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CounterPunch
January
23, 2003
Flying High
American
Pilots Pop "Go Pills," Then Go Kill
by LINDA S. HEARD
The expression "flying high" takes on
a whole new meaning when viewed in the light of the admission
by the U.S. Air Force that its combat pilots regularly consume
uppers and downers with its blessing. In fact, American bomber
pilots are encouraged to take amphetamines, and upon return to
base are sometimes offered tranquilizers to help them sleep.
This shocking announcement - apparently
a longtime open secret in the military - came to the notice of
the public during an investigation of two U.S. F16 pilots responsible
for dropping a laser-guided, 500lb bomb on a Canadian unit in
Afghanistan. Four Canadian servicemen lost their lives as a result.
Canada was outraged and demanded that
the two American airmen face a justice. As part of the enquiry
emerged the disturbing news that combat pilots in the U.S. military
are encouraged by their own commanders to regularly pop amphetamine
tablets. Once nicknamed "uppers" or "speed",
amphetamines are now known as "go-pills" in the U.S.
Air Force.
An Air Force surgeon, a guest on CNN's
Q&A programme, had no hesitation in extolling the virtues
of the innocuous sounding "go-pills" during combat
missions. He explained that they often save the lives of exhausted
pilots, and that fatigue kills. He also admitted that pilots
are allowed to self-medicate and that reluctance by airmen to
take such stimulants could mean that they would be excluded from
a particular mission.
But do they increase the risk of "collateral
damage" (a callous expression) at the hands of hyped up
young men and women with their fingers on the button?
According to the makers of Dexedrine
GlaxoSmithKline, they certainly do. It warns that the product
may impair the patient's ability to engage in potentially hazardous
activity such as operating machines and vehicles.
The common side effects of Dexedrine
may include, nervousness, insomnia, hostility, and addiction
as well as feelings of suspicion and paranoia. The worst is known
as "amphetamine psychosis", which causes hallucinations
and delusion.
One of the pilots under current investigation
took 5mgs two hours before the mission, while the other popped
10mgs just one hour prior to take-off. Could the pilots have
been hallucinating or paranoid when they believed that the Canadians
were firing at them? The pilots recently sat through the first
session of an official hearing so, presumably, we will shortly
find out.
But the taking of amphetamines isn't
just limited to pilots in Afghanistan. The surgeon said that
combat pilots in the U.S. military have been popping pills for
the past 60 years. This, according to my reckoning, takes us
way back to World War II.
It is common knowledge that the British
issued stimulants to their pilots during the Second World War
and, according to some reports may have offered sedatives to
airmen during the conflict in the Falklands.
British back
off
However, the British today take a very
different view. The British Ministry of Defense said that the
RAF does not give amphetamines to its pilots, while former pilot
and assistant chief of defense staff Air Marshal Sir Tim Garden
told The Guardian that the practice of taking amphetamines by
the U.S. Air Force was "very odd".
The head honchos in the U.S. military
don't agree. Although psycho-stimulants have been in common use
in the military for six decades, it wasn't until 1960 that they
were officially sanctioned. The first widespread, although undocumented,
use probably occurred during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
During the Vietnam War, the drugs of
choice for members of the U.S. military were opiates.
A 1971 study undertaken by Professor
Lee N. Robins, PhD, showed that almost half of those serving
had been using either opium or heroin. While military commanders
did in no way sanction the practice, they obviously chose to
turn a blind eye.
Immediately following the Gulf War, U.S.
pilots were given questionnaires in an attempt to quantify the
use of Dexedrine.
Analysis showed that 65 per cent of pilots
used amphetamines during combat. So, two-thirds of American bomber
pilots routinely fly while under the influence of a potentially
dangerous drug. A drug, which if ingested by a civilian pilot
or even a driver would inevitably lead to a term of imprisonment.
Could these worrying statistics account
for the fact that almost one quarter of American and allied fatalities
during the Gulf War were caused by incidents of "friendly
fire"?
There were also reports of pilots becoming
addicted to amphetamines subsequent to the Gulf War. A former
White House Drug Czar Dr. Robert DuPont said that he was amazed
to learn about such widespread use of Dexedrine in the U.S. Air
Force, adding, "This is speed. This is where we got the
phrase, speed kills."
