasies of Blade Runner seem prescient.

The Psychological Kevlar Act "directs the secretary of defense to develop and implement a plan to incorporate preventive and early-intervention measures, practices or procedures that reduce the likelihood that personnel in combat will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other stress-related psychopathologies, including substance use conditions. (Kevlar, a DuPont fiber, is an essential component of U.S. military helmets and bullet-proof vests advertised to be "five times stronger than steel.") The stated purpose of this legislation is to make American soldiers less vulnerable to the combat stressors that so often result in psychic injuries.

...

Since World War II, our military has sought and found any number of ways to override the values and belief systems recruits have absorbed from their families, schools, communities and religions. Using the principles of operant conditioning, the military has found ways to reprogram their human software, overriding those characteristics that are inconvenient in a military context, most particularly the inherent resistance human beings have to killing others of their own species. "Modern combat training conditions soldiers to act reflexively to stimuli," says Lt. Col. Peter Kilner, a professor of philosophy and ethics at West Point, "and this maximizes soldiers' lethality, but it does so by bypassing their moral autonomy. Soldiers are conditioned to act without considering the moral repercussions of their actions; they are enabled to kill without making the conscious decision to do so. If they are unable to justify to themselves the fact that they killed another human being, they will likely -- and understandably -- suffer enormous guilt. This guilt manifests itself as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it has damaged the lives of thousands of men who performed their duty in combat."


....

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/72956/?comments=view&cID=807687&pID=807673#c807687

[wtmusic]

1. Maybe feeling a little guilty after blowing up a wedding party

is a good thing. :shrug:

[gateley]

2. Why don't we just bring our troops home, engage in diplomacy instead of war,

and use the "war" money for helping those who have already been traumatized? Makes sense to me. :shrug:

[Elspeth]

3. Before drugging them, get rid of Blackwater and let the soldiers run the damned war

What kind of drugs are they talking about?

[pitohui]

14. the drug is propanolol, a phobia treatment and a common blood pressure med

it has been used at least in some cases to successfully treat victims of crippling phobias and it seems logically that it could also be useful at least in some cases of PTSD

when i had a phobia i did not use it, although i was aware of it, i responded to a non-pharmaceutical technique, however, i've heard of others who used it and did benefit

i don't think soldiers (or anyone else, such as victims of natural disaster or rape) should be traumatized by life-shattering memories forever, if there is a drug/procedure for removing the memories

[wtmusic]

16. For stage fright it works wonders

used by many professional musicians in all genres.

[crikkett]

17. now that would be a can of worms - imagine the atrocities you can convince people

to carry out if they won't have any memories of them.

It's not just immoral it's horrifying.

Editing to continue because this idea still scares me and I really need to think of something else.

i don't think soldiers (or anyone else, such as victims of natural disaster or rape) should be traumatized by life-shattering memories forever, if there is a drug/procedure for removing the memories

I don't either but the most vehement antiwar protesters are veterans.

In WWI soldiers called their own ceasefire one Christmas Day to play soccer together and sing carols. In WWII more than a quarter of US shots fired missed their mark. That went down to about 20% in Vietnam. Many soldiers admitted to aiming poorly on purpose, because they didn't want to kill another person.

Drug soldiers into complacency and the Pentagon gets what it really wants: killing machines that won't stop.

I think vets help form our conscience. War should have consequences. If it doesn't then we have brought Hell to Earth.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. Sounds like "Universal Soldier"

[TahitiNut]

4. Huh??? Hell ... we "medicated" like crazy in Nam ... and they got pissed.

NOW they think it's a good idea??? Sheeeeeet! That was OUR idea!

[Yuugal]

5. Interesting

"If they are unable to justify to themselves the fact that they killed another human being, they will likely -- and understandably -- suffer enormous guilt. This guilt manifests itself as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it has damaged the lives of thousands of men who performed their duty in combat."

Did they pay these people alot of money to figure this out?

