Blogroll Me! How This Old Brit Sees It ...: The War -- On Drugs ???

02 August 2005

The War -- On Drugs ???

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It looks like it's not just CIA kidnapper-agents and suspected London bombing fugitives that the extremely efficient Italian authorities are sniffing out and snaffling up.

Take peek at this piece from the August 1st edition of Newsday.com

Steroids Headed for Troops in Iraq Seized

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON Associated Press Writer

August 1, 2005, 4:09 PM EDT

ROME -- Italian police seized 215,000 doses of prohibited substances as they smashed a ring that supplied steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to customers around the world, including American soldiers in Iraq, a police official said Monday.

Surprised? Shocked? Well, you shouldn't be. It was reported early on during this illegal Iraq invasion that the USAF officially dished out drugs -- to pilots flying too many hours and/or missions. All legal-like and out in the open too. Do a Google and check it out on the net for yourself; the USAF medical men didn't deny it -- they actually confirmed it.

Over the years, This Old Brit has known a number of galoots with their brains in their biceps, but they were mostly amongst those fond of frequenting football fields, gyms, athletics stadiums and the like. Not forgetting those who worked the doors of clip joints and other such dubious dives, of course.

But, on steroids while wearing the uniform? While flying the flag? While doing their duty? During wartime? While fighting on the front line? Jeepers creepers, most of us thought that sort of shit stopped after Viet Nam. These guys in Iraq must be going crazy.

Apparently some of the mercenaries -- oops, sorry -- contractors, are at it as well.

Private security contractors told AP that steroid use also is a problem among their employees because the drugs are readily available in Iraq -- as easy as buying a soda from the local stores, according to one contractor.

Good Gawdinheffin -- me old mind's bogglin'. Especially when learning of one particularly simple way this stuff can so easily be obtained.


Troops and some contractors receive mail at inexpensive domestic U.S. postal rates, allowing soldiers to order almost anything online.
Can you believe that? I mean, think of the amazing risks involved here. How long will it be, one wonders, before some devious devils get some brand new ideas? Ideas like maybe starting to send some unsolicited mail-order type deliveries -- not of things that bring a bit of a buzz or a boost - but of things that go bang in the night?

Talk about second rate security. Talk about about sheer stupidity. I ask you, can you credit it?

Victor L. Simpson of Associated Press, who penned the piece I'm quoting, said this.


U.S. military in Iraq had no immediate comment, but the popularity of steroid abuse has long been discussed as American troops and contractors in Iraq work out in gyms set up in bases and even in the mirrored halls of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.
And somebody else said this.


Joe Donahue, program director for the Vietnam Vets of America Foundation, who spent 16 months in Iraq -- often lifting weights in the Green Zone gyms -- said steroids were on offer for those who wanted them. "I had them offered to me by an Iraqi guy who sure as hell looked like he was using them," Donahue said. "There were guys I'm pretty sure were juicing, but not a lot of them."
Then there's this from an' official'.


Bo, the Trieste police official, said authorities were ready to cooperate in any international investigation, but that they had not been approached by U.S. authorities.
You can read the full anadiabolical article via the link below. But you'll have to read it alone.

'Cos right now, This Old Brit thinks he needs a long lie down [preferably in a darkened room] after taking a tablet or two of his own.

Tut, tut, tut. Boggle, boggle, boggle.

http://www.newsalerts.com/news/article/go:world8:247998

See also, X Ref with: http://culturelifehealth.blogspot.com/2005/08/suicide-drugs-and-war.html

24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i knew i was in good company here. i'm an ex pat yank and i love your blog old brit. i hope you don't go to pay to post now that you're gettin famous. i see james wolcott has plugged you again .... for the second time inside a few days .... aaand that you now got listed on his blog roll hall of fame. keep this stuff comin ... i can't get too much of it.

1:39 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Richard, I've heard that the soldiers in Iraq have easy access to cocaine as well, and I would imagine, given the proximity to Afghanistan, that heroin is plentiful, too.

There was an article today called

"Support the Troops: Especially When They Come Back with Substance Abuse Problems."

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0802-21.htm

"Today in a story by the Associated Press, the Army’s Surgeon General said that a survey of troops returning from the Iraq war found 30 percent had developed mental health problems three to four months after coming home.

"What is going to happen to all of these people who are suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts? Many will end up using drugs, as many of us civilians do. Now on top of everything else going on, many of these people are going to have to worry about getting caught with drugs and being arrested. Our prisons are already filled with non-violent drug offenders, many serving mandatory sentences of 15 years to life for small amounts of drugs. Service members being incarcerated and separated from their families because of a drug addition that is a result to fighting in Iraq will be yet one more instance of "collateral damage" of this war. "

And congratulations on AGAIN being Wolcotted, Richard! I'm so happy that so many people in the world get to read you (and appreciate you) now.

