insurgents fighting with drugs ?

[kronas]

i dont know what to quite make of this report, whether its real or not is certainly open to debate, i would not trust the US.

"My guys put five (machine gun) rounds into a guy who just stood there and took it and then took off running,"

that comment is in relation to insurgents in Iraq, apparently there has been drug paraphernalia including needles being found in buildings where allied troops have stormed after taking insurgents out.

"We actually shot four or five guys multiple times and they got up and moved across the room," said corpsman Quinton Brown, who had accompanied a front-line platoon to treat wounded Marines.

"When you see a house land on somebody and they're still kicking, you know something is wrong," he said.

interesting comments:

http://www.theunionleader.com/articl...?article=49537

[Bifta]

Certainly smacks of typical American anti-middle east propaganda.

[Russ]

Very much so. If they can't beat the oposition, it's obviously because they're on drugs. Didn't the yanks come out with that approach a few years ago when a swimmer from Eire kept winning all the gold medals in the Olympics?

[punky]

Yeah... It is all rubbish, because no drugs come from the middle east do they? Making, selling and distributing drugs are completely ingrained into the society there, so they can't take the high ground.

All the drugs that increase strength are synthetic and aren't made in the middle east though but wouldn't be suprising if they did. Some of the firefights stretch out over days, they'd need something to keep them wired enough to fight. Dealing drugs can be quite a fundraiser for funding a war. Also, this isn't really speculation, they said they have found the evidence. I won't call them liars, even if anyone else does. At lease until someone can prove otherwise.

Even so, being wired up with drugs can only do so much though. I think those marines aren't shooting well enough, or the insurgents are better armoured than the coalition realise. Even without armour though, 5 x 9mm rounds doesn't equal an immediate death sentence, especially from a distance and if they manage to not hit anything major. 50cent was shot 9 times, at close range and survived. He was shot in the face as well.

[kronas]

the thing is because drugs such as opium are big business in some countries such as afganistant it does not make it 'automatically correct' to assume what the officers say is right.

yes the report mentions cocaine but adrenaline ?

Hmm.. the way the Iraqi prisoners were treated was inhumane and totally disgusting. Maybe they were 'on drugs' too, either that or totally disturbed people? (The people who treated them in that way)

[punky]

Originally Posted by kronas

the thing is because drugs such as opium are big business in some countries such as afganistant it does not make it 'automatically correct' to assume what the officers say is right.

Yup but it doesn't make it automatically correct to assume that the marines are liars like some are suggesting.

yes the report mentions cocaine but adrenaline ?

AFAIK it's not that hard to make, and even easier to import. Not like they have to worry about the authorities out there much is there?

Not only does what they say sound plausible, but if I was an insurgent, or in charge of them, i'd pick precisely that course of action. Guns are ok as far as they go, but they need an alert, lucid person to fire it as well.

[Xaccers]

Hmmm, people being shot multiple times and still going...
Buildings landing on people and they're still kicking...
It's not drugs, it's zombies! (well that's what my zombie survival guide suggests)

[Stuart]

Imagine the scene... The Iraqi soldier takes some LSD by mistake, then looks for Americans only to see a 9 foot tall rainbow coloured goat walking toward him..

Actually, back on topic. Isn't one of the side effects of cocaine paranoia? If so, it would not be good to take coke, then sit there while enemy soldiers actually *are* trying to kill you.

[aliferste]

Have these guys not heard of bullet proof vests??

[BBKing]

Another effect of cocaine is to make you think everyone likes you, which isn't a survival strategy in combat. Opiates make you drowsy, which also doesn't do your survival prospects much good when the firing starts. They're used by practically every army in the world to treat pain though, so finding evidence of their use around a combat zone is hardly shocking.

punky - which drugs are manufactured in Iraq? Come to that, which drugs were manufactured in Afghanistan before the US invasion?

Drugs and fighting are linked though, from Vietnam to the original Assassins, who fired themselves up with marijuana before going on murderous sprees. You could probably class the WWI trench cigarette in there, too. It's not surprising people want to get out of their minds in such desperate circumstances.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by BBKing

punky - which drugs are manufactured in Iraq? Come to that, which drugs were manufactured in Afghanistan before the US invasion?.

Heroin.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Russ D

Heroin.

Exactly, the only reason why opium poppy growing reduced was because the taliban had no quarms with killing the farmers.
Our forces, being the "good guys", can't exactly do that now can they?
Think of the outrage if our forces started wiping out farmers

[BBKing]

Incorrect. The Taliban banned the cultivation of opium poppies in 2000, and enforced it, cutting the supply of heroin drastically (after the stockpiles of the stuff had been sold off as the price inevitably rocketed) That ban is now no longer in operation and opium is being grown again in large amounts.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n904/a07.html

"They framed the ban "in very religious terms," citing Islamic prohibitions against drugs, and that made it hard to defy, he added. Those who defied the edict were threatened with prison. "

[Russ]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Incorrect

I beg to differ.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2857017.stm

Afghanistan will slip back into its role as the world's premier heroin producer unless the international community hands over promised aid, the ravaged country has warned.