[cynatnite]

6. No, this is not correct...

I've heard about this. It's been around for quite some time. One aspect of this is to help better prepare soldiers for battle so they can deal with the potential trauma. This is a complete twist on something that has gotten wide support from Dems, mental health groups, VA groups and others.

The military completely fell down on the job when dealing with PTSD and this was put together not just because of the virtual reality program, but also to help educate soldiers in mental health issues and so they can recognize symptoms in themselves and others.

This is a good program that shouldn't be twisted like this.

Here are some links:

http://www.projo.com/health/content/KENNEDY_PTSD_08-14-07_6C6NS0M.326f503.html

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,122151,00.html?wh=wh

http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/2007/08/cbs-evening-news-reports-on-virtual.html

http://www.patrickkennedy.house.gov/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={6525BB4B-3825-4C34-8852-CA69CBF99A1A}&DE={FC684401-62EA-437B-87C9-BE92049F6A0C}

http://www.burnadvocates.org/GI.html

Please do more research rather than take one article that makes wide-sweeping assumptions. This is designed to help our military...not turn them into drones or desensitize them.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. There's

quite a discussion going on at the link.

Quite a few conflicting opinions there. Here's a little more to chew on:

Let's play connect-the-dots:

Bush nominee to head Veterans Affairs pledges to move quickly to fix health care problems, AP, Nov 29 2007:
http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/11/30/military/17_29_1711_29_07.txt

"Ret. Army Lt. Gen. James Peake pledged to move quickly to fix gaps in veterans' health care if confirmed as Veterans Affairs secretary...

To alleviate other possible conflicts of interest, Peake also told the Senate committee that he would divest stock holdings in more than 57 companies, many of them major pharmaceutical companies such as Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers, Medtronic, Wyeth and Pfizer, that either currently or might do business with the VA, said a Senate staffer who demanded anonymity because the information had not been made public.

Wyeth is the primary manufacturer of propranolol under the brand name Inderal, and is apparently the sole supplier to Veteran's Affairs.

Wyeth also uses U.S. public universities to promote their drug for PTSD: see UC San Francisco: Common drug, given promptly, reduces incidence of PTSD and the Harvard Gazette: Pill to calm traumatic memories:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/uoc--cdg102203.php

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/03.18/01-ptsd.html

Harvard has a nice tight relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. They promote the industry viewpoint in all areas, including in international intellectual property law (making sure patented drugs aren't turned into generics in Africa, for example).

Burson-Marsteller, the giant PR firm, handles Wyeth marketing:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Burson-Marsteller+Announces+Global+and+U.S.+Healthcare+Leadership...-a0123087451

"Burson-Marsteller's Healthcare Practice provides clients with full-service communications expertise including clinical and scientific communications, scientific and political consensus-building, ally development and grassroots mobilization, patient advocacy, marketing communications and issues management. The Practice and has received international awards and recognition for its work on behalf of clients including AstraZeneca, Allergan and Wyeth. The Practice has a global reach extending to 39 markets worldwide and serves its four largest clients in at least five markets worldwide."

So, that's how a pharmaceutical marketing campaign works - a full-court press across the board, using government and academic connections, the press, the Internet, and "buzz marketing" approaches.

It's a nice big circle, where everyone gets a cut of the action, in one way or another. This particular drug issue is just one example of the much, much larger trend of corruption in government contracting processes, misuse of public resources, and the blending of business and government into one seamless mass.

[cynatnite]

11. So what do you suggest should be done about the soldiers suffering with PTSD?

I'm looking at the end where our soldiers need help. The govt. did next to nothing for them when bush started this ungodly war. It took families, soldiers, vets and health care workers screaming their heads off at the govt to get off their asses and do something.

This program is necessary.

[peacetalksforall]

9. Which part of the story is not correct. There were things said in the article

on a variety of fronts.

Are you talking medication?

Are you talking programming them?

I don't think you or anyone else can make broad statements about this being good or bad - it has to be broken down.

I am horrified by this article.

What is not true - exactly. Please don't assume that all of us can stop and read four different articles.

