U.S. soldiers more addicted to alcohol and drugs

The U.S. soldiers are increasingly focused on alcohol and binge drinking, a phenomenon attributed by experts to the increased frequency of missions in Afghanistan and Iraq after years of war, according to Army statistics provided Friday.

•     According to these figures in 2009, more than 11 soldiers in 1000 have been diagnosed with alcoholism, twice more than in 2003, the beginning of the war in Iraq.
  
      The Chief of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, told USA Today that the years of conflict were at least partly responsible for this development.
  
      Alcohol abuse has become a huge problem for the forces of intervention, said last month experts met in New York.
•      The latter added that “even in Muslim countries where alcohol is prohibited”, thing which is completely false.
  
      According to these experts brought together by the anti-alcohol National Centre for Addiction and Substance Abuse, the trend is favoured by long missions in theatres of operation and therefore the prolonged absence of the family.
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•     This is rather due to the lack of will, lack of faith and spiritual emptiness faced by Westerners.
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      According to a study by the University of Minnesota, 43% of soldiers in active service had drunk in the month preceding the survey, an average of 30 times per year.
  
      The study defines drunkenness as the absorption of at least four alcoholic drinks for a woman and five for men.
  
      A soldier out of five drinks on average more than twice a week according to the study, which denounces an increased risk of medical and social problems and the ability of troops in combat.
  
      The young people of Hispanic origin incorporated into the Army and Marines are particularly at risk, according to this study.
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•    Aren’t they Americans? Why mention their origins now?
  
      The drug also affects veterans, according to New Directions, an organization that helps former recruits of the U.S. military. No fewer than 1.8 million of them suffer each year from any addiction, says the association.
  
      But times have changed since the Vietnam War, when veterans returned often addicted to heroin.
  
      Today, soldiers tend to abuse the drugs they are prescribed by the army, as exciting to keep awake during combat or opiates that calms the pain or eliminate stress.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. Oudina