The adventure in Afghanistan is coming apart, but no
worries. There is always a
band-aid available. Rather than
ask if, oh, maybe there is no point to trying to secure a landlocked place that
more and more resembles Stalingrad, let’s pretend there is only a glitch.
July saw 38 troops take their own life. This is the highest monthly amount
yet. Is there evidence that anyone
is taking this as a signal there is a grave and deep problem?
Not by the proposed answer. The pharmaceutical solution has been suggested. Let’s not consider that depression is a
sane response to an unwinnable war and that maybe the troops are on to
something? Or maybe they need
nasal spray.
Per CNN, Dr.
Michael Kubek of Indiana University will get an Army grant to “to dig deeper
into whether a nasal spray could be a safe and effective way to administer a
specific antidepressive neurochemical to the brain and help calm suicidal
thoughts.”
The US is
not the first country to try to keep a war going with a medical fix. Not to overdo the Stalingrad analogy,
but didn’t the Germans use amphetamines so their troops could fight longer
between rests? Better living
through chemistry? Maybe Les
Allemandes should have realized that when you have to resort to such tricks the
game is up. No they didn’t
according to Der Spiegel when there go to drug, Pervitin, was
not enough, they looked to a super drug to keep the overextended servicemen
fighting,
“Toward the end of the war, the Nazis were
even working on a miracle pill for their troops. In the northern German seaport
of Kiel, on March 16, 1944, then Vice-Admiral Hellmuth Heye, who later became a
member of parliament with the conservative Christian Democratic party and head
of the German parliament's defense committee, requested a drug "that can keep
soldiers ready for battle when they are asked to continue fighting beyond a
period considered normal, while at the same time boosting their
self-esteem."
How barbaric. We know meth should only be given to school kids to calm
them down if not “boost self-esteem.”
There is another signal we might be
missing. With some regularity, our
troops die, not at the hands of the enemy, but the ally. It’s a new twist on “friendly fire. Badly aimed rounds that go astray and
strike the home team happen. The perfectly
sighted bullet from our protégés should tell us not all hearts and minds have
been won. Do we get the message
that maybe we are subtly being told we have worn out whatever welcome there was? No, not at all.
All we have to do is take a few precautions
and all better. The proposal is
for a “Guardian Angels” option.
No, it will not be some red-hatted self-promoter going to the war zone. Rather it will be one guy “who
stands to the side so that he can watch people’s backs and hopefully identify people
that would be involved in those attacks,” according to Sec/Def Panetta. The other lads might want to keep a
clip in their rifles to show trust.
Oh and the Afghans will do a little better at vetting recruits.
Ah
well, maybe that will do the trick, General Allen the commander in Afghanistan
according to NPR has no ready explanation for the attacks. Hmmm. When your top guy is clueless, you ain’t winning. That no clue thing bespeaks a vast
Intel failure.
Does
anyone think that a US sympathizer opens fire at a Taliban confab?
Today, just as this is being posted, antiwar.com reports another two dead by a fraternal ally.
But it’s all good, cue an American Soldier by chickenhawk
Toby Keith and just keep saying support our troops.
If we really loved the soldiers, we'd bring them home.
