Pubdate: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 Source: Times Daily (Florence, AL) Copyright: 2008 Times Daily Contact: http://www.timesdaily.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1641 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1512/a02.html Author: Kirk Muse COLLATERAL DAMAGE Regarding Cynthia Tucker's thoughtful column: "War on drugs is failing" (Dec. 30, TimesDaily) . I believe the so-called war on drugs is going as planed. It's white people who are the unintended victims--not blacks. H. R. Haldeman, President Nixon's Chief of Staff, wrote in his diary: "(President Nixon) emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to." Our war on certain (politically selected) drugs has been an ideal system of going after the blacks without appearing to do so. Today's racists aren't using fire hoses or ax handles--they're using the war on drugs. The United States is the most incarcerated nation on the planet and in history, thanks primarily to our counter-productive war on drugs, which is actually a war on (politically selected) people. And Black people are the (politically selected) people. White people arrested and imprisoned in the drug war are just "collateral damage." Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom