After a long line of stories about the continued marriage of young girls (some below ten) and rape of women as a means of forced marriages, the United States government has found the perfect gift to win over Afghan warloads: Viagra. CIA and military officers are handing out Viagra to warlords to win them over to Uncle Sam.
The Washington Post describes one such scene with a chieftain in his 60s who is married to four younger woman. It appears that concepts of liberty and equal rights have had little impact on the man but four little blue pills was all he needed. After trying them out, he happily turned over information on insurgents.
Jamie Smith, a former CIA covert operator in Afghanistan and now chief executive of SCG International, explains “You’re trying to bridge a gap between people living in the 18th century and people coming in from the 21st century, so you look for those common things in the form of material aid that motivate people everywhere.” Sex with young girls is just the ticket.
Another official explained that “You didn’t hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones,” since they are often married to four younger women (the maximum allowed by Sharia law) and the pills “put them back in an authoritative position.” Putting aside what position they are in, it is an interesting program where soldiers and CIA officers passing out prescription drugs.
Since they are carrying these pills around in their pockets, it sounds like they are hardly sweating the details. The Viargra site explains why it is important to not use the drug without speaking with a doctor and starting at the right dosage — particularly if you are over sixty. For people 65 or older, the company recommends the lowest dose (25 mg). There is danger of loss of eyesight, hearing, and sudden drop of blood pressure. In the wrong hands, it could be fatal. What happens when one of these chieftains ends up dead in a hut with his teenage wife? Is the U.S. liable? Does the tribe remains loyal after the little blue pill killed the chieftain?
Under common law tort law, the soldiers would be subject to the standard of a reasonable physician since, if you hold yourself out as a distributor of prescription drugs, you are subject to the professional standard. I doubt many doctors carry around prescription drugs to hand out as party favors.
For the full story, click here
do you guys know any good virtual fitness clubs ?
Good to know 🙂 and hey….i wanne say thanks for the usefull knowledge.I just love it!.lol
This is the perfect inroad to getting a handle on that Afghani opium trade.
Score one for the War on Drugs.
Sex-crazed guys with guns. At last, sanity in our foreign policy.
A woman can’t get contraceptives because the Bush Administration issues a rule allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense the doctor prescribed contraceptive based on their religious beliefs, but it is ok to give Afghan warlords unprescribed pharmaceuticals. I am guessing that this was Cheney’s idea.
“…aging village patriarchs were easily sold on the utility of a pill that could “put them back in an authoritative position,” the official said.”
Wars are always fought on the backs of women and children. Rape is one tactic and this action is just one more way no one cares what happens to women and girls in this war. (Not that this govt. cares about any of the people–our soldiers or their civilians.)
It’s very clear that we have no idea what we are doing. We are making deals with little thought of long term consequences. The civilian population is scared of us, scared of the warlords and scared of the taliban. We rebuild little and protect civilians even less. Another big, Mission Accomplished to cheneybush. We’ve imported FEMA and “our democracy”.
Will they make love, not war, or have sex and create little warlords?
Molly Ivins wrote, “…the Pentagon will be spending $60 million a year to cover Viagra for soldiers, current and former…” http://www.creators.com/opinion/molly-ivins/molly-ivins-october-15-1998-10-15.html
and I thought that was astounding.
I fell sorry for the young wives who were likely not consulted about ‘the little blue pills’ and quite happy with current state of affairs ie an old man who couldn’t get anywhere near them
– in any significant way… Yeeck!
I have always heard that the Afghanistan people had a very hard life anyway and leave it up to us Americans to make it even harder for them…go figure, our hard-earned tax dollars at work medicating every old warlord to ensure their upstanding patriarchy over subservient slave girls.
I’m surprisingly okay with this. Better to put the metaphorical lead back in their gun than actual guns I suppose. The rape and polygamy is repulsive, but considering we still have that same problem in our own country, it may be a century or two of cultural distance to far to cross. As for liability, this is an 18th Century society so under nisi prius what does Afghan tribal law have with regard to witch doctor malpractice? Judging from this story and the success of McDonald’s in the Soviet Bloc, LBJ probably should have skipped the hearts and minds and gone straight for the waistlines and libidos.
This is a remarkable story. This is how we are expecting to “win” the war in Afghanistan? This sounds more like a Karl Rove or a Rush Limbaugh strategy than a military strategy. I agree with Prof. Turley that there may be some liability for any of the possible side effects of this wonder drug. I did not realize that the government can hand out prescription drugs to its agents and its soldiers without a prescription. Wouldn’t the government have had to get a prescription for this supply of Viagara? Wouldn’t the authorities that obtained the Viagara be subject to criminal prosecution for handing it out to the soldiers and agents and under what pretenses did they get the drugs in the first place? Did George W. or Dick Cheney get any unprescribed doses? This is getting interesting. Does George want to go out with a bang? With Cheney’s heart problems he better be careful if he got his hands on these drugs.