War is a remarkable phenomenon. Somehow, the insanity of human nature continues to see it as a expedient way to attain the aspirations of a nation or a perverted ideology. The threat of war pushes our entire world into economic, social, and psychological panic while the opportunists trail the tragedy of conflict with the profiteering that results from the spoils of war, and the audacity of opportunistic exploitation! Doubtless, global megalomaniac orchestration continues to compel nations to rely upon atrocities to attain their goals!

First drugged warriors?

The Vikings may have been the first war-like tribes to utilize drugs as a way of enhancing fearlessness in the face of death! They were called "Berserkers" they used extracts of hallucinogenic herbs that made the prospect of death seem much more glorious and also convinced the enemy that by the behavior of the advanced attackers, the "Berserkers" that if these crazies represented the rest of the army that this foe would cause way too many casualties and would not be worth fighting! Many times this worked for the Vikings who raided English ports and seaside villages with little resistance or reprisals! The Vikings were not only feared but were considered fearless! No doubt these early apothecary extracts helped in the war effort.

Freaked out pow wow?

The American Indians often looked to dreams as being as a useful vision into the outcome of an anticipated conflict. The use of such drugs as psilocybin the product of wild hallucinogenic mushrooms that helped guide the American Indians into the territory of war was common. Entire villages and tribes depended on the outcome so getting one into the proper fearless frame of mind was important especially against the US Army Cavalry with their long range 50 caliber rifles and precise execution of ground maneuvers. Crazy Horse is credited as having had a vision of the defeat of General Custer and the 7th Cavalry by the combined Indian nations. Was his vision enhanced by the many well known hallucinatory herbs of the Native American tribes? Most likely. The magic mushroom was used in many such rituals before battle as the visions were certainly enhanced with hallucinatory effects.

Sister morphine

Morphine used widely since the 1700's and all the way to the 20th Century as a pain killer for the injured and many times left the soldiers who had survived their wounds as drug addicts after undergoing surgery did not use this narcotic to enhance battle aggression but as a result of war it did become a big factor in affecting society in lieu of hostilities. Many war veterans who became politicians such as Herman Goering of the Third Reich was a morphine addict. Did that affect his judgement on the subject of warfare and tactical procedure? Perhaps even the delusion that Germany could capture the world?

Drunken duty

British occupational forces all over the world were faced with fighting rebel tribes from Africa to the Middle East and India through out the Royal empire of colonies. The British were known to adopt local remedies for ailments such as citronella as a repellent for mosquitoes used by the Royal Light Cavalry. It is said that they also used the powerful herbs such as guarana as a stimulant to help bolster their stamina under the heat and humidity of the jungle. But, there was one consistently used product in the arsenal of the British whether it was in Panama or Egypt and that was Gin. That particularly strong alcohol was responsible for many a case of cirrhosis of the liver as the soldiers often grew more fond of it then the water in their canteens.

Unlikely rations

Let's jump forward in time to World War II as little evidence indicates WWI or conflicts in that era were driven by drugs used by the troops. Although, it is highly suspected that the Turks fighting the British were ,in all likelihood, smoking hashish, was very common. In World War II as Allied air superiority bombing supply lines like trains and roads delivered more and more irreparable damage, the German army was left with dwindling supplies, less available rations, and harder to deliver medical provisions were provided with something less costly, less bulky, and less demanding of resources in order to supply the Nazi troops seeking some way of sustaining them as they battled onward! The solution? Soon, the Nazi infantry found more and more that Schnapps and amphetamines could be delivered much more expediently and helped fuel the kind of psychotic state of mind needed to go on kicking doors in, machine gunning down innocent town dwellers, and occupying cities of those who must be must face being captives, and slaughtering those the Fuehrer ordered to be executed!

Stash in the jungle

During the Vietnam War US soldiers ran into something they could never have anticipated. It wasn't enough that they were ordered to follow faulty tactics that left fire bases stranded out in the middle of enemy territory having to defend themselves from all sides against heavy artillery and mortar attacks or getting dropped into hot zones by Huey Helicopters as the new mobile cavalry than being pinned down from snipers and machine guns from the surrounding jungles! The Communists had little concern for their troops. They threw their ideologically brain washed regulars and guerrillas against US firepower losing thousands of men simply to discourage the US from remaining in their country so they could slaughter their countrymen who had enjoyed capitalism in the south. One very effective pre-battle medication was opium. The numbing effect of opium eased the anxiety of walking into fire fights. Articles in written about Vietnam in the hip music magazine "Rolling Stone" described the account of one soldier who mainlined methadrine and in the midst of an intense firefight danced around the battle field digging on headless bodies and freaking out his commanding officer!

