Fanatics, Terrorism and Addictive Drug Use Among Enemy Combatants

Americans should know more about the probability that terrorist enemy combatants in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, are often fed by drug addiction.

US Navy Seal, the late Kris Kyle (1974-February 2, 2013) writes a vivid account of his experiences fighting to hunt down and kill terrorists in his best seller, "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History".  (Unfortunately, Kyle and a colleague were killed by a gunman in a tragic incident when they thought they were in the process of helping a fellow veteran who experienced post traumatic stress disorder.)

Kyle wrote explicitly about his fighting experiences during the war on terror.  Beyond his graphic stories, the reader learns about how the combatants Kyle faced were often heavily drugged zealots.  In other words, US Navy Seals, writes Kyle, are often fighting against men who are addicted to drugs.  

"The fanatics we fought valued nothing but their twisted interpretation of religion.  And half the time they just claimed they valued their religion - most didn't even pray. Quite a number were drugged up so they could fight us", he writes (page 86).

Drug crazed terrorists are described in oral accounts recently shown in "Fight for Falluja", shown on The Military Channel.  In the interviews, US Marines provided first person accounts of fighting in Falluja in Iraq (December 2004) when they were attacked by frenzied combatants who continued fighting while they were mortally wounded.  These Marines realized they were fighting men who were high on drugs.

In another account of drugged terrorists, a 60-Minutes interview with American citizen Jessica Buchanan spoke about her horrific experience as a kidnapped humanitarian worker, who was captured and rescued by US Navy Seals, in Somalia.  She described a few of her captors as being addicted to cocaine.

This series of revelations about drugged terrorists seems to be evolving slowly from first person accounts, told by Kyle, US Marines in Falluja and by Buchanan.  Additionally, there's a reference to terrorist addiction by the author of "No Easy Day", the story about the killing of Osama Bin Laden.  

Obviously, drug addiction on the scale that must be subsidized to keep an entire terrorist network high, requires plenty of money.  Weapons cost money.  Ammunition costs more money.  Drugs are costlier still.  

Therefore, cutting off the money used by terrorists to sustain their drug habits must be essential to defeating them.

Where do terrorist networks find this extraordinary amount of money?  Of course, it's highly likely the US National Security Agency is tracking the source of the money train that's funding terrorism.  It's entirely possible the recent leaks to the media about the dragnet of electronic surveillance are somehow a ruse, intended to flush out the trails leading to the drug money.  

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how separating terrorists from addictive drugs will evoke a monumental addiction withdrawal problem.  

Rather than combat terrorists in deadly battles like Falluja, the smarter war on terrorism will be focused on their money supply and forcing their drug addicted fighters to die from cocaine withdrawal.

But, I wonder why Americans don't know more about the drug addiction among terrorist enemy combatants?  It just seems odd to learn about this situation from our own troops and a rescued humanitarian worker, rather than from our government spokespersons.  Curious.