Xref: utzoo talk.politics.misc:41310 alt.drugs:2110 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!orc!mipos3!omepd!littlei!reed!wab From: wab@reed.UUCP (Bill Bennett) Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.drugs Subject: Re: What, me worry? Keywords: Central America, Shining Path, Peru, Systemic Wimpiness Message-ID: <13883@reed.UUCP> Date: 17 Jan 90 05:07:26 GMT References: <21220@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <6185@internal.Apple.COM> <36030@cornell.UUCP> Reply-To: wab@reed.UUCP (Bill Bennett) Organization: Reed College, Portland OR Lines: 78 In article <36030@cornell.UUCP> anoop@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Anoop Kumar Mangalick) writes: > >I have some tidbits of my own to add to this growing discussion topic. >Several days ago someone brought to my attention the fact that the country >in S/Central America which is receiving the most monetary/military support >in order to fight the Drug War, Colombia, is not the country with the >highest export volume of cocaine to the U.S. > >The Bush administration is as vehemently anti-communist as the Reagan >administration. It sees the creation of communist states in S/Central >America as threatening to our national security. Right-wing military >dictatorships in that region are prime targets for communist revolutions. >Thus, it is in the best interests of the U.S. to forestall this possibility >by seeing that such regimes are removed from power gradually, preferably with >the installation of U.S.-backed, freedom-and-democracy-oriented, capitalistic >governments. The Drug War helps to justify a military presence in various >S/Central American countries and thus achieves this purpose. It also >presents our government as being devoted to solving a domestic social problem. >Finally, when a politician comes out strongly in favor of the Drug War, >fighting for billions for his constituency, then he receives more voter >support (votes). No politician can lose by supporting the Drug War. > >The lack of funds for many programs, including manpower, prisons, and rehab >centers, is consistent with this view. The Bush administration is not >truly intent on ridding the U.S. of the drug scourge. It is only seeking >to project a military presence into S/Central America for the purpose of >preventing communist insurgencies in that region. > >Any comments? > >Anoop Mangalick Actually, the Bush administration (and the Reakan Reich [I prefer the Libyan spelling] before it) probably prefer to focus on Columbia out of cowardice instead of imperialism. The country that actually grows all the cocaine is not Columbia, as you note, but Peru. And it is all the cocaine being grown in Peru that supports the rural economy of that country. If the US is the "imperialist oppressor" who enforces coca eradication in Peru, that means massive bad PR for the US. This is only a problem, since we've shown time after time that we really don't care about world opinion as far as our western hemisphere imperialism is concerned, because Peru has perhaps the only viable communist insurgency in South America. This is the formidible, in the countryside, Shining Path movement. Shining Path has protected cocaine fields in return for political support (and cash), and so far the US has been loath to extend the cocaine wars into Peru. Frankly, I think it is simply because the US is afraid of antagonizing another native population, this time of a democratic country, in a losing effort. Most of these cocaine fields are very high and remote (we're talking the Altoplano, folks) and interdiction would be virtually impossible. However, all the labs are in Columbia and, until recently, Columbia has had a corrupt, military-dominated government. The new government is supposedly clean, but with all of the cartel terrorism we still have easy culprits (the cartels) and easy targets (the labs). So the US is willing to ignore the raw cocaine flowing out of Peru just as it was once willing to ignore the arms flowing from Cambodia into Vietnam. Of course, if Daddy (Bill Bennett) had his way he'd be leading teams of Rangers through the Peruvian hills to round up all the poor, ignorant farmers growing the White Death. And he'd pack along his portable guillotine with which to render appropriate, if summary, justice. After all, the Big Pus Blister with the nicotine grimace (Daddy-O) is on record as favoring beheading for anyone associated with drugs. A quick solution: American decriminalization will pull the economic rug out from under the drug trafficking cartel; Removing all American military personal above the Mexican border would reduce imperialism; And three hits of prime MDA just might turn Big Bill into a nice guy. Give it a try, Dad, Bill Jr.