the soldiers laugh their way in to death

Yes, that's right.

"see last item" means to look at the previous item, or article; perhaps just above or published in the previous issue...

Nice Wy.

Does " for battle" mean "for engaging in battle"?

US drugging soldiers for battle = US drugging soldiers who are engaging in the war (of Iraq or Afghanistan)

Yes, those definitions would be correct. However, it is clear that this quote came from a very biased source. The implication in "US drugging soldiers for battle" is that the US is purposely addicting soldiers to drugs for waging war, so they simply "laugh their way into death" (it should be "into", rather than "in to", but that is just semantic), and that the resistance fighters pity them for being so weak as to need drugs to fight a war. The last time I heard of an army being deliberately drugged by the government was on Star Trek.

Cool Cavfancier!
Now I exactly got what the poster said.