Scythian War Chant [Today's News Poem, October 25, 2010]
After tonight, when the smoke from our campfire
Alters our instinct, we'll ride on our ponies
Offering iron from bowstring to dousers
Looking for rain. We will shoot off our arrows,
Manifest fertile and effortless prairies,
Bringing the future much closer—and higher.
"A growing number of Iraqi security force members are becoming dependent on drugs or alcohol, which has led to concerns about a significant addiction problem among the country’s armed services as the insurgency remains a potent force and American troops prepare to depart at the end of next year... Those who admit to using drugs and alcohol on duty acknowledge that the substances lead to erratic behavior, but say long hours working at checkpoints, constant fear and witnessing the grisly deaths of colleagues make drugs and alcohol less a choice than a necessity... Some senior police and army officers said that because drug abusers were typically among their most fearless fighters, they were loath to take disciplinary action against them."
—TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and OMAR AL-JAWOSHY, The New York Times, Published: October 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/world/middleeast/25baghdad.html
"The news, delivered in a phone call, left Sue Bates aghast: she was losing her job of 22 years after testing positive for a legally prescribed drug... The medication that Mrs. Bates was taking for back pain — hydrocodone, a narcotic prescribed by her doctor — was among many that the company, which makes car parts, had suddenly deemed unsafe."
—KATIE ZEZIMA and ABBY GOODNOUGH, The New York Times, Published: October 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/us/25drugs.html
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