Seth Harp Talks About The Rot At The Core Of America’s Empire

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and the start of the War on Terror. The totalizing and disastrous effects of American intervention in the Middle East followed a familiar trajectory: righteous vengeance and prolonged victimhood; creeping guilt and doubt about the efficacy of increasingly cruel methods; and finally, regret if not outright shame at the destruction invoked in the name of democracy. The racism and xenophobia trotted out against America’s enemies during this time took different forms, though one moniker, that of the narco-terrorist, painted a broad but provocative picture of a Middle Eastern caricature selling opiates to prop up endless violence in the name of revolution. How ironic, then, to learn the term is better applied domestically. It turns out, not only was the U.S. government subsidizing war through the tacit approval and use of drug money abroad, but that American special forces operatives were running drugs on the side, sometimes utilizing military equipment and vehicles, while also pocketing millions of dollars in discretionary funds, all without any greater or noble purpose than boredom and greed. 

Investigative journalist Seth Harp’s book The Fort Bragg Cartel charts a pattern of suicide, homicide, overdoses, and rampant drug dealing at the titular military installation in North Carolina, which serves as a microcosm for a far-reaching dilemma of reckless behavior, violence, and addiction within American special forces organization like the Green Berets and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Harp, who served a tour in Iraq in the mid-aughts, teases out the minutiae of Fort Bragg’s founding and importance to the training and deployment of special forces soldiers who quickly became the hidden but extremely well-funded offensive arm of the U.S. government. What exactly has the government accomplished after such a prolonged series of occupations? What patterns and cultures within the military drive soldiers to take and deal narcotics, often to deadly ends?