Fwd: Prozac goes to war: Feeding our troops anti-depressants like they were Skittles or M&Ms

[Guest guest]

Prozac goes to war: Feeding our troops anti-depressants like they were Skittles

or M & Ms

 

By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com

 

(Author's note: I first wrote this story in order to highlight one American

soldier's plight in Iraq -- but then a friend e-mailed me another soldier's

story and my essay expanded. Now it has become more than just one individual

American's sad experience in Iraq. It has become a larger tale -- of greed,

exploitation and mis-use.

 

Both of these stories -- as well as the many other stories in the hundreds

of soldiers' blogs now pouring out of Iraq -- are documenting America's new

reality: For Bush Republicans, the war on Iraq is a cash cow, designed to make

money at any cost. Judging from all these stories, it appears that the people

in control of the Pentagon, the Congress and the White House regard America's

finest heroes as merely unfeeling and interchangeable human machines in their

sweatshops -- or like indentured sharecroppers out chopping cotton while they

sip Mint Julips on the veranda of their Green Zone plantations.

 

No wonder recruiting is down!)

 

STORY NUMBER ONE:

 

A friend of mine is stationed in Iraq and is totally flipping out. Can you

possibly guess why? Maybe he's tired of following orders that routinely involve

blowing up babies? Well, for whatever reason, the doctors there are trying to

feed him anti-psychotic medications. " A bottle of pills is their answer to

everything over here, " he e-mailed me.

 

Guess what? A bottle of pills seems to be the answer to every problem over

here too. I bet half of America is on anti-depressants. But I digress.

 

" I am afraid to take the anti-psychotics, " my friend wrote me. " After

everyone got so sick from the anthrax vaccinations they gave us, no one trusts

ANYTHING the Army medical corps gives out any more. "

 

So. Should our war hero start taking his pills? Or should he just wait

until he has flipped out completely and started shooting everyone in sight?

What are his alternatives? The Army is NOT offering him psychotherapy. Neither

is it offering to let him go home. You gotta have an arm or a leg blown off for

that to happen. Just psychosis or a lost finger or two doesn't count.

 

I just started reading Dr. William Glasser's book, Warning: Psychiatry Can

Be Dangerous To Your Mental Health. So far, the book has said that psychotropic

medications are only 50 to 60% effective -- but that placebos are 47 to 50%

effective too. That's scary -- that sugar pills are as effective as Prozac or

Risperdal.

 

The next time I write my friend, I'll ask him if he would like me to send

him some M & Ms and Skittles instead.

 

Another good cure for depression, neurosis, post-traumatic stress syndrome

and psychosis in our soldiers in Iraq is to have them stop killing babies and

start bringing our troops back home!

 

PS: Here's another quote from my soldier friend. " You might also want to check

out where the manufacturers of Prozac are putting their 'charitable' donations,

heh heh. I'm sure the government is getting a pretty penny for shoving all

those pills in our mouths. "

 

How many millions do Bush Republicans receive from drug lobby political

action committees? George Bush alone received $891,208 to help lobby for drug

companies in the year leading up to passing the Medicare Prescription Drug

boondoggle. Shouldn't that be illegal?

 

STORY NUMBER TWO:

 

I just received the following e-mail from a VERY worried parent:

 

My daughter talked to me yesterday in instant messages. She's an MP on a

base in Iraq. She was sad because she got reprimanded for not waking up on

time. Anyhoo, I told her, " Well you'd better go to bed earlier don't you

think. "

 

Her reply was, " Daddy, I go to bed EVERY night at 9 pm. But we are working

12 hours a day and have been since I arrived in January. " She has a 12 hour

shift and because they are shorthanded, she has to patrol the whole 12 hours

alone in an unarmored SUV -- and her base usually gets mortared at LEAST once a

day too.

 

" I already have three alarm clocks, " the daughter answered, " but I'm

exhausted and we work six days a week every week. " It seems that when she

arrived, Rumsfeld took half her unit and transferred it to Baghdad and so EVERY

MP on her base must work 12 hours a day, six days a week. She told me that

she's totally stressed out so I told her to go to the Doc on sick call and ask

for Prozac for her stress. I am assuming from your story that she'll get it --

and then it occurred to me. They probably are ALL overworked since they can't

get enough recruits to go there and it's stressing them all out. Imagine what

the combat troops must be like? Their equipment is the same way, with most of

it being used long past its checks and balances and sand takes a heavy toll on

moving parts.

 

As punishment for not waking up on time, my daughter is now working 12

hours a day seven days a week instead of just six.

 

****

 

George Bush -- Top Lobbyist For Pharmaceuticals: In the year leading up to the

passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, the drug company PACs, employees

and their families gave more than $3 million in political contributions to these

eleven elected officials, largely credited with negotiating the bill, and also

responsible for inserting the provision that specifically barred importation [of

drugs from Canada].

http://www.spinwatch.org/modules.php?name=News & file=print & sid=394

 

****

 

From Robert: Child Abuse By Chris Floyd: When the public liars sat down

together -- in Crawford, in the Pentagon, in the Oval Office, at 10 Downing

Street --and very deliberately, very guilefully and very knowingly devised their

act of mass murder in Iraq, it is unlikely they gave any thought to the most

vulnerable targets of their war crime: the children. So in considering this

aspect of the bloodbath, we should give the liars the benefit of the doubt.

Let's not make them more monstrous than they are. Let's stick to the facts.

 

Let us say -- as the incontrovertible facts compel us to say -- that they

were willing to kill tens of thousands of innocent people in an action they

knew to be illegal, reckless, ill-planned and unsupported by evidence; that

they knew their public statements about the plans for war were lies; that

they started the war with a vicious bombing campaign months before

obtaining even a fig leaf of approval from their respective legislatures, a

clear and treasonous violation of their own national laws; that long before

their blitzkrieg rolled across the border, they were already divvying up

the loot of conquest: the oil rights, the " privatizations, " the crony

contracts. http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/143444/

 

 

From Capsource: Oh fu*k you you stupid idiot. Funny how you chastise Bush but

not the insurgents. You guys are so consistent with your answers. You could

give a rat's [bottom] about those troops. I see right through your hypocrisy

and your so transparent. Good try though................your such a phony.

 

****

 

From TruthOut: An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq

report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress

disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one

in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans. Because about one

million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and

Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number

eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 100,000.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121704X.shtml

 

****

 

From the Flaming Liberal: “Kansas group to spew hate at local soldiers'

funerals!” A radical Midwestern hate group plans to protest at the funerals of

two local soldiers killed in action, claiming the slain heroes were cast into

hell to join many more dishonorable Americans. The Westboro Baptist Church,

proclaiming " Thank God for IEDs'' or roadside bombs, claims the 9/11 attacks and

American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's vengeance on a nation that is

tolerant of homosexuality. " It's going to shock and enrage every person who

sees it. That is our goal,'' said Margie Phelps, daughter of WBC leader Fred

Phelps.

 

The group is based in Topeka, Kansas and has made headlines protesting

homosexuality at school events, graduations and mainstream churches. But when

told about the group's plans, John Maloney, the father of slain Marine Capt.

John Maloney, said his son died in Iraq to protect free speech, no matter how

offensive.

 

 

 

" He fought and died for their right to do what they do,'' he said. " I may

not agree with what they do. This is still the United States of America, isn't

it?''

 

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=90258

 

 

 

****

 

From Google: Risperdal Lawsuit: Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, LP (Maker of

.... Find out about filing a Risperdal lawsuit at Class Action America. ... who

have been harmed by the anti-psychotic prescription drug Risperdal

(risperidone). ...

 

****

 

From Dr. El-Najjar: Suicides in the Ranks: Something is Seriously Wrong in the

Military: " Not long ago, at the very same base, another young man was chalked

up as a suicide—he was found face down in a creek in 4 inches of water. Excuse

me! Committed suicide by lying down in a 4 inch deep creek? Give me a break!