Apart from "blue on blue" incidents,
the war in Afghanistan witnessed a disproportionate loss of civilian
lives at the hands of American bomber crews. Entire villages
have been wiped from the face of the earth.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai - himself
hurt by the explosion of a bomb dropped by a B-52 bomber - has
officially complained on several occasions about the deaths of
his own people cause by alleged American pilot error. Thus far,
no U.S. pilots have been threatened with court martial for the
killing of Afghans and in many instances, the Pentagon has refused
to admit liability.
However, when Canada complains about
its losses, the Pentagon jumps to attention, launches an investigation
and institutes legal proceedings against the errant pilots. One
is left wondering whether the lives of Canadians are considered
more important than those of poorer third world citizens.
What does all this mean for the Gulf
region where an American force of more than 250,000 is likely
to be stationed in readiness for a probable war with Iraq?
There has also been a revelation that
the use of "go-pills" is common among the members of
other branches of the U.S. military too, which could translate
into tens of thousands of "America's finest" wandering
around the towns and cities of their host countries in a heightened
and volatile state. Add to this the mostly hostile feelings of
those countries nationals concerning an attack on their fellow
Arabs, along with the growing anti-Americanism on the street,
and the picture isn't pretty.
Perhaps more importantly what could this
mean for the Iraqi people who still recall with enormous sadness
Al-Amiriya bunker in Baghdad being struck by an American bomb
which killed more than 300 civilians, mostly women and children?
This may have been due to faulty instructions
from their command and control centre but even so, how can we
be confident that crews "up high" in more ways than
one won't mistake Iraqi civilian targets for military ones the
next time around?
We will probably never know the truth
about the convoy of Kosovo refugees, which came under fire by
an American F16 pilot, even though an RAF colleague had warned
him that it was a civilian convoy. The bombing of the Chinese
Embassy during that conflict remains another perplexing mystery.
Few bought the 'out-of-date-plans' explanation, least of all
the Chinese.
Other incidents
We are also left to speculate on whether
drugs contributed to the alleged rape by members of the U.S.
military of a 12-year-old girl on Okinawa in 1995, a gang rape
on the same Japanese island earlier this year, as well as the
crushing of two schoolgirls in South Korea by a 50-tonne U.S.
military vehicle.
The perpetrators may not have been using
amphetamines, or suffering withdrawal symptoms from their use,
but, then again, we cannot rule this out.
This issue also provokes questions about
the three servicemen and one woman who returned to the bosem
of their families at Fort Bragg after a stint in Afghanistan.
The 'happy' homecoming resulted in the murder of four spouses
and two suicides. Studies have shown that there is also a far
higher incidence of wife-beating among servicemen than in civilian
life.
Ironically, the very country, which is
leading the charge in the worldwide war against drugs, supports
their use by members of its own military. Doesn't this erode
the credibility and sincerity of America's narcotics agencies
and pull away the carpet from any claim the U.S. may have to
a moral high ground on the subject?
The US military is today assisting the
Columbian army with its fight against the country's own drug
lords. The question is: are American servicemen in Columbia themselves
on drugs? If so, this is surely a strange contradiction.
I can only imagine that litigation lawyers
are having a field day imagining all kinds of lucrative possibilites
opened up as a result of this admission, especially when they
might contemplate what kind of effect alcohol would have when
added to the mix.
Apart from the issue of collateral damage,
there is also concern about the longterm effects on pilots used
to living high. Used to the adrenalin rush of the job itself
and the 'I can do anything' feelings which go-pills provide,
we can only imagine how hard it must be for them to later adjust
to mundane everyday existence.
The Pentagon should quit using the nation's
committed young people, who often put their country before their
own wellbeing and lives, as just a means to an end. All the flowery
praise, and all the medals in the world won't make up for turning
them into drug addicts or dysfunctional human beings. Dexedrine
is psychologically addictive and, as we know, when one gets used
to an altered state it is hard to come down to earth. Amphetamine
use is often a prelude to the taking of harder drugs.
The philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr said:
"We (Americans) have been so deluded by the concept of our
innocence that we are ill prepared to deal with the temptations
of power which now assail us."
Feelings of empowerment in the hands
of those with deadly weapons is a heady brew, but power mixed
with chemically induced false bravado is nothing short of a deadly
and frightening cocktail.
Linda Heard
is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be reached
at: freenewsreport@yahoo.com
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