US Soldiers in Opium Land Feeling the Addiction

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FOCUS | Cornel West: "I Want to Be Like Jesus"

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FOCUS: Colin Powell Owes Us an Apology

In war all forms of pain relief are on the table. Think of a war in a land of poppy fields.

A US Marine picks up rounds of ammunition and opium found in a market in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan, 07/04/09. (photo: AFP)

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+1 # Guest 2010-05-07 00:26

The US Army's addiction to opium/heroin is not new.

Remember Patrick Daniel "Pat" Tillman (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004)- the famous American football player? He was killed by friendly fire in Kandahar, Afghanistan, by US Marines in a helicopter and high on opium.

No wonder they can not control opium production in Afghnaistan.

+4 # Guest 2010-05-07 12:49

No. Tillman was killed by members of his own platoon. There's never been any allegation of anyone in that unit taking opium.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-07 17:37

You are both somewhat wrong. Pat Tillman was killed at a range of 10 Yards by an M16 with a three round burst to the forehead according to the coroners report. Most likely a CIA Hit on a man that was anti Bush and the Iraq war where he had already served a tour. He was not likening the US support of the Poppy fields in Afghanistan. He was public about this and he was assassinated.

0 # Guest6 2011-01-26 13:14

Quoting

You are both somewhat wrong. Pat Tillman was killed at a range of 10 Yards by an M16 with a three round burst to the forehead according to the coroners report. Most likely a CIA Hit on a man that was anti Bush and the Iraq war where he had already served a tour. He was not likening the US support of the Poppy fields in Afghanistan. He was public about this and he was assassinated.

-coughCONSPIRACY cough-

+5 # Guest 2010-05-07 01:37

Daja vu - Shades of Vietnam.

+9 # Mz. Cole 2010-05-07 02:15

Interesting that so many US soldiers are seeking drug treatment services for opium addiction YET very few are actually testing positive for opium. Clearly that suggests test tampering.

Further, as I understand it the poppy fields were all but shut down when the Taliban were in control but after Bush sent troops to invade the fields are back in operation. That suggests that it wasn't/isn't the Taliban that are profitting from the opium production.

+10 # Guest 2010-05-07 03:39

a hearty welcome to the high and mighty americans, with their super important reasons for being in Afghanistan. AS MORE AND MORE PEOPLE KNOW: We are better off first fixing our own country - which is physically and emotionally falling apart - before we go overseas and try to fix another, whose language we dont speak and whose culture we have little or no sympathy with.

+1 # Guest6 2011-01-26 13:16

Quoting

a hearty welcome to the high and mighty americans, with their super important reasons for being in Afghanistan. AS MORE AND MORE PEOPLE KNOW: We are better off first fixing our own country - which is physically and emotionally falling apart - before we go overseas and try to fix another, whose language we dont speak and whose culture we have little or no sympathy with.

Quoting

a hearty welcome to the high and mighty americans, with their super important reasons for being in Afghanistan. AS MORE AND MORE PEOPLE KNOW: We are better off first fixing our own country - which is physically and emotionally falling apart - before we go overseas and try to fix another, whose language we dont speak and whose culture we have little or no sympathy with.

http://www.thefuturewatch.com/AfghanistanandthePoppySeed.html

read it

+7 # Guest 2010-05-07 04:08

this sort of thing continues the destruction
of the us army of occupation. I believe we are cursed in our military endeavors, since
we have no just cause to do our thing in the following countries: afghanistan...iraq....vietnam..to me they are equivalent afflications brought to the people we're supposed to be helping & the afflication also infects our servicemen
and nobody's really looking into all this pathology and waste of money!

+5 # Guest 2010-05-07 06:41

If the US military want to really increase it ranks, they only have to say that they will be fighting (and dying, for that matter) in the "poppy" fields of Afghanistan.

Obviously, the US military feel the "marijuana fields" in the US and in Mexico are not enough to satisfy the hunger the US population have for the stuff.

If I was in the military and in view of all the indoctrination, propaganda or lies that are fed into their young brains by the military brass, I would probably be smoking or taking doses of that stuff too.

The sad part is, we have the largest concentration of young men and women in our prison now because of the stress that our young men and women both in the political and the economic arena.

Says much for American culture, doesn't it? We have a sick nation, a sick culture run sick corrupted, greedy capitalists, a sick corporate-bought Judicial and a sick Neo-fascists republican Congress.

+4 # Guest 2010-05-07 06:44

The battle cry of our young troops in Afghanistan, "kill civilians but leave the poppy field alone!"

I'm in the notion of tying my grandchildren and locking them in the basement to keep them from joining the military.

+2 # Guest 2010-05-09 08:15

Foxtrottango right on! and yes, many of us ARE of the same opinion but unless that number DRASTICALLY increases, this country is over for at least decades for all but the very affluent.

First they ripped us by selling us overpriced homes with fraudulent loans, then took them away and now they're buying up anything else we have of value at distress prices!

The US was called the GREAT EXPERIMENT and it's over--it failed!

+7 # Guest 2010-05-07 06:47

I know that each and every soldier has access to tampering 'kits' that provide masking agents, fake urine and all sorts of techniques that a soldier can and will use to beat the drug test. Why would a soldier be addicted to narcotics? Because he has been required to do acts of violence against another human being. No matter how anonymous war to it's victims, the perpetrators have to dull the images of those specific acts that go against their human nature. There is no other way to survive their own conscience.

+4 # Guest 2010-05-07 08:07

And like VietNam, it's hard to believe that troops (either members of US Military or contractors like Blackwater) are not setting up ways to ship the opiates back home in large quantities. I'd love to see some reporting on that.

+4 # Guest 2010-05-07 10:51

Fox "News"? Consider the source, people.

+6 # Guest 2010-05-07 11:08

Let's see:

Young people are encouraged to "serve their country" by joining the military.

They are sent to take and hold oil and natural gas resources for various corporations.

While they are there, they help to preserve poppy fields, the profits from which are used to prop up US-supported warlords and criminal organizations, including right-wing political groups.

The CIA, along with elements of the Pakistani and Turkish governments, smuggles the resulting heroin back into the West.

The soldiers, now discharged from the military and addicted, buy the heroin that the CIA has smuggled in, helping to pay for more US-backed crimes.

That's synergy, people!

0 # Guest 2010-07-01 22:09

I have learned a lot from this article and following comments.

Is it true that the booted out General McChrystal was repsonsible for suppressing the truth about Pat Tilman's death?

0 # Guest 2010-08-02 10:42

Troops came home from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan....hooked
on heavy drugs...a new wave generation of homeless, street people...lost, aimless
and shunned by America....as sluggards...WHO FOUGHT FOR (SIC) OUR
FREEDOMS....can somebody please explain how - going to war, fighting, dying,
coming home wounded and disfigured....or hooked on drugs....in some far
away country....helping our FREEDOMS? Those people in the mountains of
Afghan and Pakistan will NEVER COME TO AMERICA AND TEAR DOWN OUR
WAY OF LIFE.

+1 # frank carter 2010-10-02 15:15

I was drafted during the Vietnam war, I was ready to fight I was naive and ignorant. If I had the eduction Bill Clinton had I be drinking beer with him in Canada...now is a volunteer army, and guys like pat Tillman are kill accidentally and they try to make it right and it failed...you got to be stupid to join when you don't have to....please don't insult me people with money don't join the military only the poor and misguided souls like join, and later hoping with one leg and a small pension, Remember no one asked to join old man

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