Walking dead

More than that, the young American boys found in the heat of a fire fight was that you could pour your ammunition into a Vietcong or North Vietnamese Regular and he would be so doped up he couldn't feel the pain. As a matter of fact as the enemy charged US defensive perimeters sprayed by M-16 armor piercing bullets, M-14 automatic rifle fire, or even M-60 heavy caliber ammunition this drug induced human cannon fodder could be already dead by any medical definition of the word and not even feel it continuing to run into enemy fire still firing their Ak-47's and screaming the prescribed Communist diatribe taught to them by their propaganda officers! Where as a single bullet might drop the non-drugged soldier when they were doped full of opium, numbed to pain, under the heavy euphoria of the sedative effects, running headlong into enemy fire seems more like a dream than reality.

Anxiety reduction

American troops succumbed to the effects of drugs to mitigate their anxiety of combat at a moments notice from anywhere being that the very people that walked among them by day as they patrolled villages and even played with children and gave them candy, these very people might murder them by night, or provide the Vietcong with crucial intelligence. Heroin used by soldiers through out the ranks was common. Officers who attempted to clean up the riff raff of the troops who were using were often assassinated! Who could tell the difference between a VC bomb landing on a Quonset hut and a US hand grenade tossed into an officer's tent? Pot was smoked extensively by American soldiers once they were relieved and sent to the rear but many times on fire bases like Khe Sanh stoned GI's felt the effects of paranoia as they awaited the next surprise attack. Did this affect their ability to react and fight? No doubt.

Wrong place wrong time

The American peace keeping force at Mogadishu were tasked with capturing terrorists and maintaining the peace, but were definitely not welcome by the locals. As each successive Humvee patrol of US Army troops patrolled the streets plans were afoot to interrupt the tense stand off between elements of Islamic radicals and the US presence. After a raid that was accompanied by US attack copters firing rockets into a 2 story building and causing collateral casualties the calm before the storm had erupted into a massive assault by AK-47 carrying residents of "Mog City" as the US servicemen had nick named it. The convoys of armed Humvees who lumbered along old winding streets found themselves under heavy rifle fire, RPG explosions, and aggressors who had fortified their rage against American soldiers with a local weed that had serious stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. It was called "Khat" a green bitter herb that was chewed and quickly gave them a sense of super invincibility!

Drugged into fearlessness

Wading into battle against some of the best trained US infantry in the world armed with accurate heavy caliber rifles didn't seem to be such a grim task now. They were so amped up and in the very intoxicating waves of the chewed Khat in their cheeks and staining their teeth that they willingly ran into machine gun fire from US helicopters blazing away with their AK-47's they darted in and out of cover to chatter away with their automatic rifles punishing the American Humvee convoys and occasionally hitting some of the high tech, helmeted, soldiers of the west, whom they despised! Within the warmth of rage of Khat these marauding riflemen of Mog City could take one bullet after another never feeling the pain and absorbing more and more ammunition that forced the US troops to expend their ammunition and retreat back to their Humvees or seek shelter in the old buildings of the sun bleached African city.

The bloody reception

One account of an African woman being hit so often by US rifle fire as she continued fighting described her body being shot to pieces by the time she finally gave up the ghost! If it wasn't the crazed gunmen who refused to go down from lethal M-16 fire that would have knocked down any normal human being as they mindlessly absorbed fatal wounds, than it was the RPG's being launched from atop buildings that blew armored Humvees into flaming sheet metal or managed to even knock 2 Blackhawk attack copters out of the sky! American Head Quarters had seriously under estimated the resolve of the local radical Muslims as well as the amount of Russian and Chinese supplied arms that had been delivered. US Army convoys ran into barricaded streets, wrong turns that required them to turn around and reacquire the right direction while being showered by AK-47 brandishing mad men fueled by Khat and its awesome narcotic effects found themselves in a poorly planned manmade hell!

The zombie soldier

Today, American troops are prescribed a new generation of amphetamine-like stimulant that can remain working in the soldier's system for 72 hours used to counter the effects of exhaustion experienced in the Middle East heat and rough terrain. Using powerful stimulants for prolonged periods of time causes psychosis and hallucinations! Prolonged use of anxiety reducing medications, anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, tranquilizers, and all of the other psychotropic drugs now administered to the modern day US soldier have caused suicides to amount to record levels. Drugging men to adapt to the prolonged effects of war and the trauma they must endure is a self defeating policy and only proves even more that today's warfare is even more unjust than ever! The wives of returning veterans portraying their husbands as walking zombies devoid of normal emotions have become disturbingly normal.