Frankensteins Monster: The US Military and Dehumanisation

I just want to start by apologizing. I started this thread ages ago and only resurrected it recently, so it's a bit all over the place and not quite how I wanted it, but I was sick of it staring me in the face everyday

Also, while the US Military are highlighted, what is discussed in the thread could be said to be true of any and all other armed forces. I use the US Military because they are the most referenced throughout the thread and seem to be at the forefront of this dehumanisation attempt.

Enough chatter, let's get on with it...

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In Mary Shelley's original novel 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus', Victor Frankenstein was in fact the creator of the monster, not the monster itself - a common misconception. So, if the modern military is the monster...who is the modern equivalent of Frankenstein?

The Dubious Genius of Andrew Marshall

The Dubious Genius of Andrew Marshall

Many of you may not of heard of Andrew Marshall, which, considering his duration in the Pentagon, should raise a few eyebrows. Marshall earned a graduate degree in economics from the University of Chicago before he joined the Rand Corporation, the original "think tank," in 1949. In 1973, under the Presidency of Richard Nixon, the Office of Net Assessment was created to serve as an internal think tank for the DoD. Andrew Marshall was named its first director and has been re-appointed by every president that followed.


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(Yoda. More like Darth Sidious!)

He is the DoD's most elusive official and has become one of its most influential,noted for fostering talent in younger associates such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, among others, he is affectionately known as Yoda in defence circles. Even at 89 years of age - this mans power and influence is NOT to be underestimated.

The following is an excerpt from a 2003 interview with 'Wired Magazine',

Wired: You're known for following technology outside the traditional realm of national security. Pharmaceuticals, for instance.

Marshall: People who are connected with neural pharmacology tell me that new classes of drugs will be available relatively shortly, certainly within the decade. These drugs are just like natural chemicals inside people, only with behaviour-modifying and performance-enhancing characteristics. One of the people I talk to jokes that a future intelligence problem is going to be knowing what drugs the other guys are on.

In their own words...

This idea of 'controlling' or 'regulating' a soldiers emotions is something that has cropped up in government and military documentation on a few occasions, usually as a throw away line or a caveat of the type of technology that is to come. One such mention comes from the now well publicised document 'Rebuilding America's Defenses - Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century', which many see as the blueprint of the PNAC Plan for U.S. Global Hegemony. Of course, this document has become famous for another throw away line (not that I'm downplaying it's importance) which states that "...the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." A year later the US suffered what can only be described as a "catastrophic and catalyzing event", coincidence? Maybe. But I highlight that particular incidence to show that these documents, and what they contain, do have a tendency to come to fruition...no matter how ridiculous they sound.

So, what does the document have to say on the topic of this thread? Well, on page 74 of this document (pdf), page 61 or 62 of the original (I think), under the chapter title of 'Transforming U.S. Conventional Forces' it says:

Consider just the potential changes that might effect the infantryman. Future soldiers may operate in encapsulated, climate-controlled, powered fighting suits, laced with sensors, and boasting chameleon-like 'active' camouflage. 'Skin-patch' pharmaceuticals help regulate fears, focus concentration and enhance endurance and strength. A display mounted on a soldier’s helmet permits a comprehensive view of the battlefield – in effect to look around corners and over hills – and allows the soldier to access the entire combat information and intelligence system while filtering incoming data to prevent overload. Individual weapons are more lethal, and a soldier’s ability to call for highly precise and reliable indirect fires – not only from Army systems but those of other services – allows each individual to have great influence over huge spaces. Under the 'Land Warrior' program, some Army experts envision a 'squad' of seven soldiers able to dominate an area the size of the Gettysburg battlefield – where, in 1863, some 165,000 men fought.

It might not seem like much, especially when it is conveniently placed in the middle of what seems like a load of unrealistic science fiction jargon, but it is a sign of intent. On a side not; I can't help but visualise soldiers of the future as being real life 'Robocops', and while that sounds cool, what we must remember is that the 'Robocop' character was a human who dies and is then brought back to life as a 'cyborg.' Which sounds suspiciously like a zombie to me

And if Robocop isn't your thing, perhaps The Terminator is?

