OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.
General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.
"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. ... And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa, Canada.
"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them," he said.
Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.
"A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action," Hiller said dryly.
One soldier told him later: "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."
"Trucking got my chips cashed in..."
of you have sat, and perhaps thought, with us!
1 comment:
No, this is bad. VERY bad. I can see it now, the Army's latest add campaingn. A new spin on 'Merica's great wars, the war on 'turr and the War on Drugs. Join the Army, see marijuana and poppy fields in far away places. Watch vast fields of drugs burn, just please don't stand down wind *wink* *wink*.
I mean how hard would it be for recruiters to talk a stoner into it if they had footage of a "forest" of pot!
Post a Comment