As though the trauma, terror and destructive nature of war by itself were not bad enough, and as though the new lawless system of fighting a war, by launching guided rockets and missiles, so-called smart weapons, sent from far away ships or higher up planes, dropped in densely populated areas with the hope of killing one or two wanted individuals, supposedly hiding among innocent civilians, causing thousands of innocents to be killed and wounded, in what the launchers unrepentantly justify their mad deeds as collateral damage, was not horrifying enough, what, in addition to all this madness could explain the logic behind the extra disturbing atrocities which we hear of, such as looting, hanging, gang raping, slitting of throats and gouging out of eyes, and much, much more unmentionable gruesome acts, being visited on innocent civilians by rogue soldiers?
What then, is the difference between the alleged terrorists in whose name wars are being waged, and those who are sent as soldiers to hunt them, but who, in the process, instead go about terrorizing unarmed civilians, because they do not have enough guts or courage to face their equally armed counterpart? And what, in heavens name, would reduce human beings to treat fellow human beings in that manner, unless, as some people are theorizing, perhaps it is to be blamed on drugs of some kind, given to them in order to give them the courage to kill the enemy, which in the end also encourages them to do other animalistic deeds (with all due respect and apology to animals which would hardly act in such a barbaric manner, without being threatened or attacked) Otherwise, how could a displaced and traumatized unarmed civilian population, whose property has been completely destroyed, and who are fleeing to safer grounds to save their very lives, be so threatening? How many times does an already fallen being need to be beaten down? When is enough, enough?
The only acceptable explanation could come from the fact that soldiers committing those atrocities are being drugged before going to the front in order to enhance their courage, the same way that athletes take drugs to enhance their performance whatever it might be. And since street by street fighting, in populated areas, seems to be the new phenomenon, these additional demonic genocidal civilian torture and atrocities that soldiers are committing today can go only as far back as the days of the Vietnam war, and up to the recent Iraqi war, as what recently happened in American prisons such as at Guantanamo in Cuba, and Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. Incidentally and ironically, the same prison where Saddam Hussein is allegedly to have tortured his prisoners and partly why he was condemned to be overthrown, humiliated and ultimately hanged to death, although he too sent his soldiers to do his dirty work.
Here are a few examples to show that soldiers do take mind altering drugs either on their own or given to them with the knowledge and consent of their country, in order to turn them into super humans, but where it sometimes backfires to turn them into super demons..
http://www.thegrowreport.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=191
Here is a discovery from a friendly fire incident where in April of 2002 American pilots bombed, killing four, and wounding eight Canadian allied soldiers who were training on the ground, which the pilots felt threatened by, and despite their superiors' orders telling them, over the wire, to wait for verification of identity of those on the ground, they just went ahead and happily dropped the bombs anyway. The report says:
More recently, it has cast a new light on the Air Force's encouragement of the use of amphetamine pills by pilots to stave off fatigue. Defense lawyers argue that if the pilots erred, the pills, which can cause confusion, were to blame.
The pilots, both majors in the Illinois Air National Guard, were returning to Kuwait from a late-night patrol in northeastern Afghanistan on April 18 when they spotted tracer bursts near Kandahar and thought they had come under attack from ground forces of the Taliban or Al Qaeda.
"The basic facts could not be clearer, thanks to an audio recording of the pilots' radio chatter and a videotape recorded by one of the two planes.
The two pilots took off from Kuwait on April 17 on a 20-hour day for both men, who each took the amphetamine Dexedrine, dispensed by Air Force medics. Major Schmidt told investigators that he took the drug once before the mission and again about an hour before the bombing.
One cannot imagine that the atrocities we are hearing about, be it about the woyane soldiers in Somalia and Ogaden or elsewhere in Africa, not to mention Afghanistan and Iraq are the deeds of normal unaltered human minds. There must be something more to it than self defence, or defence of one's territory, although it is difficult to say what the Americans and their western allies are defending in Iraq or even in Afghanistan, since, incase they forget, they are fighting on foreign sovereign grounds, where the nationals have every right to defend themselves against invaders.
No normal human being would enjoy being a part of a gang, to rape helpless females, no matter their age, to the point of rendering them unconscious, unless he is on some sort of mind altering substance. And no normal human being would enjoy any type of inhumane suffering unless they suffer from some sort of mental disorder or have taken a substance to temporarily lose their senses.
Who knows, when normal young citizens get to be scarce, as is said to have been often done in the selection of peacekeepers, some crazy governments might even open wide the gates of their mental hospitals, and institutions, just to feed their egos, which, by the way, is another type of mental illness mostly suffered by leaders who would be addicted to start wars at the drop of a hat, and who in the end would not accept defeat, and not knowing where to stop, feeling the need and compulsion to win at any cost. That too could be considered as a type of madness. i.e. the madness of arrogance and feeling of superiority, and the feeling of being above international law and free to do as they please with the power they had accumulated, therefore intimidating the world and gallivanting from continent to continent to destabilize and grab resources; a disease which was said to have possessed Hitler, and which we are observing being manifested in certain current powerful leaders.
Because of the frightful and destructive nature of wars in its own right, and because of the way that contemporary wars are being conducted, as street by street and building by building, where no unarmed citizen can feel safe, be it from the skies or from the seas, unlike in the days when wars took place only between armed soldiers, therefore people are more afraid and terrified at the rumors of war.
We Eritreans know more about war and its ugly consequences, than any of those foreign belligerent bullies who are lurking around the Horn of Africa, and we therefore first look high and low before even thinking about it as a necessary evil or a last resort. For Eritreans war is real, and the loss of a single Eritrean is a loss too many already, which would be mourned by the whole nation.
With truth as her constant weapon and companion, Eritrea will always prevail.
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The views expressed in the commentary section of Shabait.com do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Information of the State of Eritrea. The writer contributed this article and bears sole responsibility for its contents.