Of course, like with most of the plans they have, fancy, non-threatening terminology needs to be used in order to sell the idea to those in positions of power (with little knowledge of the subject) and us, the unsuspecting public. With this in mind let me introduce you to a term you might may be hearing a lot of in the future: Tactical Pharmacology. Sounds very 'la-di-da', doesn't it? This particular term was used by The British Medical Association in a report entitled, "The Use of Drugs As Weapons." While the BMA where concerned at the potential of such development they did recognise that governments are "demonstrating considerable interest in the possibility of using drugs as weapons." As a writer for the New York Times points out:

We could also see troops going into action with chemically-heightened aggression, as well as resistance to fear, pain and fatigue. It is not science fiction to suggest that we might see military pharmacology that can remove feelings of guilt or post-traumatic stress. The economic temptation is strong: five times more soldiers suffer mental than physical wounds in war.

New York Times

As if influencing emotions through tactical pharmacology wasn't bad enough, a new document written by the American National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) entitled 'Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Juncture' goes a step further. Why take a weak, emotional human being when you could breed a specifically designed 'super soldier' specifically for the battlefield...

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Few experts believe that current governance instruments are adequate for those challenges. For example, direct modification of DNA at fertilization is widely researched with a goal of removing defective genes; however, discussions of future capabilities open the possibility for designing humans with unique physical, emotional, or cognitive abilities.”

Official Document (pdf)

Ironically enough, just like 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' from the PNAC, this document also hints at a "catastrophic and catalyzing event" to enhance and strengthen global ties and establish a new "International system." It states:

“Under this scenario, severe threats to the international system—possibly a looming environmental disaster or a conflict that risks spreading—prompt greater cooperation on solving global problems.

Slightly off-topic but I thought it was worth noting.

So as we can see tactical pharmacology has been long in the planning, unfortunately, it didn't stay that way.

Alive! Its alive! Its alive!

For decades now, the armed forces have served as human guinea pigs for all sorts of experiments...

The first time Army scientists succumbed to this allure was in 1951 at Fort Dix, New Jersey in an experiment that involved 44,459 troops. More than 18,000 of them got injected without their informed consent with a newly formulated oil additive for vaccines.

The final study on the Fort Dix troopers had data that none of the previous ones had: autopsy results. The soldiers had grown older and many of them had died. Epidemiologists, mainly working for the National Research Council and the American Cancer Society, reported a "significant excess of deaths" in soldiers given the oil-boosted vaccine, which the investigators related to "ill-defined vascular lesions of the central nervous system."

Still, the number of patients in this study was too low to extrapolate any reliable conclusions from the data. That did not prevent government and military doctors from doing just that. They concluded that the oily flu vaccine was safe. Nevertheless, what the government then did not do was telling. The FDA never licensed the vaccine, or the oil adjuvant, for human use.

Source

That was in 1951. But the US Government/Military is infamous for conducting dangerous experiments, often in secret and without consent, on unsuspecting military men and women.

A History Of US Secret Human Experimentation


To think this sort of abuse of power is a thing of the past is wrong, It's still going on.

To go, or not to go? That is the question

There exists an enemy that all soldiers have come face to face with, one that has not changed for thousands of years, and has claimed the lives of countless victims. The enemy in question is fatigue. However, that could be a thing of the past thanks to a little orange pill. "Go pills" are routinely taken by soldiers to boost cognitive function and allow the individual to remain awake and alert during combat. And it's not just the US military...

UK army tested 'stay awake' pills

A controversial drug which can keep people awake for days has been tested by the UK military, MPs have been told.

Modafinil pills - known on the drugs scene as "zombies" - are used to treat the rare sleeping disorder narcolepsy.

