What a county! So, it appears we're fighting a war on drugs at the same time we're fighting a war on drugs. [Since we're not making any progress in either campaign however, the White House claim that we can fight two wars at the same time remains just a dangerous boast.]
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 A military hearing into the deaths of four Canadians in an airstrike by two American pilots in Afghanistan has focused attention on the military's long-held but little-known practice of using drugs to keep its weary forces awake and alert or to help them sleep off the stress of combat.But it seems that there's more to this story than the NYTimes is willing to print. We have to go to The Village Voice for perspective. Read "The Guilt-free Soldier" in this week's edition. The sub-headline, "A Pill That Wipes the Conscience Clean," is a bit sensational, since the Pentagon doesn't even have these drugs, yet, but horrendous issues await us just down the road.
Pills like those won't be available to the troops heading off for possible war with Iraq, but the prospect of a soul absolved by meds remains very real. Feelings of guilt and regret travel neural pathways in a manner that mimics the tracings of ingrained fear, so a prophylactic against one could guard against the other. Several current lines of research, some federally funded, show strong promise for this.