Tripping Jihadis on Ultimate Bummer

Tripping Jihadis on Ultimate Bummer On DefenseTech.org, a subdivision of Military.com, David Hambling reports on one Marine's blog (now protected by a USMC security screen). Titled "The Green Side," its author is Lt. Col. Dave Bellon, an intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team in Iraq.

Describing suicidal attacks by insurgents in Fallujah, Bellon--among others--wrote that. . .

". . . these 'holy warriors' are taking drugs to get high before attacks. It true, as we pushed into the town in April many Marines came across drug paraphernalia (mostly heroin). Recently, we have gotten evidence of them using another drug BZ that makes them high and very aggressive."

BZ, or "Agent Buzz," is an extremely powerful hallucinogen that was chose for the Pentagon for "weaponizing"--in this case turned into a spray for mass dispersal. But, because it induces uncontrollable aggression, it proved hard to manage. In 1995, Hamblin writes, the British Ministry of Defence reported that Iraq had produced and stockpiled a BZ-like drug called Agent 15. As of 2004, they stand by that claim.

Altered states are nothing new to warriors, especially when they're prospects for returning from battle look bleak. Resorting to desperate measures at the Battle of Stalingrad, Russian commissars plied soldiers with vodka and ordered them out of their foxholes to face certain death at the hands of the Germans. Drunk, the troops raced forward, shouting "Hurrah," into a rain of fire.

While we're on the subject of drugs, it's time once again to revisit President Prozac, or whatever anti-depressant he's on this term.

In June of 2004, CapitolHillBlue.com, self-appointed monitor of the president's state of mind, reported on an anti-depressant he was prescribed by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician ". . . after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay."

"'Keep those motherfuckers away from me,' he screamed at an aide backstage. 'If you can't, I'll find someone who will.'"

"It’s a double-edged sword," says one aide. "We can't have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally."

File under "ya think?"

Then, on Huffington Post, not long ago (damn undated blogs), writer and film director Nora Ephron wrote:

"I've been wondering about what's going on with W ever since he emerged from his bizarre groundhog-like vacation and responded to Hurricane Katrina as if he were under water. He had no affect at all. He was almost robotic.

"At the time I wondered if Bush was on Paxil or Lexapro, drugs that several of my friends are taking and that seem to have turned them into strangely muted versions of themselves. [A psychiatrist acquaintance pointed out that] when the President talks, his mouth has a strange sideways twitch, which is apparently common in people who are on antidepressants."

Now, if only Dr. Tubb would prescribe thorazine for Vice President Cheney.

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