"Besides bringing antibiotics and painkillers, military personnel nationwide are heading back to Iraq with a cache of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications.
The psychotropic drugs are a bow to a little-discussed truth fraught with implications: Mentally ill service members are being returned to combat."

A friend was speaking with some young vets home on leave. They realize they've become accomplices to war crimes, but don't think they can do anything else in this economy, and what with $40,000 bonuses and all the perks and benefits it's a no-brainer for them. Someday their consciences may catch up to them, and then they'll need all the drugs the government can provide them to keep from blowing their brains out.
[www.signonsandiego.com]

bull@#$%& among truth. The note you need to add here is that, due to recruiting limitations, the Army is now accepting recruits who are on antidepressants and similar psyhcoactive meds. There was a good set of articles recently in some news rag, I disremember which one, about how the new boot camp is 'kinder and friendlier' to improve retention.

Hey, I had a little problem once while I was being shot at too. NUttin wrong with it, and these boys are all still fully functional. Thanks to modern pharmaceuticals. It's actually a damn good thing that the military is recognizing mental health as being an issue, and treating it proactively.

Oh, and your friend is a serious @#$%&hat for going and talking to some young vets and telling them they are 'war criminals'. Does he picket funerals on weekends too ?

cbelt3 Wrote:
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> Oh, and your friend is a serious @#$%&hat for going
> and talking to some young vets and telling them
> they are 'war criminals'.

He was telling them about some of the war crimes our troops have committed over there and they freely admitted they'd seen the same or worse, and called themselves "war criminals," but didn't know what else they could do and still support a family. Good paying jobs for unskilled workers just aren't part of this economy any more. Bush has outsourced our jobs to make it easier to recruit cannon-fodder. These kids know it, but the alternative is living out of their car. They're hoping for help with college when they get out, but American educational standards have declined so much that I doubt they'll be able to hack it.

And no, we don't picket funerals. I do protest needless deaths of our brave soldiers:

Nice image bombing, PRI.

It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.

Refurb,

Good paying jobs for unskilled workers. Note the word unskilled. That ought to tell you why they aren't finding jobs that pay well.

Robert

Robert M Wrote:
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> Good paying jobs for unskilled workers. Note the
> word unskilled. That ought to tell you why they
> aren't finding jobs that pay well.

In some nations college is accessible for anyone that has the grades to hack it. Here the poor often have only one route to college, and that's through Baghdad. Support for education has been cut so that even if they get the funds to go they aren't skilled enough in basics to survive in college anyway.