The following is a selection of letters from our readers on the August 2 article “The Fort Bragg murders: a grim warning on the use of the military.”
Heavy stuff and well written.
I’m wondering if an extension could not include the thousands of Vietnam vets who remain screwed up, often homeless (from being unable to maintain family relationships) and sometimes dangerous. Being ordered to kill without really feeling a good reason for doing so must disrupt the human psyche tremendously. We may even be creating monsters of otherwise innocent 18-year-old kids.
Thanks for the article.
H, USAF ret.
Texas
3 August 2002
Your article by Bill Vann on the Fort Bragg murders and the subsequent implications for both a militaristic American foreign policy abroad and an unconstitutional utilization of United States armed forces domestically was excellent.
I do feel compelled to say that the real , thinking portion of the American Right feels the same way. Unfortunately, the neo-conservative takeover of the Republican Party and the establishment “conservative” organs like National Review and the Weekly Standard have created the historically false perception that Americans on the political Right are, or should be, in support of the lunacy of Bush’s impending actions against Iraq and his accompanying expansion of the National Security State across the board. Time is running out.
Keep up your fine work and best wishes to you from a paleo-conservative.
Sincerely,
MD
3 August 2002
Thank you, Bill Vann,
For a well-balanced and well-written article, as are all I have ever seen on the WSWS.
Years ago, I used to be a right-winger myself, born and raised in South Africa, and if anyone had ever told me I’d one day be willing to lay down my own life for a Socialist cause, I would never have believed them, but now it is so.
I believe we are facing the worst case of Fascism this world has ever seen, and unless we each of us lay aside the anger and unhappiness in our own hearts, must necessarily follow this new Sauron in a weird parallel to the recent film “Lord of the Rings” into some hellish industrial and robotic society of tyrants and their flunkies and their slaves.
All you people at WSWS are doing a really great job, and thanks!—for being there!
All blessings, that we may all of us peace-loving people find a better world some day,
GP
2 August 2002
I suspect the link in the killings is drug-related. Specifically, withdrawal psychosis. Every so often, the military wants to make a better soldier. I suspect this may be an experiment with stimulants (some kind of speed)—to increase endurance and alertness gone awry. When the soldiers returned home, no more drugs. Withdrawal.
It would explain why they were (almost) all special forces, and why they were all from the same base. It may have been exacerbated by post-traumatic stress and/or family trouble, but not likely caused.
It would not be the first time. In the Vietnam War, LSD was experimented with.
I don’t buy some of the more sinister theories about the government “offing” them, or intending death as a likely outcome of the experiment, but I do believe the government is culpable for carelessness, at least. Perhaps investigation along these lines is warranted.
PD
4 August 2002
The Editor:
The “Fort Bragg” murders are a terrible tragedy and I was just wondering if these cases may have something to do with the vast amounts of Dexedrine and sedatives being handed out like sweets to servicemen on active operations in Afghanistan
An interesting article, by the way.
HL
3 August 2002