war, liquor & mental illness

for US troops at war, liquor is spur to crime
from raw story/new york times: "Alcohol, strictly forbidden by the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan, is involved in a growing number of crimes committed by troops deployed to those countries. Alcohol- and drug-related charges were involved in more than a third of all Army criminal prosecutions of soldiers in the two war zones -- 240 of the 665 cases resulting in convictions," according to records obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

"Seventy-three of those 240 cases involve some of the most serious crimes committed there, including murder, rape, armed robbery and assault, records of military convictions show," the Times reports.

Troops face 'epidemic of mental illness'
from raw story/cnn: Nearly one in three soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reports a mental problem, according to a newly released study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

The study examines data from 103,788 veterans treated by the Veterans Administration, which shows that 32,010 returning vets were diagnosed with mental health and/or psychosocial problems. More than one half of those diagnosed with mental problems suffered two or more disorders.