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Quite an interesting book. The guy is an equal opportunity cynic on who is at fault; slams pretty much every administration in the 2000's. Soldiers get addicted to drugs (both prescribed and illegal) and alcohol to keep them energized. Then they need other drugs to help numb the pain from the things they see and do.
Focusing on Fort Bragg, N.C., home to Delta Force and other elite military units, Harp uncovers a culture steeped in drug trafficking, weapons theft, and cover-ups. Drawing on extensive interviews and documentation, Harp alleges that soldiers returning to Fort Bragg from Afghanistan smuggled opioids and other narcotics into the U.S., sometimes in collaboration with Mexican cartels, and engaged in reckless, often violent behavior on the base—much of it fueled by substance abuse—that the military swept under the rug. A detailed history of the Army's entanglement with Afghanistan's opium trade and harrowing accounts of drug-fueled parties at Fort Bragg full of racist behavior frame Harp's discovery of a shocking number of deaths on the base: 109 from 2020 to 2021 alone, many of them unexplained. Harp's investigative rigor and visceral storytelling make this a disturbing must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full cost of America's overseas conflicts.
It was a good companion to the book I read about the drug trade in the Gold Triangle in Myanmar.
https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/topic/95/what-are-you-reading-now/777?_=1774917935468