What in the hell is going on there? "

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/June\

/20o/Suicides%20in%20the%20Ranks%20Something%20is%20Seriously%20Wrong%20in%20the\

%20Military%20By%20Jack%20Dalton.htm

 

****

 

From CLG News: Timetable: Six More Years In Iraq --by Richard Reeves. " The

words are almost always the same: 'threat' ... 'atrocities' ... 'secret

intelligence' ... 'mission' ... 'preventive' ... 'fog' ... 'brave' ...

'terrorists' ... 'Support our troops' ... 'Stay the course' ... 'waste'...

'treason' ... 'timetable' ... 'withdraw' ... 'tragedy.' It usually takes about

nine years to say them all. Americans said them about Vietnam between 1964 and

1973. The Soviets said them about Afghanistan from 1979 to 1988. Judging by

that recent history, we will be in Iraq for six or even more years. It will be

a 'tragedy' when we leave in 2012. "

26,000 dead wounded or deserted - Time For Action --by Ray Dequenne 23 Jun

2005 " With the total number of soldiers dead, wounded and who deserted standing

at over 26,000... and with over 150,000 Iraqis dead... and with wars approaching

in Iran, Syria and North Korea, we can no longer afford to go on with life as

'normal' and must now collectively and peacefully intervene into history. "

 

Bush's approval rating for the Iraq war just hit 28% in California... even

Rove and Diebold can't pull this one out of the sewer.

 

Tsunami aid, Bush style: Tsunami aid 'went to the richest' --Six months

after the Asian tsunami, a leading international charity says the poorest

victims have benefited the least from the massive relief effort. A survey by

Oxfam found that aid had tended to go to businesses and landowners, exacerbating

the divide between rich and poor.

 

[Major cause of inflation --] $2.4 billion in $100 bills sent to Baghdad

--It weighed 28 tons and took up as much room as 74 washing machines. It was

$2.4 billion in $100 bills, and Baghdad needed it as soon as possible. The

initial request from U.S. officials in charge of Iraq required the Federal

Reserve Bank of New York to decide whether it could open its vault on a Sunday.

Then, when the shipment date changed, officials had to scramble to line up U.S.

Air Force C-130 cargo planes to hold the money. They did, and the

$2,401,600,000 was safely delivered to Baghdad on June 22, 2004. It was the

largest one-time cash transfer in the history of the New York Fed.

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

 

****

 

From Riverbend: What people find particularly frustrating is the fact that

while Baghdad seems to be falling apart in so many ways with roads broken and

pitted, buildings blasted and burnt out and residential areas often swimming in

sewage, the Green Zone is flourishing. The walls surrounding restricted areas

housing Americans and Puppets have gotten higher -- as if vying with the tallest

of date palms for height....

 

The Green Zone, [a friend who went there] told us, is a city in itself. He

came back awed, and more than a little bit upset. He talked of designs and

plans being made for everything from the future US Embassy and the housing

complex that will surround it, to restaurants, shops, fitness centers, gasoline

stations, constant electricity and water -- a virtual country inside of a

country with its own rules, regulations and government. Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the Republic of the Green Zone, also known as the Green Republic.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:eGoVnrJY9LAJ:www.iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/arti\

cle/54359+riverbend+green+republic & hl=en

 

****

 

From Joe T: If I were as adamant in my support to the Lunatic as [the Bush

Republicans are], I wouldn't be sitting at a keyboard, no matter my age or

physical condition -- I would be in Iraq fighting for my lord and master. " Save

a Child, Volunteer for military duty. "

 

 

****

 

From SLIMFALL: " Liberal Soldier in Iraq has a message for Karl Rove " : Today he

left these two recordings. Note his comments on Karl Rove’s latest comments

regarding “liberals” aiding “terrorists.” This is a “liberal” that is proud to

be one, and he is strapping on armor every day to defend an occupation that was

based off a lie. This is one “liberal” taking bullets for this administration.

http://leonardclark.com/blog/

 

****

 

From Jude: This is like Nam all over again and drugs again are the key weapons

our country seems to know how to use best on any country. [Heroin from

Afghanistan has already hit the streets of Baghdad -- it started flowing into

Iraq over a year ago. See the TruthOut article " Iraq: The New Heroin Route " :

Although Washington took the lead thirty years ago in the global anti-drug war,

narcotics seem to stubbornly want to surge through the wake of the American

Army. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060205I.shtml and from the Baltimore

Chronicle: " American Afghanistan's Three Major Crops: Opium, Human Organs and

Children " http://baltimorechronicle.com/082704JaneStillwater.shtml

 

****

 

From a local scientist regarding 9/11: After extensive research, I have finally

been forced to the painful concusion that George Bush knew in advance about

9/11. I have reviewed the mountains of evidence reported on blog sites, read

the full Commission report and constructed my own scenarios and timelines.

