America's war returnees: many troubles but more help | csmonitor.com

America's war returnees: many troubles but more help | csmonitor.com: "Many have trouble transitioning from combat dangers to a normal routine at home. But sometimes just identifying the problem is the issue.

The Army has improved its process by adding a second mental-health assessment three to six months after its initial screening, which is completed as soon as a soldier returns from war. This second screening has allowed the Army to unmask troubling trends among its soldiers: a fourfold increase in relationship problems compared with those reported in the first assessment, a surge of major depression among many, and increased alcohol abuse. [emphasis mine]"

This article lacks the insight I'm used to in Christian Science Monitor articles.

I have not read the Journal of the American Medical Association article that spawned this.

The results don't sound that remarkable. Battle stressed troops will maintain duty performance above all else. By the time a battle stressed troop has problems that show up at work their entire private life is in shambles.

I don't believe these problems are suddenly manifesting themselves at 120 days post deployment. I believe it's taking 120 days for things to get so bad that the warriors can't hide it anymore.

In case you haven't heard anybody else say this before, I will: the Army is screwing up an entire generation of warriors.

Al Jazeera English - News - Afghanistan's Child Opium Addicts

Al Jazeera English - News - Afghanistan's Child Opium Addicts: "Afghanistan remains infamous as an exporter of opium. However, opium use within the country is just as rampant, with perhaps one million addicts in the country, according to the UN, of whom more than 600,000 are under the age of 15."

I'm having a very hard time wrapping my mind around this. The numbers are staggering. Going off the CIA World Factbook numbers, that's about 4% of Afghanis under the age of 15. It's an obscenely high percentage.

The most recent UN drug use survey I've seen on Afghanistan is 2005. [here] In that report, child drug use for all surveyed drugs was 60,000 or 0.7% of the under-15 population at the time of the report.

The Al Jazeera article has a sixfold increase (150,000 to 1,000,000) in opium use (all ages) in just two years. That seems unlikely without big errors in one survey or the other. If anybody has a link to the 2007 report Al Jazeera is talking about, please post it.

Military bans MySpace, other sites from networks, computers | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Military bans MySpace, other sites from networks, computers | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "DENVER — Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect today."

For those of you who haven't recently served in a war zone, a lot of communication with family and loved ones is done over military networks. Most of this is done on DoD computers specifically set up for this purpose in morale tents. Others use the same computer they use for duty. A few folks have a DoD LAN connection in their living quarters and some personnel stationed in places like Baghdad are on Wide Area Networks of dubious security provided by locals.

One of the ways the younger troops maintain contact is through myspace pages. As myspace and the other social networking sites have loaded up on the eye candy, they've become an ever-increasing burden on DoD networks. DoD internet access in war zones is frequently carried over satellites. Not the cheapest way to get your bandwidth and certainly not the easiest to upgrade. Bandwidth conservation is a real live military priority.

Which brings us to the here and now. Communicating with mom and dad just got a little harder and the flow of information out of war zones just got a little more restricted.

First seen on Foreign Policy.