Idaho Inmates Sue Beer, Wine Companies: Convicts Claim Alcohol Led To Their Crimes

SAILORS SUE GOVERNMENT FOR THEIR VICES
In November 2011, a retired sailor who blames the Royal Australian Navy for his drinking problem is one of four ex-servicemen suing the government because they drink, eat and smoke too much or suffer from erectile dysfunction. The four men have fronted the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia in separate attempts to force the nation's taxpayers to compensate them for their vices or erectile dysfunction.

Geoff Leitch, who lives in Tasmania, is one of three retired naval officers, all veterans of either the Korean or Vietnam wars, who blame their alcohol, tobacco and food demons on the stress of serving their country and a navy culture of excess. The tribunal heard that Leitch went from having a couple of cans of beer a fortnight when he enlisted in the navy in 1969 to at least six a night soon after experiencing the trauma of the Vietnam conflict. But the tribunal upheld an earlier decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs not to award him a pension usually reserved for serviceman suffering from war-related injuries or illness.

Leitch, 59, said he already received an ex-serviceman pension and disability pension for osteoarthritis in one of his knees, a fractured leg injury, and a hearing deficiency. But Leitch said he felt entitled to extra, as a result of his drinking problem, which he claims he developed in the navy. "I went from the junior ranks to the senior ranks in 1977 and when you get into the senior ranks the mess fridge was there and you could have a beer at 4:00pm," he said. "You could drink as much as you like and nobody complained as long as you showed up for your duties the next morning."

Hotheads Comments
This is another classic case of blaming somebody else for your own stupidity and weakness. Plenty of servicemen managed to survive wars, severe trauma and other tribulations without becoming alcoholics, heavy smokers and remained sexually active too. These four ex-sailors don't seem to understand that they have a personal responsibility for their own actions.

The RAN did not force them to go to the bar fridge and drink copious amounts of beer because it was there. The RAN did not force them to smoke cigarettes. As for their erectile dysfunction, this is something that happens to a large percentage of males, but to blame their lack of sexual ability on the navy is just ludicrous. These men ought to be prosecuted for wasting a court's time at great expense on their claim, which has no merit whatsoever.

Well, if guns kill school children, it's safe to assume that alcohol commits crimes.

Interesting. Many other cases have appeared of a similar vein. The concept of personal responsibility is dead? Or just a case of shifty individuals trying to worm their way out once they get caught? "Yes, I did those bad things. But it wasn't MY fault." Insert something external to the individual to blame: the food tastes too good and is cheap, the coffee was too hot, I was able to buy a gun, the devil made me do it, the women was too pretty and alone, it says in the Bible, it says in the Koran, it's my culture, it's tradition...blah blah blah.

The alcohol doesn't infest itself in you without you putting it to your lips... Just lazy alcoholics who are looking for quick change so when they are out they can just drink more and continue to be low life's.

Well guns kill people according to the media - so yes alcohol makes you drink.

And shoes transport you to crime.

Putting Idaho on teh map!!

Lol good one!