3:05 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, and I'm glad you pointed out the official drugging of troops going on, speed, and so on. I think a lot of people don't know about that.

And steroids make people explosively mean. Not a good combination with troops who are already under so much pressure, and with so many civilians around.

3:08 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steroids? Who do those troops think they are, baseball players?

5:11 am  
Blogger Richard said...

kevin,

Maybe at the next Olympics [in London] someone could be persuaded to arrange some special sort of 'Neanderthal Knock-out' competition for such nuts. After all, that kind of thing went down well in ancient Rome. I bet Fox would love to report regularly on something like that, too. ;^)

12:07 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

Thanks, Harper - and thanks for the commondreams link too - I'll check it out later.

12:10 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

Noel, you're not long winded at all. You're a mine of information, and it naturally takes time to get it all down and spread it all around.

Don't dare stop. Do as you said you would - dish it out - doubly - here and at your own 'Treason Inc'.

12:15 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

kiwi,

You're making me blush - but so what, eh? I could get to like it. Heh. Seriously though, thanks for your kind words - they're sincerely appreciated.

12:20 pm  
Blogger Administrator said...

Well, doggoneit, why can't they just say, "No."

The perps who ran Iran/Contra are behind this frigging disaster. Unfortunately, people were too busy partying or job hunting when Iran/Contra blew up. And besides, there weren't any white women - a few nuns, but that's all - to hold anyone's interest. My country makes me very weary at times.

Beautiful how they corrupt people, isn't it? Get them hooked on illegal substances, so they can't go public with the information! All for a lost cause.

9:50 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

I remember when the American pilots killed the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, it came out that their pilots were being given drugs to hype them up for their flights. It was appalling then, and it's getting even more appalling now.

12:33 am  
Blogger Richard said...

*My country makes me very weary at times.

Mine does too, cosmic. And lately, it's getting to be most of the time.

12:34 am  
Blogger Richard said...

* Yo's a big man on the block, now!


Heh. Thanks, Elaine. Just remember though ['cos I certainly
won't] it was you who got me onto the block in the first place.

As for the pub, if we do ever meet, it will have to be for a nice hot 'cuppa' rather than a pint -- 'cos I don't "drink". Heh. What a miserable old bugger I am, eh?

Still, it's the thought that counts, so ta!

BTW, as for Tapa - when, when, when, when are you coming back?

12:44 am  
Blogger Richard said...

Phyl, I wouldn't be at all surprised if all [or at least, most] of the friendly-fire deaths were down to drug fueled macho-maniacs. I'm talking about both Iraq/Gulf wars, btw.

12:48 am  
Blogger Richard said...

Whoops! Elaine -- TYPO --- I meant to say "I certainly won't FORGET!!!!"

12:50 am  
Blogger Richard said...

I put a message on Tapa, Elaine.

6:03 pm  
Blogger JulieDee said...

Amphetamine IS the drug of choice for American service personnel since Vietnam that I know of personally. Made for some really "rousing" graveyard watches! Not to mention a lot of"Don't ask don't tell" incidences! You know how it is... get all spun and the inhibitions fall away and the next thing you know you wake up in a strange bed with a case of Preparation H on the night stand and the male secretary from the supply office... or that tough looking gal from the motor pool looking at you lovingly and... well you get the picture!

7:45 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Back off Brit

9:32 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

* Back off Brit

Oh yeah, anonymous? Or WHAT ?

Ha! Gotta bead on the bum, Elaine?

1:14 am  
Blogger JulieDee said...

Hmmmmm... perhaps someone's steroid levels got a little too high before posting... or maybe you hit a wee too close to home...

Wadda ya think Richard?

11:15 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not just roids, neither. ALL branches of the US military keep their field personnel high as kites on 'go pills', aka meth. Just as every modern power has kept their troops since meth was first synthesized in 1919.

2:44 am  
Blogger Richard said...

Julie, just change the first two letters of that bum's message then scrub the word Brit - then that's my reply to him or her.
;^)

anon, "every" modern power? Since 1919?

2:23 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I recall a Star Trek episode, and I can't remember which series it was, probably Next Generation, because it involved "Q".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek)

But anyway, human-kind was put on trial as it usually is in Sci Fi, and mention was made of future (to us TV viewers) of soldiers hooked up to their portable drug supply to make them more aggressive and deadly.

I find it interesting so much of old-time Sci Fi becomes fact.

8:46 pm  
Blogger JulieDee said...

Understood Richard! :^)

5:29 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

pMe7WH The best blog you have!

5:31 am  

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