I usually find it easy to pause and ask myself what the other side of a story is - but I am ready to believe what is here because of all the atrocious things I've heard about the military under Cheney. Evangelical jet pilots, the sub-government managed by the military that reports to the State Dept., the zero convictions, the weight of imagining what it is like for family and friends who suffer the suicide of their precious child and friend - after the child's return, during the roller coaster healing, and if all fails, after the suicide.

These leaders want our child and our money in their pockets. They are probably only doing something so they can keep on doing what they are doing.

The are incapable of peace and paying a fair penny for the earth resources under and over the the feet of the people who live on and own the land.

[cynatnite]

12. It has been broken down...

I've googled this and came across testimony of families who begged the govt. to help their loved ones. Vet groups, families and more have screamed for a long time about getting these troops help. This is what that bill was designed for. Congressman Kennedy is the one who put it together. He's a Dem from Rhode Island and it's gotten a lot of support from a wide variety of groups.

Just because the military has been neglected and abused under bush and cheney doesn't mean we should ignore their needs.

[peacetalksforall]

13. That's exactly the point - there is the pre-war conditioning and the post-war repairing.

It appears you are defending the post war help - few would object.

But, preparing them psychologically or chemically to desensitize them is objectionable.

There are two many things being addressed in the article.

[cynatnite]

15. That is twisting the intention of the bill...

If you read the articles I provided this is also about working with soldiers ahead of time to better prepare them for battle so as to hopefully avoid the mental trauma. That's what the use of the virtual reality is for. It's also about education and making sure soldiers understand they don't have to play tough guy when it comes to their mental health.

A lot more soldiers may soon be asking similar questions. This week, even as former Secretary of State Colin Powell lamented that "the active Army is about broken" from repeated combat tours, President Bush announced that he is thinking about sending as many as 30,000 more troops to Iraq. Nearly simultaneously, the Army released a study that suggests that those troops who have served more than one tour of duty -- true of a large percentage of all military personnel -- are 50 percent more likely to suffer from acute combat stress, a possible precursor to PTSD.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/12/21/ptsd/index.html

Reading the above article should make apparent the obvious need to be as prepared as possible to deal with this kind of mental trauma ahead of time.

In the last hour I have spent googling for information this is the only article that makes this kind of claim. When I research this, I came across page after page after page on the subject. A lot of it is family members discussing the need for passage. I posted the ones that seemed to be a little more objective than what's in the OP's article.

[peacetalksforall]

7. So this is why military courts never convict the ones who commit the acts

that make it into the news - the ones we hear about. How can they convict their 'product'? I am confused. I am depressed. And I'm only a reader. And I only connect with soldiers through the centuries of our existence where we always learn the horrors of each war and draw this little conclusions that it can't happen against, but all we get from the United States of America leaders is fancy fixes - without any acknowledgement that you have to fix something, then it's broke and we know who broke it - the barons, ceo's, the stockholders of the corporations who (use our kids and our taxes) create war and people control for the profit of a few - facilitated by selected politicians and lobbyists and the people the get to vote for them and the people they get to fix the votes and change the Constitution. If we don't stop this, not just Cheney, this country will fall.

[flashl]

10. Iraq soldiers have been 'medicated' since the beginning

and the military have been 'studying' their "fundamental weaknesses" in their approach to psychological health since the beginning.

Weaknesses, have reported:

1) separating returning soldiers with 'pre-existing personality' disorders. Thereby, denying benefits for soldiers with PTSD, and

2) redeploying soldiers with PTSD.

[Skidmore]

18. Let's create monsters. The Pentagon needs to be dismantled

brick by brick until nothing remains of it. The people who make these kinds of decisions are dispicable.

[formercia]

19. Be happy and kill without remorse.

That is sick.

WE should not be there. The soldiers that know this War is bogus are going to feel remorse and suffer from PTSD because they know the truth and that what they are doing goes against every moral argument that has been ingrained in them by what they thought was a just society.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Our Soldiers As The Jem Hadar?

