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BAQOUBA, Iraq | The U.S. commander of the Multi-National Force -- Iraq on Tuesday ordered a top-to-bottom review of mental health services for U.S. troops in the country after the worst act of U.S. soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war. Army Lt. Col. Brian Tribus, media relations chief for Multi-National Force - Iraq, told The Washington Times that Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby ordered procedures "to look into [mental health] services available and delivery of those services." Gen. Jacoby also requested that the Army inspector general review all mental health services available to troops in Iraq, Col. Tribus said. Five U.S....

May 8, 2009 "Organized Crime" is Alive & Well (The Real Goodfellas) WHY does the "the Administration" so badly want to convert to common stock? With government becoming an "insider" by virtue of owning so many voting shares, the banks will become social engineering tools for the administration. This will allow them to bypass spending approval by Congress. The irony is that..."

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2009 – With U.S. military members serving in more than 120 countries throughout the world as well as meeting requirements for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, ground forces are stretched thin, senior military officials told Congress here yesterday. The Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on readiness and management that unless “tough decisions” are made, the Army cannot continue to meet current demands for deployed forces while maintaining the amount of time troops need to re-train and rest at their home station. “What has to change for...

The so-called stress tests will determine whether the banks need more government bailout money and the $700-billion rescue fund needs to be replenished. Releasing too much information could undermine the banks' health -- the very thing that the administration is trying to avoid, experts said. Revealing too little after weeks of buildup would cast doubt on the process and create a vacuum in which investors and depositors would make their own assumptions, possibly leading to runs on the weakest banks. ...Bert Ely, an independent banking analyst. "It's clear they didn't think through how this was going to play out." The...

BAGHDAD, March 3, 2009 – Deployment is never easy, especially a 15-month deployment in which soldiers face the possibility of missing the same holiday twice away from their loved ones. Army Spc. James Ott conducts personal combat checks on his M-240B machine gun from the turret of his mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle before leaving on a combat patrol mission, Feb. 24, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kevin Holden  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. This has been the reality for soldiers from the 1st Armored Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, who have served in Multinational Division Baghdad since April...

Fresh from reworking the domestic economic order via the "stimulus" bill in favor of vastly expanded U.S. government influence and power, President Barack Obama proposes a set of changes with respect to American security policies and programs that will have the opposite effect. If equally successful, he stands to transform the "world's only superpower" into a nuclear impotent, with possibly catastrophic consequences. Such a transformation would be the more extraordinary for it coming against the backdrop of others' buildups of their nuclear arsenals. Every other declared nuclear weapon state is modernizing its stockpile and the most dangerous wannabees - North...

Having a Stressful Monday? Come celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.

The strain of the long campaign and a frenetic transition period is beginning to wear on the face of President-elect Barack Obama, who has developed a facial tic under his right eye. The tic on the lower part of his right orbital bone is clearly visible in his recent interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. Campaign insiders say it first emerged during the primary season and has now become chronic.

Enlarge ImageColorblind? Researchers found white subjects shrink from using relevant racial descriptors when looking at cards like these.Credit: Flickr.com After Barack Obama's landmark speech on race on 18 March, it was hard to tell what got more media attention: What the Democratic presidential candidate said or that he had said it at all. Regardless, many pundits agreed that as an African-American, Obama could discuss race in ways few white people would dare. That's because most white Americans today have learned not to talk about race for fear of seeming racist, says Samuel Sommers, a social psychologist at Tufts University...

The crisis on Wall Street has New Yorkers alarmed. But it's nothing compared to the levels of anxiety those living in the Windy City feel each day. Chicago's rising unemployment rate, expensive gas, high population density and relatively poor air quality create a perfect storm of stress, according to measures we used to calculate the country's anxiety hot spots.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq, April 28, 2008 – After months of intensive training at Fort Benning, Ga., and a rotation to the National Training Center, in Fort Irwin, Calif., the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team deployed here in March 2007, prepared to accomplish their mission. Army Capt. Josh Beard, from Opelika, Ala., the civil-military operations officer for 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, greets a worker who helped set up a well and filtration system at a girls school in Narhwan, Iraq. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team established relationships with citizens through community projects and...

