Solari Action Network

[jbondaru]

If U.S. Wins War On Terror, Why Not War On Drugs, Too?
By Betsy McCaughey
(Originally published on Conspiracy Planet)

As American forces hunt down Osama bin Laden and pound the remains of al-Qaida, the U.S. is showing it can fight terrorism. The Bush
administration should use this proven ability to defeat the worst type of bioterrorism to date: illegal drug trafficking. The cocaine and heroin flooding into the U.S. are addicting our children,wrecking families, spawning crime on our streets and costing billions of dollars a year.

The similarities between al-Qaida and drug terrorists are striking. Like al-Qaida, drug traffickers swear allegiance to no nation and wear no uniform. Just as al-Qaida occupied Afghanistan, drug traffickers occupy vast areas of Latin America and use automatic weapons and airplanes to subdue the populace. And, like al-Qaida, drug terrorists fund their operations with laundered money.

Drugs = Terror?
The difference is that the U.S. has shown the will to defeat al-Qaida. A passion to defeat drug traffickers has been sadly lacking. The same all-out commitment of air power, special forces, intelligence gathering, border and immigration controls and financial restraints that the Bush administration and Congress are expending to rout out al-Qaida should be turned against an even deadlier enemy.

The terrorists who struck on Sept 11 took more than 3,000 lives, a tragic loss. But every single year, at least 16,000 Americans are killed by illegal drugs.

In addition, 5 million chronic users are so crippled by addiction they can't make it through high school, show up for a job or feed and nurture their kids.

The families struck on Sept11 posted pictures of their missing loved ones outside the Family Assistance Center in New York. It was a sight no one could ever forget. But it's still true you couldn't build a wall big enough for all the pictures of children who've died or had their minds and bodies destroyed by drugs.

Lack of will
Despite such death and suffering, American political leaders have notmustered the bipartisan cooperation and public support to wage and
all-out war against drug terrorists. In 1998, Rep. Bill McCollum ,R-FL, announced a new Speaker's Task Force for a Drug-Free America, which he would co-chair. The goal, he said, was to cut off 80% of the supply of illegal drugs by 2002. Now, one month before that deadline, Task Force Staff Director Char1es Diaz concedes that the supply of illegal drugs coming into the country is increasing. Among the tragic results: a steady increase in the number of victims treated for drug-related problems in emergency rooms. For children ages 12-17, the drug-related emergencies soared 20% last year (data from the Department of Health and Human Services).

Who's to blame? Washington politicians, as much as anyone. The Bush administration asked Congress for an impressive $1.3 billion for drug
control in Latin America.

At the same time, the administration and its predecessors have sent a mixed message to the international community by granting foreign aid to virtually every major drug-producing, drug-smuggling and money laundering country in the world.

Under a long-standing policy, nations heavily involved in the drug trade are noteligible for foreign aid unless specially "certified" that they're cooperating with American drug enforcement efforts.

In March, the Bush administration certified 20 of the 24 leading drug trafficking nations and granted special aid-eligible status to two
others.

That's despite the refusal of many of these nations to report possible money laundering, criminalize drugs and work with American
investigators.

Foreign policy is always complex, with competing goals. It's clear that in these cases, the US considered other things more important than stopping drug traffickers.

Foreign Policy Angle

That's far from the message President Bush delivered to the world after Sept II, when he warned nations harboring terrorists or laundering their money that "You are either with us or you're against us." That should also be the warning to nations tolerating drug terrorists.

Here at home, immigration and border patrol officials should have the same powerful mandate to nab drug traffickers as they do al-Qaida
terrorists, and the same investigative tools at their disposal. Unfortunately, public support for an all-out effort against drug traffickers is lacking.

Leading figures on the left and right insist that treatment is the answer, not curbing drug supply.

Conservative thinker Milton Friedman warns that drug war tactics will turn the US into a police state. Democrats and some Republicans are urging states to roll back lengthy, mandatory minimum sentences against drug dealers.

Clinton's drug czar Brian McCaffrey, on leaving office last January, urged the nation to drop the phrase "war on drugs." Latin America drug lords must smile to hear us say suppliers aren't the problem.

Almost all the cocaine and heroin coming into the US originates in Columbia, including 85% of the heroin seized by federal authorities in northeastern American cities. To rescue these cities from the drug scourge, the Colombian cartels must be broken.

Colombia's role

Colombia is a key battlefield. But the war has to be worldwide. Like al-Qaida, drug traffickers operate globally, and if they are driven out of one country they quickly appear in another.

One of the key challenges is Afghanistan. Some 70% of the world's heroin and other opiates come from that country, says the Drug Enforcement Administration, and most of it goes to Europe. Almost none goes to US, but that could change over-night if Latin American supplies were cut off or became too costly.

Afghanistan drug trafficking is dangerous to American lives in another way: It funds terrorism.

The Taliban government that host-ad al-Qaida claimed to oppose opiate production. But as Asa Hutchinson head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, testified to Congress recently, the Taliban had a formal and lucrative system for taxing the drug industry.
"Sadly," said Hutchinson, "the profits of the drug trade" probably helped pay for the Sept 11 attack.

What About Afghanistan?

The coming days will be critical. Representatives of the warring factions in Afghanistan have already met in Bonn, Germany, with US assistance to devise a temporary government for that nation. What will the U.S. demand of them? Shutting down the drug trade should be one goal.

It's not easy. Afghanistan has no other industries, and in a country impoverished by drought and war, desperate farmers can make 100 times as much growing poppies for the opium trade as other crops. But al-Qaida terrorism and drug bioterrorism are inextricably linked, and equally dangerous.

Al-Qaida would kill all Americans if it could. And drug traffickers would addict all Americans if they could. What Bush said about bin Laden and his lieutenants, he should now say about drug traffickers: "It's time to smoke 'em out"

Betsy McCaughey is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

[bruzer8]

I have to disagree with your premise that if we can defeat terrorists we can win the war on drugs. First and foremost, the war on drugs is a war on the poor and should be viewed as such. Secondly, only 10 percent of the population according to William Buckley Jr., are in fact going to become addicted to illicit drugs, and those same 10 percent are the ones we are spending all the tax dollars to incarcerate.

Until 1943 the American public was able to decide what they were willing to ingest. The corporate masters were not able to profit from that arrangement and so the Government decided to help them out by making it illegal to consume whatever product they decided to manufacture unless you went through one their drug pushers (your doctor).

How many families do you think the war on drugs has destroyed? DARE is the equivalent of Hitler Youth teach them to inform on parents. DARE is one of the lead programs in the war on drugs.

The war on drugs is a vile program designed to fill prisons.

[eric12]

Another primary reason that the war on drugs will never be a serious war is because the drug trade funds many of our intelligence operations(CIA etc.) It simply isn't in their interest to stop it.
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Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Barry Goldwater