Just keep loading them up with that ketricel white and they'll be good soldiers. Sci-fi come to life.
The Professor

[I work for workers]

21. WTF? A Democrat introduced this plan?

A Kennedy no less?

[reggie the dog]

22. didn't the soldiers

in Vietnam just use heroin to forget? My father was there and he told me that's how it was.

[Ganja Ninja]

23. Couldn't we just reanimate the dead instead?

Or we could take out their brains and use them as the central processors in genocidal killing machines.

Somehow just tranquilizing soldiers just doesn't seem evil enough.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

25. When I was in, we medicated ourselves ...

The Pentagon, I think, was less-than-enthusiastic about that.

:rofl:

As far as the Middle East and PTSD, Kucinich has the best prescription: Get Out!!!

:hi:

[formercia]

27. Shotgunning

Usually a M-97 pump.

Give the troop pot and the war will be over in a Month.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. Shotgun?

I was so far in the rear, the only gun we had was a M14, and its only purpose was to clean, or to be a fashion accessory.

It seemed there was no pot in Germany, only hash. We made do.

I'm sure the creative-minded among the troops have ways of acquiring this and that.

[formercia]

31. Using the barrel

like a bong with a bit of aluminum foil in the breech as a bowl.

Like a big peace pipe.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

33. I understand the concept

but the extra long flash spreader on the M14 would make that awkward.

There's easier ways to deal with hash. Gotta "keep it simple".

[formercia]

36. The Soviets had a big problem with drugs in Afghanistan

There was a shortage of Vodka, so many of the enlisted troops turned to local drugs. The insurgents were more than glad to supply them with opiated hash. The Soviet troops were trading their own weapons to get high. There were reported cases of armored vehicles and and heavy weapons being used for barter.

I would bet it's also a problem with our troops, just like it was in Viet Nam.

[backscatter712]

26. I remember a story about a general that watched Predator.

When he saw how the alien Predator used his ultra-tech alien cloaking device to turn invisible when he stalked Ahnoldt and his comrades, he jumped up and said "I want one of those!"

It seems that another movie the generals have been watching is the Terminator. They want our soldiers to be invincible, emotionless killing machines...

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

28. So toss judgment and restraint right out the window

with the bathwater. After all, what's the need of self control if you won't remember the things you do?

I wonder if they've considered simply attempting to end the war instead. Now wouldn't that be a kinky idea. :shrug:

[ismnotwasm]

30. Disgusting.

"Numb" them during, or after? I'm not aware of any reasonable drug that helps Soldiers numb themselves against horrid memories. As a nurse I've taken care of many Vets who "numbed" themselves with alcohol or heroin. I've worked a the woman's clinic at the VA and have seen incredible damage. This is complete bullshit.

How about a comprehensive health care plan for returned Veterans? How about full health care coverage whether there were "combat" injuries or not? How about a well thought out and supported mental health plan? (Which would require telling soldiers the truth about war, instead of the nationalistic crap they're fed)

My daughter, who spent a year in Afghanistan, has mild PTSD. She'll probably be ok. (I've met Iraq and Afghanistan returnee's as well as Gulf war Vets, who are most definitely NOT ok. Don't get me started about the Vietnam era Vets.) The army doesn't do shit for her after the time she served--nearly 9 years.

I have her little 'graduation book" from book camp. I was looking at the signatures in it just last night. I was wondering how many of those soldiers are alive and well. It was not a good feeling.

[Mandate My Ass]

34. As a rape (PTSD) survivor, the most important aspect of treatment is un-numbing

In order to return to a normal (sic) life after a particularly brutal rape experience, I had to totally stop self-medicating and face the trauma head-on. It isn't easy - far from it - but self medication only exacerbates and prolongs symptomology of PTSD, most of which would be very counterproductive in a military setting where the welfare of many others depends on the sufferer's ability to healthily process his/her former triggers.

[formercia]

32. Jacob's Ladder

This reminded me of the movie.

[AwakeAtLast]

35. That is EXACTLY what I thought of

That movie gave me weird dreams for a long time.