Pubdate: Sat, 09 Dec 2000
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2000 Star Tribune
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Author: Mary C. Preus, Visiting professor of classical languages, 
University of St. Thomas.

COUNTERPOINT: AMERICA'S ILL-CONCEIVED WAR ON DRUGS

The United States is making a terrible mistake in pouring money into 
Colombia to destroy drug sources. The "war on drugs" is our internal 
problem, not the problem of Colombia or any other country that grows the stuff.

First, the U.S. plan throws money down the drain. Our huge demand for drugs 
and willingness to pay whatever they cost will ensure plenty of sources 
around the world. Cut off the Colombian supply, and other farmers will move 
into this profitable market.

Second, we are giving massive support to the very sort of government we 
abhor: government by military force. We have seen a long dismal history of 
bloody oppression in the countries of Central and South America. How can we 
justify handing over millions to a government to destroy its own farmers? 
Farmers will not be dissuaded from planting a crop that is many times more 
profitable than anything else they can grow. Government "persuasion" will 
surely meet local resistance. No cure for that but to wipe out the 
unrepentant farmers -- with the financial support, and thus the blessing, 
of the United States. This in a country where the farmers are the demos in 
democracy.

Worst of all is the long-term result of drawing another part of the world 
into our own domestic problem. Our country did this once before not very 
long ago. I don't think Americans realize the frightful cost of the Cold 
War to other continents. In those bad old days, we didn't fight the Soviet 
Union directly, but instead both sides poured weapons into Africa. By 
exporting our own war overseas, we created within already unstable 
societies a capacity for murder on a giant scale. Living and working for 13 
years in Africa, both West and East, my husband and I saw the grim results 
of U.S. and Russian "foreign aid" -- machine guns for everyday burglaries, 
automatic weapons in land disputes between villages. By deluding ourselves 
that Colombia can solve our drug problem, we will guarantee for her and 
neighboring countries a bloody and dangerous future.

I beg you to urge the U.S. government not to support this ill-conceived 
plan. The war on drugs, like charity, begins at home. There are some things 
we could do here with the money; over there it will only kill far more 
Colombians than drugs ever killed Americans. 
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