As Iraq Winds Down, U.S. Army Confronts A Broken Force

McClatchy:

WASHINGTON -- When Lt. Col. Dave Wilson took command of a battalion of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, the unit had just returned to Texas from 14 months traveling some of Iraq's most dangerous roads as part of a logistics mission.

What he found, he said, was a unit far more damaged than the single death it had suffered in its two deployments to Iraq.

Nearly 70 soldiers in his 1,163-member battalion had tested positive for drugs: methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. Others were abusing prescription drugs. Troops were passing around a tape of a female lieutenant having sex with five soldiers from the unit. Seven soldiers in the brigade died from drug overdoses and traffic accidents when they returned to Fort Bliss, near El Paso, after their first deployment.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[1jurisdiva]

12:30 AM on 09/19/2010

We say 18 year old children aren't even mature enough to handle alcohol, yet we expect them to be able to handle the horrors of war.

It should be ASSUMED that solders coming back from a tour have at least some aspects of PTSD, and provide them treatment immediately upon return.

[Tim Janssen]

12:00 AM on 09/19/2010

Similar to the USSR's disastrous Afghanistan misadventure. The U.S. has lost a lot more than just 4400 or so fallen soldiers including over 30,000 casualties of maimed and wounded veterans in Iraq alone and over 1100 dead on Afghanistan plus over 6000 other casualties. AND THESE ARE numbers from soldiers no longer active. 10 years and a trillion dollars and this is what we have left of our Army thanks to the inhuman war profiteering of Dubya, Cheney, Rummy, Condi, and their countless corporate cronies. Why aren't these people being charged as mass murders?.....America, RIP.

[nastybastard]

09:48 PM on 09/18/2010

Is it possible the troops guarding poppy production in Afghanistan could have smoked the devil weed marijuana. That stuff (weed) isn't good to fight on - unless your playing video games.

[marleysghost]

09:38 PM on 09/18/2010

This is not rocket science. We are imploding and feeding our people to an engine of death we insist on keeping alive. Something will have to give, and without bringing back the draft we will actually have nobody left to fight. This may be a good thing if we finally get it through our collective thick heads that the worst damage we do is to our own. We will simply leave the battlefield because we have run out of soldiers having ground them into dust through our own stupidity. We need to have everyone come home and leave the Middle East to fix itself.

[Vernie31]

09:25 PM on 09/18/2010

How could this be? The most powerful military known to mankind! More Military hardware and ammunition's than entire Afghanistan's net worth! This nation is fighting a country without a standing ARMY,NAVY or AIR FORCE for NINE YEARS! These are very strange and ominous signs that we lack the Wisdom and Understanding to succeed in this battle. Any wise person, would say deep reflection is required to consider continuation along this path of self destruction. To stay in Afghanistan while failing economically at home is a certain recipe for complete financial destruction. Look to the history of the failures of Empires past, they will serve as a guide. No Invading force have left this country financially intact. The real enemy here is a FINANCIAL ONE.
we cannot endure another 9-10 years of stalemate at this high cost! The numbers are before us for all to see! they are saying "CAN YOU HEAR ME? NOW!"

[Vernie31]

08:54 PM on 09/18/2010

Afghanistan The Graveyard Of Empires. America when will you learn that this is not a country of people that are without Wisdom. Many powerful Armies have failed along the same roads you are now traveling. Learn from History, do not repeat its past mistakes. For if you do, Your Treasury can be found buried it this vast wasteland of many before you.

[BarryS]

08:29 PM on 09/18/2010

I don't understand the problem. Our "leaders" have told us that these are the types of soldiers we should have instead of any opennly-Gay soldiers. At the same time that they were ignoring the rapists/addicts, dozens of Gay soldiers were harrassed out of the service.
And these are they guys who allocate our resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[moretaxes]

09:10 PM on 09/18/2010

they are except they aren't allowed to fight, think you'll find a gay guy in a foxhole?? not on your life

[LeftRight]

10:29 PM on 09/18/2010

Yeah, that's why they're there, right? Just cause others might not KNOW it doesn't mean that there aren't gays in the foxholes (assuming that we used foxholes anymore for widespread tactics...)

[dems08]

08:20 PM on 09/18/2010

please sign petition for our vets...

http://www2.iava.org/o/436/t/8492/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2297

[edgarcaycedoc]

06:42 PM on 09/18/2010

I served six years active duty in the '70s. If my service taught me anything, it was this. We take our most precious resource--our children--and spend 18 years teaching them the "Golden Rule." Then we put them in funny clothes, give them the most lethal weapons we can muster, point them at a group of people, tell them this group of people are "the enemy," and tell them to kill. Small wonder these kids cannot properly connect the dots. Sad.

[nirek]

07:24 PM on 09/18/2010

Well said and faved!

[moretaxes]

09:11 PM on 09/18/2010

sounds like you were a clerk

[LeftRight]

10:29 PM on 09/18/2010

Sounds like you never served!

[edgarcaycedoc]

01:28 AM on 09/19/2010

Yep. I "clerked" in a Fire Direction Control organization--which was later turned to the pilot battalion for the entire Army as they phased out FDC and installed the Fire Support Teams (FIST). I also "clerked" as an aircraft dispatcher in the USAF and a law enforcement in the USAF.

[dbrett480]

06:34 PM on 09/18/2010

"Nearly 70 soldiers in his 1,163-member battalion had tested positive for drugs: "

That's only 6%. That means 94% of troops that return home from a stressful combat do not use illegal drugs. Way above the national average and average for most occupations.