Scientifically, there can be not other explanation. Bush would have had to have

known.

 

****

 

From Katherine: Former MI5 agent David Shayler, who previously blew the whistle

on the British government paying Al Qaeda $200,000 to carry out political

assassinations, has gone on the record with his conviction that 9/11 was an

inside job meant to bring about a permanent state of emergency in America and

pave the way for the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and ultimately Iran and

Syria.

 

 

" It is in fact a criminal offence to interfere with a crime scene and yet

in the case of 9/11 all the metal from the buildings is shipped out to China,

there are no forensications done on that metal. Now that to me suggests they

never wanted anybody to look at that metal because it was not going to provide

the evidence they wanted to show people that it was Al-Qaeda. "

 

Shayler then went on to dismiss the incompetence theory.

 

" The more I look at it, you realize that it's not incompetence. There were

FBI officers all over the country, Colleen Rowley is obviously the one who

managed to get a Congressional hearing, but there was plenty of evidence

certainly. "

 

" There are so many questions that need to be answered, protocols being

overridden within national defense, people actively being stopped from carrying

out investigations. This wasn't an accident, they were aware there was

intelligence indicating those kind of attacks, there were FBI intercepts saying

it in the days before the attacks. When you look at it all, that is a big big

intelligence picture and yet these people were crucially stopped from doing

their jobs, stopped from trying to protect the American people. "

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2005/270605insidejob.htm

 

****

 

From RJ at http://topplebush.com regarding the JFK assassination and George HW

Bush: The linkage of Bush to the Kennedy assassination and the CIA come via a

memo that was disclosed in a FOI request. A researcher by the name of Joseph

McBride writing in The Nation in July 1988, disclosed a Nov. 29, 1963 memo from

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to the State Dept. entitled: Assassination of

Pres. John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963 referencing a briefing by people in the

Defense Intelligence Agency and George Bush of the CIA about potential problems

related to the assassination.

 

Bush's resume leaves out a good portion of his time spent during this

period and he denies he was working for the CIA during this time period,

although many of his denials are pretty lame and roundabout ones. All of this

information is documented and reported in Mark Lane's book, Plausible Denial

which links E. Howard Hunt and the CIA directly to Kennedy's assassination.

 

****

 

From " Amy doesn't go to Bali " : This episode is written but not typed. Someone

needs to find a publisher who will give poor sweet Mary Straitwell

mstraitwell a big cash advance so she can get this freaking section

TYPED. It involves living in a tourist hotel and fighting traffic congestion in

paradise in order to go watch some crazy guy walk on fire. Did you know that

Bali is to Australia what Hawaii is to the U.S? Fair dinkum! That's Aussie

slang for " I kid you not. " http://travelswithamy.blogspot.com/

 

****

 

I have become shocked and amazed lately at how bitter and cynical and mean

my e-mails are becoming -- but ever since Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney bombed

several defenseless countries into rubble, failed to protect my country on 9-11,

scalped our treasury and blatantly STOLE two national elections, I've just not

been the same. I WANT to be a kind and loving and caring person but the example

being set for me by America's " leaders " has precluded that from happening. My

apologies.

 

In defense of my country, I must fight fire with fire. Those people in the

White House are NASTY.

 

****

If you like getting my outside-the-box essays but your in-box is too full

and you need a break, that's okay. Just e-mail me, say " Dear Jane " on the

subject line and I will take you off my list. Thanks.

 

And if you get more than one copy of this, blame it on my jankity old

computer!

 

 

****

" Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and

loved: World Peace in one generation! "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.blueaction.org

A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it

http://babyseals.care2.com/