BBC

The issue came under the spotlight in April 2002, when two US military pilots mistakenly bombed a Canadian infantry unit in Afghanistan, killing four.

The use of drugs to address the problem — a practice that goes back decades — is now under fire. Earlier this month, two Air National Guard pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops during an F-16 flight over Afghanistan last year, claimed the “go pills” they took before the mission impaired their judgment. Lawyers for the two airmen, Maj. Harry Schmidt and Maj. William Umbach, contend the military pressured their clients to take the go pills — as the prescription amphetamine Dexedrine is called in the military.

msnbc

Tragic accidents like this should come as no surprise when you consider the known effects of Dextroamphetamine.

Public opinion on the use of these drugs seems unanimous...



But if it's not experimental drugs being forced upon soldiers, it's illegal drugs being offered to soldiers...

US Businessman: Blackwater Paid Me to Buy Steroids and Weapons on Black Market for its Shooters

A Texas businessman who has worked extensively in Iraq claims that Blackwater paid him to purchase steroids and other drugs for its operatives in Baghdad, as well as more than 100 AK47s and massive amounts of ammunition on Baghdad's black market.

Howard Lowry, who worked in Iraq from 2003-2009, also claims that he personally attended Blackwater parties where company personnel had large amounts of coc aine and blocks of hashish and would run around naked. At some of these parties, Lowry alleges, Blackwater operatives would randomly fire automatic weapons from their balconies into buildings full of Iraqi civilians. Lowry described the events as a "frat party gone wild" where "drug use was rampant."

The Nation

This coupled with the following story: Army 'losing battalion' to drugs
- - - could highlight the possible drug problems our armed forces are entrenched in.

As if that wasn't all bad enough, we now see soldiers turning to prescription medication to fight their demons...

Soldiers Take Psychiatric Medications for Stress
Army to stem overuse of prescription drugs, Congress told

The real issue behind this thread is the systematic dehumanisation of members the armed forces. Through the use of experimental drugs, our soldiers of the future will be the ultimate killing machines, devoid of human emotion or reason. Already, we are seeing it's effects upon soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan...

US soldier admits murdering girl
US soldier admits Iraq girl rape
Members of U.S. platoon in Afghanistan accused of killing civilians for sport

Summed up competently:

Bravery in pill form might be useful: being able to banish jitters and ensure that every soldier is free from nerves has obvious advantages. And nobody wants to see soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress after the event. But it’s a slippery slope. Do you want soldiers to carry out their mission regardless of personal risk because they have no fear? Or push themselves beyond what is physically sustainable because they have no fatigue? Worse, do you want them to be killing machines who follow orders without compunction? These are of course extreme possibilities, but even the relatively mild amphetamine ‘go-pills’ used by the Air Force have already been a major source of controversy. It’s worth starting the discussion before the research becomes a done deal.

Wired

At what point do we say, "enough is enough?"

Additional:

A fascinating article about how "Military’s mad-science arm Darpa" are looking to prevent U.S. troop fatalities caused by blood loss by putting soldiers into a state of “suspended animation” where the heart stops beating and wounds don’t bleed.

Dr Miller from DARPA confidently predicts…

"Once the team comes up with the right elixir, it’ll undergo federally mandated safety testing. After that, the zombie vaccine will be sent to the battlefield for human application."

Wired

Zombie Vaccine!?

You've outdone yourself Liveforever8.
Fantastic thread!
Not only are they looking into the application of pharmaceuticals to control the emotions of soldiers but you can bet they're testing the same chemicals in aerosol form and as food and water additives to handle civilian populations.

This is truly a frightening era where we may well have emotionless zombies in mechanical suits as our "combat soldiers". With Posse Commitatus gone they might as well be called police as well.

If we don't make some serious ethical decisions soon we will doubtless see science fiction come to life courtesy of our military.
Frankenstein's monster will look like cookie monster compared to what the Pentagon will come up with.