[edgarcaycedoc]

06:44 PM on 09/18/2010

"That means 94% of troops that return home from a stressful combat do not use illegal drugs." WRONG!!! It means only that 6% got CAUGHT. We do not know what percentage of people who used illegal drugs DID NOT GET CAUGHT because they were smart enough to use an illegal drug with a short in-body toxic term. I am sure many, many more than 6% were using illegal drugs.

[moretaxes]

09:12 PM on 09/18/2010

they are tested once a year and randomed tested thru out the year, this is the barak administration when dopping his AOK

[LeftRight]

06:56 PM on 09/18/2010

First, the national average for the MILITARY is well below 1%.

Second, we don't know what the actual percentage was in this 1,163 member battalion was, because they admitted in the article that many were not actually tested, and that others who WERE tested likely weren't caught!

[joefoss]

06:22 PM on 09/18/2010

=In World War II, to avoid "battle fatigue," the maximum recommended time for soldiers to be in combat was 30 days. In Korea, a similar policy was followed.
=In Vietnam, a new approach was tried. Partly to avoid "post-traumatic stress disorder"
and partly because of political opposition to the war at home, Army soldiers and U.S. Marines were only required to serve one, 13-month tour of combat duty "in country"--interrupted, in the middle, by a two-week, R&R break, when most guys went to Hawaii to meet up with wives and girlfriends.
=And, now the Bush-Cheney approach to the mental health of our men and women in uniform:
"Screw 'em! They volunteered for this, and they'll serve as long as we like." So, units were sent back into "harm's way" (a pretty all-inclusive term in wars with no front lines) for 3, 4 and 5 tours.
And, even some soldiers and Marines scheduled to return home after serving extended tours in Iraq or Afghanistan could receive "stop-loss" orders, at the last-minute, and told they had to serve another 6 months.
=Of course, this new approach was to avoid what Bush & Cheney feared above all: a return to the draft. Having lived through the Vietnam Era. both of them remembered how
the "anti-war" movement only really got energized when the children of the middle and upper classes started getting called up as the conflict dragged on.
=God bless our veterans.

[nirek]

07:22 PM on 09/18/2010

As a draftee in 1967, I will confirm what you said. I went on R&R to Japan though.
Peace
Nirek

[joefoss]

09:18 PM on 09/18/2010

nirek:
peace to you, bro. i spent 2 years @ Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri--not exactly the Garden of Eden, but i never complained--i saw too many guys come back from Vietnam and heard too many of their stories to not know i got off easy.
God bless.

[moretaxes]

09:15 PM on 09/18/2010

nope that is baraks and the dems policy on funding the VA. rather than treat the vets they are siphoning off the money. besides when some one is admitted their chances of survival are much less than if they did it on their own. about 2 months ago 1600 got aids from a va hospital in St Louis

[LeftRight]

10:34 PM on 09/18/2010

Nope, it was BUSH'S idea to require the VA to cover any GWOT soldier/sailor/marine/airman without giving them a dime more to do so!

[Andythelawyer]

05:41 PM on 09/18/2010

The tape would have demoralized only the soldiers who didn't get to have sex with the lieutenant.

[LeftRight]

05:47 PM on 09/18/2010

I guess it depends on how attractive she was....

Sorry, shouldn't say that, but we had some EnSwine on board who were REALLY attractive and not a one of them was shy about breaking the rules in the UCMJ, unless there was a chance it would harm them!

[RudyHaugeneder]

04:08 PM on 09/18/2010

War and the military has no future. Remember the Spartans.

[moretaxes]

06:07 PM on 09/18/2010

neither does socialism and communism remember Mao and hit1er

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

06:49 PM on 09/18/2010

Try going back and finishing HS,there are many socialist countries with governments that are well liked and function better than ours.Equating the worst of socialism to the progressives is a well worn cloak of the right,fits right in with the rest of your worn out wardrobe of lies and fear mongering.

[LeftRight]

06:57 PM on 09/18/2010

First, socialism is successful in many countries.

Second, communism is actually still working in several.

Third, while Mao WAS a communist, Hitler was a FASCIST!

Learn the difference!

[moretaxes]

03:33 PM on 09/18/2010

This isn't hard to understand you only need to ask the troops. When you have a president with rules of engagement that place targets on their backs and spare the enemy something is wrong. When they are taking incoming fire and have to ask permission to return fire or call in air support they realize that the CIC doesn't value their lives and places more value on muslims. When you have a president going all over the world apologizing for their noble service and asking forgiveness they know they aren't valued.
When the level of causalities have doubled since Jan 2009 and few muslims have been k1lled they know who's side the president is on

[LeftRight]

03:48 PM on 09/18/2010

Dude, you have NO idea what you're talking about! The troops LOVE that he's no longer just wasting their lives on useless wars! Bringing them home DOES support the troops!

[moretaxes]

05:55 PM on 09/18/2010

Obviously you have no idea what is going on. The troops hate this guy and mccrystal and if petraus doesn't stop this nonsense it will only get worse.As I said the causalities have DOUBLED since he took over

[nirek]

05:10 PM on 09/18/2010

It is obvious to me a Vietnam vet that you know nothing about this subject!

[LeftRight]

05:16 PM on 09/18/2010

Just like it's obvious to this Global War on Terror vet that he knows nothing about this subject!!

[moretaxes]

05:55 PM on 09/18/2010

its obvious that you were never there and were in the rear with the gear

[lochnessmonster]

02:41 PM on 09/18/2010

Listen to today's "This American Life" on NPR to hear a soldiers story of shame regarding the way he behaved after serving over in those illegal wars. We have broken people who used to be whole.