IRAQ: Drugging Armed Forces

In a conflict where its enemies are poised to strike at any time and from any location, it is inconceivable that military personnel are given mind-numbing psychiatric drugs to “calm them down.”

Terrorism and the war in Iraq have been a cash cow for psychiatrists in the United States.

In January 2003, members of the U.S. media reported that two U.S. pilots were taking amphetamines at the time they accidentally dropped a bomb in southern Afghanistan, killing four Canadians. According to military sources, the use of such drugs (commonly Dexedrine, a stimulant psychiatric drug) is part of a regimen that includes amphetamines to fight fatigue and then sedatives to induce sleep between missions. Pilots call them “go pills” and “no-go pills.” Possible side effects of amphetamines include euphoria, depression, hypertension and addiction. There is also the possibility of “idiosyncratic reactions” (amphetamines can be associated with feelings of aggression and paranoia) as well as the risk of becoming addicted to the “cyclic use of a stimulant/sedative combination.”

In March 2003, The New York Times reported: “Military psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health workers are present [in Iraq] to offer treatment on the forward lines.” People magazine also reported this in March 2004, adding that some soldiers are given classes in psychological “anger management.” While “anger management” is claimed to teach individuals to control their aggression and anger, there is little evidence that it works and may even worsen behavior. In one class in the United States, a boy beat up another boy so badly that six days later the victim was still hospitalized.

Soldiers have been handed antidepressants, the same drugs that were the subject of a 2004 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation into their violence- and suicide-inducing properties. They can also cause anxiety, agitation, insomnia, bizarre dreams, confusion, and akathisia (an inability to keep still) that can lead to violent behavior. Physical dependence is also a problem.

On April 30, 2004, television stations around the world broadcast graphic pictures of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and abused by U.S. soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad, Iraq. However, what was not known then was that psychiatrists had been dispensing psychoactive drugs to servicemen and women in the prison. Specialist David Bischel reported that “Combat Stress Management was handing out Prozac and Paxil like crazy” to those who staffed the prison, “trying to get a handle on the frustration and depression.”

Time magazine reported in the wake of 9/11 that no one should be “wandering off into [an antidepressant]-induced forgetfulness.” Passing out known, violence-inducing antidepressants to soldiers who are responsible for keeping the peace is, at best, ill-advised; at worst, criminal abuse.

“I am sure it would be sensible to restrict as much as possible the work of these gentlemen [psychologists and psychiatrists], who are capable of doing an immense amount of harm with what may very easily degenerate into charlatanry. The tightest hand should be kept over them, and they should not be allowed to quarter themselves in large numbers among the Fighting Services at the public expense.”
— Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, 1942

Jerrold Post, a psychiatrist and “political psychology expert” who teaches at George Washington University, has stated widely that in his professional opinion as a former CIA analyst, terrorists who kill are not psychopaths, “but use psychological strategy for political change.”

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