S&F, ~ATA

reply to post by Asktheanimals


You're exactly right

As long as it's other people on the receiving end people don't seem to care, but when the military presence is ever increasing on home soil you've got to ask yourself how long it will be before these types of incidents happen on your doorstep.

In fact, I would argue that the effects are already there to be seen:

Fort Hood Shooting - a gunman killed 13 people and wounded 29 others.

Fort Carson soldiers' killing spree after Iraq combat

Seventeen US soldiers from a Colorado military base who mostly served in Iraq have been linked to violent killings and attempted killings since their return to US soil. Three of them came from one platoon - highlighting how a generation of American soldiers are struggling to cope with life after military service.

BBC

It's all in plain sight.

Oh, and congratulations on the "Forum Moderator" status, I must have missed that announcement. A very astute choice in my opinion. Well done

Doping soldiers goes back to World War 2. Allied pilots were given benzedrine and methedrine for long bombing and escort missions. Legend has it, the Hells Angels were founded by ex-pilots who wanted to ride fast buzzed on meth and to keep the supply of speed flowing through illegal trade.

reply to post by Cheerfulnihilist


Quite right about the WW2 pilots and Hell's Angels.
That is a pertinent piece of background info to add.

reply to post by Cheerfulnihilist


You're absolutely right

The Chinese knew the advantages that certain drugs would give in battle, and that was thousands of years ago.

In more recent times, Hitlers army famously used a drug, Pervitin, with particular effect at the very beginning of the war. Which is why many historians have often cited it's pivotal role in the early Blitzkrieg assaults upon Poland and France.

Many soldiers soon became addicted though and over time the drug had a detrimental effect upon Germany's forces.

More here.

However, the more modern attempts at creating the "super soldier" are far more nefarious and potentially devastating for those involved.

What an awesome thread ! S&F.
When people experiment on others to see how efficiently they could spread germ warfare agents, or to control minds with dangerous drugs it can only be defined as criminal behavior. Criminals always find ways to justify their criminality, I'm sure these ones have as well. These criminals need to be in jail.
Very important thread, thank you for all your time effort and research.

reply to post by jlv70


Cheers

Yeah, it's unbelievable what governments all over the world have been able to get away with in the name of "furthering science." The numerous documented examples of governments using citizens and members of the armed forces (both their own and other countries) is staggering and the fact that they still get away with it is even more so.

This is why I don't understand people who don't believe certain theories that are presented on this site, they say things like "Oh, that would never happen!" and yet it has already happened many times before, one way or another.

Oh, and seeing as you mentioned mind control: Mind Control: Bull, but not BS

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Abu Ghraib incident...

Beginning in 2004, accounts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (also known as Baghdad Correctional Facility) came to public attention. These acts were committed by military police personnel of the United States Army together with additional US governmental agencies.

The United States Department of Defense removed seventeen soldiers and officers from duty, and eleven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery.

en.wikipedia.org...

By dehumanising the "enemy", you only serve to dehumanise yourself.

The atrocities of Abu Ghraib are one of the most poignant reminders that these kind of activities still take place, either as formal training or simply stemming from the individual soldier’s coping mechanisms. But you've got to ask yourself; what are the army doing to soldiers to make them act in such a manner?

Don't forget the WAFFEN SS all amped up on methamphetamine....

Hitler's Drugged Soldiers

Many of the Wehrmacht's soldiers were high on Pervitin when they went into battle, especially against Poland and France -- in a Blitzkrieg fueled by speed. The German military was supplied with millions of methamphetamine tablets during the first half of 1940. The drugs were part of a plan to help pilots, sailors and infantry troops become capable of superhuman performance. The military leadership liberally dispensed such stimulants, but also alcohol and opiates, as long as it believed drugging and intoxicating troops could help it achieve victory over the Allies. But the Nazis were less than diligent in monitoring side-effects like drug addiction and a decline in moral standards.

Brilliant!!! One of the best threads I have read on ATS in a while.