Nowhere is the situation worse than in Detroit, which ranks as the most stressful metropolitan area in America, according to a new Bizjournals study. Detroit is saddled with the highest unemployment rate, 7.2 percent, in any of the nation's 50 largest markets. It also has the group's worst murder rate. And it's among the 10 places with the most robberies, the slowest rates of income growth, the most heart attacks and the fewest sunny days.

No Homework Rules by: Deborah Lambert, January 31, 2008 Remember the brouhaha that erupted over “high stakes” testing in education a few years ago? According to author/radio host Charles Sykes, that was nothing compared to the current outrage being expressed over what is being called “excessive” children’s homework. What’s really amazing, says Sykes, is that the most vocal protesters in this war on homework aren’t some pointy headed “educrats,” but the parents. Columnists like Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Opdyke who tackle this subject can expect a blizzard of emails from parents who blame an overdose of homework for an...

AP Medical Writer Traumatic brain injury, described as the signature wound of the Iraq war, may be less to blame for soldiers' symptoms than doctors once thought, contends a provocative military study that suggests post-traumatic stress and depression often play a role. That would be good news because there are successful treatments for those conditions, said several nonmilitary doctors who praised the research. Thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq have struggled with memory loss, irritability, trouble sleeping and other problems. Many have suffered mild blast-related concussions, but there is no easy way to separate which symptoms are due to physical...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2007 – Mechanics repair vehicles, small-arms repairmen fix weapons, and dentists fix teeth. Members of the Combat Stress Control Detachment working with Company C, 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, here help set troops’ minds straight. A weathered sign indicates members of the Combat Stress Control Detachment at Forward Operating Base Fenty, Afghanistan, are assisting someone in need of their expertise. Photo by 2nd Lt. Monika Comeaux, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A small team of airmen and soldiers work hand in hand to help deployed servicemembers battle stress here and at...

As security improves in Iraq, pressure is building to reverse one of the most onerous decisions Defense Secretary Robert Gates made to enable President Bush's troop buildup to go forward this year: extending the tours of active-duty soldiers from 12 months to 15 months. The extra three months is a weighty burden, both physically and psychologically, for soldiers already stressed by multiple tours, and on families coping with strains that have mounted since the war began in 2003. "We can't sustain that," Gen. George Casey, who was the top U.S. commander in Iraq before becoming the Army chief of staff...

October 25, 2007 -- We're stressed out, we can't sleep, we're drinking too much - and it's getting worse. Forty-eight percent of Americans say they're more stressed now than they were five years ago, and the same percent report regularly lying awake at night because of stress, according to a new study by the American Psychological Association. "Stress continues to escalate, and it's affecting every area of people's lives," said Russ Newman, a psychologist and executive director of the APA. So what is it we're worrying about while we stare at the ceiling all night? Primarily two things: money and...

A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease, researchers reported Monday. What it likely boils down to is stress — a well-known contributor to health problems, as well as a potential byproduct of troubled relationships, the scientists said. In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends....

(Study on neurochemicals suggests ways to shrink fat, or grow it) Washington - Scientists reported Sunday that they have uncovered a biological switch by which stress can promote obesity, a discovery that could help explain the world's growing weight problem and lead to new ways to melt flab and manipulate fat for cosmetic purposes. In a series of experiments on mice, researchers showed that the neurochemical pathway they identified promotes fat growth in chronically stressed animals that eat the equivalent of a junk-food diet. The international team also showed that blocking those signals can prevent fat accumulation and shrink fat...

'Stress threatens epidemic of heart disease' Last Updated: 1:36am BST 20/04/2007 The stress of everyday life is threatening a global epidemic of cardiovascular disease, a report by international health experts has warned. High blood pressure is a "silent condition" which is "grossly underestimated" by patients, their families, medics and politicians, according to the study unveiled at the European Parliament in Brussels. The move towards "Westernised" lifestyles - associated with high-fat diets, long working hours and lack of exercise - is partly to blame. But by 2025 almost two thirds of the world's adults could have high blood pressure. The report,...