As the military focused on fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over nearly a decade, senior leaders have failed to track reckless behavior and monitor alcohol and drug abuse among soldiers back home, said an army report.

"Because of everything we're doing, we have not paid the attention we need to high-risk behavior," General Peter Chiarelli, the US Army's vice chief of staff, told a news conference.

Senior officers had "rightly prioritized the number-one thing that they were going to do is to prepare their soldiers to go into harm's way."

But the army needed to improve "garrison leadership" at US bases and take steps to stop rising suicide rates, he said.

The general said "it's time for the army to take a hard look at itself, to sit down and say, okay, what are those things that came lower on our priority list that we need to reinstitute, reinforce and start doing to get at this problem?"

The report, titled Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention, is the result of a 15-month effort to better understand the steady increase in suicides, which have alarmed commanders.

The army reported 32 suicides in June, an all-time high, and so far this year 80 active duty soldiers and 65 soldiers in the reserves have committed suicide.

The report showed illegal drug use was increasing and that the army did not have a clear idea of the scale of the problem.

Crime was also "on the rise and discipline is seemingly going unchecked," the report said.

About 1,054 soldiers who have committed two or more felony offenses are still serving in the army, it said.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News