notsofasteddie
(journeyman)
4/28/01 04:58 PM
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NY Times: A War Against Ourselves
[Post#: 122142
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April 28, 2001
ABROAD AT HOME
A War Against Ourselves
By ANTHONY LEWIS
Op-Ed Columns Archive
Join a Discussion on Anthony Lewis
BOSTON -- "They are killing us," the pilot of the small plane carrying an American missionary family said as a Peruvian Air Force fighter fired. Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, died.
But the "they" in the pilot's words were not just the Peruvian gunners, and the "us" were not only Veronica and Charity Bowers. The ultimate cause of their death was U.S. drug policy, the war on drugs; and that war has damaged the lives of millions of Americans.
The attack on the Bowers family focused attention on an obscure part of the drug war: surveillance flights by C.I.A. contract employees who target suspected drug-smuggling planes for the Peruvian Air Force. President Bush ordered a temporary suspension of the program. And critics pointed to flaws in the way it is carried out.
For example, the C.I.A. employees who spotted the Bowers's plane tried to stop the Peruvian fighter from shooting at it before first checking its markings. But a tape of their communications showed that the Peruvian crew had trouble understanding them because the C.I.A. men spoke little Spanish. A former pilot in the C.I.A. operation told The Washington Post, "That's one of the fallacies of the whole program: the language barrier."
But the real point is not a particular flaw like the C.I.A.'s idiocy in using English-speaking spotters. It is the futility of the whole operation.
The effort to stop cocaine exports from Peru has cut the flow from there substantially. But that reduction has been more than made up by a huge increase in coca cultivation and production in Colombia. As Plan Colombia, the military anti-drug program, gets under way there, production is reportedly beginning to shift to Ecuador.
In the last 15 years, the United States has spent $30 billion, most of it in Latin America, trying to cut the supply of drugs from abroad. The costs to other societies have been severe: the rise of drug gangs, the suffering of peasants from crop eradication, the corruption of governments. Yet the amount of cocaine and heroin entering the United States is as great as ever.
To think that we can deal with our drug problem by limiting supply is irrational. Illegal drugs are an infinitesimal portion of goods entering this country, easy to conceal. And if cocaine were magically stopped, Americans who crave drugs would find some other chemical.
The real need is to reduce the craving. Study after study has shown that treatment of drug abusers is the best and cheapest way to do that. Yet treatment funds are scarce, and the heavy emphasis of our drug policy is on criminal punishment.
The costs to our society have been grievous. Long mandatory minimum sentences have filled our prisons with nonviolent drug offenders and made them, and their families, damaged beings for the rest of their lives. Prison-building is now one of the country's largest construction programs.
The war on drugs is a testament to the human capacity for self-delusion. It is hard to change because even legislators who recognize its futility do not want to be seen as "soft on drugs." Yet around the country some politicians, and many members of the public, have begun to call for change.
But not George W. Bush and his administration. Mr. Bush's reported choice as drug czar is John P. Walters, an all-out warrior who has spoken scornfully of drug treatment and wants to intensify the fight to cut off drug supplies abroad.
The Bush administration has also started to enforce a little-known 1998 law that bars financial aid to students who have been convicted of even a minor drug offense. The result, defying reason, is to discourage one of the best routes to rehabilitation, higher education.
The "war on drugs" is more than just a slogan. In war, collateral damage is often regarded as unavoidable. In any sane civilian policy, the collateral damage of the drug war to ourselves and our neighbors would long since have been found unacceptable.
The result of the U.S. drug war, The Economist of London said last week, "is to undermine democracy, human rights and the environment in much of Latin America. A radical rethink of drug policy is long overdue."
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headfog
(newbie)
4/28/01 07:07 PM
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Re: NY Times: A War Against Ourselves
[Post#: 122170
/ re: 122142
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The word is "ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM".....you should know that MR. John P. Walters....now lets see...mmmmmmmmmm,i spose dat man mr. Walters gotta no jus what dat word means.he jus gota no,cause he a educated man.mighty fine man dat John P.Walters...mighty fine name....dats a mighty fine name fo sho...now i never went out yonder and voted fer a man jus cause what party he layin hisun name on....no sir...never.i jus believed dat dis here mr Bush wuz the best of two evils.de utter one jus seemed to be real confused bout shit in general...da boys head just wasn't wusn't screwed down real good....den mr. Bush done gone pointin dis here mr. Walters to thangs and dat just ripped thru my back end...Jus listen to what dat man be sayin...ifin my granmother wuz alive she would be sayin,dat man would drive a stake in da groun and den he would break it off at the nub......and dat woman wuz alwayz rite...not rite like a know it all...she jus looked at thangs in a down ta earth way...and if she be sayin somein,den she nowed what she said and what she mint.....she would of said bout mr Clinton....she really cant say nothin rite now cause she is dead....but ifin she wont dead she would hav said bout Mr Clinton....she would say.......a man dat uses dat many words to say nothin,sure got a lot of tme on his hands....i want to like dat Mr Bush ... cause at first i thought he bein good folks....cause i believed he had some good shit in him...or at least he use to uv ......i aint always got good shit in me...cause sometimes i buy it and snort it up and no damn good an well,dat i'm payin good money to snort up bad shit....dat dog don't hunt....but i bet Mr Bush's dog hunts...i betcha dat...but i'm sittin hear thankin dat dis here mr. Walters don't even have a dog....shameful man dat mr Walters ...dont even own a dog.......even if he did......it wouldn't hunt.
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insurgent
(enthusiast)
4/28/01 10:08 PM
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Re: NY Times: A War Against Ourselves
[Post#: 122186
/ re: 122170
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hee hee, uz iz funny hedfog.
VOTE LIBERTARIAN
insurgent
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