Never heard of this guy: the head of the DOD. The USA is run by these guys, RAND is and has been running things for decades. The USA was sold out and is now just a tool of the Military Industrial Complex.

The Military Industrial Complex At Work - USA 60 Years of War...No End In Sight

WIKI: Andrew Marshall - Foreign Policy Strategist

Marshall was a member of "a cadre of strategic thinkers" that coalesced at the Rand Corporation, a group that included Daniel Ellsberg, Herman Kahn, and James Schlesinger; Schlesinger later became the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and oversaw the creation of the Office of Net Assessment. The original main task of the office was to provide strategic evaluations on nuclear war issues.

RAND corp website
DOD webstie

reply to post by AllSeeingI


Thanking you muchly

I had never heard of Andrew Marshall until I started looking into it, and now I have it's amazing the amount of people, just like him, who are in positions of enormous power and yet have managed to keep a VERY low profile for decades. It's almost as if there is the "face" of this military industrial complex and then there is the "brains" of the operation that remain in the shadows and pull all the strings.

Not that we didn't know that already, to a degree.

Thanks for the links and whatnot, any other info will be greatly appreciated

I'm glad to see this thread got bumped to see the light of day. The original thread was nearly 3 years ago and the number of new developments are bound to be astonishing.
We've now seen the invisibility cloak come to reality along the VR soldier gear to make use of digital sensing, communication and targeting systems.

It did occur to me that "Tactical Pharmacology" is a pleasant-sounding rebranding of "Chemical Warfare", something considered so hideous and inhuman that a century ago amid the horrors of WW1 they realized even then that using chemicals against humans was a step too far. They very nearly outlawed flame throwers at the same time. (we would have had one hell of worse time at Okinawa and Iwo Jima if not for that god-awful weapon.

I'd love to see this thread grown new legs.
This is important stuff and will have profound effects on our world.

Some of the chemistry they are using can permanently alter the brain. If the chemistry is removed than there are problems. Since some of this chemistry cannot be found in nature the effect could be psychological problems that may be like post traumatic stress disorder. The Pharma companies are causing a lot of expense to the government. The idiots running the government cannot see this, they are blinded by their participation in deceit. Birds of a feather flock together I guess. The people in government feel they are immune to this, they are mistaken. These alchemic practices are incorporated into all food, even organic. This is not just chemicals with scientific names added to foods, this is altering of food chemistry at the growing level. It seems that there is structure to this deceptive practice but I cannot find the origination. It is tied to big pharmacy though, they are making or approving chemistry for the masses. The thing is, important stuff is consistantly "overlooked" for testing. Even a dumb person should be able to see this if they know where to look. And of course there are people who back this chemistry with crudentials to say it is safe, people who derive their income from the science of chemistry or other sciences who do not look at anything out of their box. The human body is complicated beyond belief, as is most life. We are determining safety on a broad basis based on testing on a small percentage of people of a certain class of people. Usually people in their upper teens to twenties. I don't think they want to consider people out of this class because people out of this class do not have the ability to properly metabolize things as well.

US Businessman: Blackwater Paid Me to Buy Steroids and Weapons on Black Market for its Shooters

A Texas businessman who has worked extensively in Iraq claims that Blackwater paid him to purchase steroids and other drugs for its operatives in Baghdad, as well as more than 100 AK47s and massive amounts of ammunition on Baghdad's black market.

Howard Lowry, who worked in Iraq from 2003-2009, also claims that he personally attended Blackwater parties where company personnel had large amounts of coc aine and blocks of hashish and would run around naked. At some of these parties, Lowry alleges, Blackwater operatives would randomly fire automatic weapons from their balconies into buildings full of Iraqi civilians. Lowry described the events as a "frat party gone wild" where "drug use was rampant."

The Nation

Overseas, hard drugs/steroids and automatic fire rifles are NOT illegal. What they did over there is 100% legal. So this is a nada situation. If this was all that the investigation can come up with, then they have nothing and have wasted the taxpayers' time and money.