Where Do We Sign Up?

The United States government has found a new way of recruiting soldiers for the Iraq war: It's offering them ecstasy. The trick is, the soldiers only get the free drugs after they have seen enough fighting to be experiencing flashbacks, recurring nightmares and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The usually tough-to-please US Food and Drug Administration has given the experimental treatments an initial go ahead and scientists in South Carolina have quickly gotten to work. The idea is to take advantage of the touchy-feely effect ecstasy (the "happiness drug") has on people to get soldiers to open up about the trauma they have faced. In other news, the US government spends $20 billion a year on the drug war.

Chemically, ecstasy is known as MDMA and in the trials soldiers are given either the drug or a placebo and then undergo eight-hour therapy sessions during which music is played and they are encouraged to talk about their horrifying experiences. Although still in its early phase, scientists insist the results are quite positive. The team's leader is Dr. Michael Mithoefer, a South Carolina psychiatrist and longtime campaigner for the use of ecstasy in science. Mithoefer has already given ecstasy to patients who were the victims of violent crimes, including rape, and insists on the drug's positive effects in helping them to talk about and come to terms with what happened to them. There is, he says, even some evidence that ecstasy can reduce tremors in Parkinson's patients. Possibly a whole new take on the 1972 David Peel song "The Pope Smokes Dope." (2:35 p.m. CET)

Robot Soldiers

The robot soldier is coming. The United States is working on a $127 billion project, code named "Future Combat Systems," to put computerized robots on the front line of combat in the near future. Even to the untrained eye, the advantages are obvious. Not only will the robots never get cold or hungry, but nobody, with respect to Hal from "2001, A Space Odyssey," will care if they die.

The cost of the project will increase the already-bloated US Defense Department budget by 20 percent, going from $419.3 billion for 2006 to $502.3 billion for 2010, but scientists promise it will be worth it in the long run. Why? Because, they say, the costs are just temporary and in the end robots will cost much less than human soldiers. According to the New York Times, the average cost of a soldier from enlistment to death (including retirement benefits) is $4 million. Robot soldiers cost a tenth of that, or less. Plus, they can be reused over and over again.

Scientists working on the robots promise they will be able to see, think and react just like real soldiers and that over time they will become more sophisticated and more lethal. At first, they will be operated by remote control, but as they get smarter, they will also get more independent. The whole idea -- a dream of the Pentagon for over 30 years and of science fiction fans for generations -- is both uplifting (no more war dead) and terrifying (think Terminator).

For the moment, though, technology is far from creating robots a la Issac Asimov, who can think, make decisions and have a conscience. Still, robots are already proving useful in Iraq, where they are digging up roadside mines, and in Afghanistan, where they are scouring caves and arming American outposts. In April, a bomb disposal robot capable of firing 1,000 rounds a minute will be going to Baghdad, reports The New York Times. The good news is that if in 20 years the robots do go haywire and try to take over, we will know who to call -- the California governor's mansion. Of course, if America decides to do away with a certain pesky Constitutional clause, the Oval Office might, by then, be the place to call. (1:15 p.m. CET)