An army of Morons

I've heard of individuals, families, and groups of friends having problems in common with the sauce, but an entire army? That's a new one:

India's million-plus army is consuming much more alcohol than permitted, causing huge financial losses to the state and raising suspicions of widespread black marketeering, a report said Thursday.

Among the biggest culprits is the Indian army's most prestigious hospital in New Delhi and a military spy unit attached to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office, the Midday evening newspaper said.

When contacted by AFP, defence ministry and army sources confirmed there was a serious problem.

Indian soldiers are allowed a certain amount of heavily-subsidised liquor for personal consumption, but the report said the limit was being widely flouted.

It said 43 army units had inflicted a loss of around 100 million rupees (at least two million dollars) on the government over the past 18 months, the paper said.

They suspect that people are smuggling it out to sell it to civillians for twice what it costs soldiers, which is bad enough, but I guess it's better than having your entire army shitfaced a good part of the time.