Source: Houston Chronicle, page 9A Title: Bid for troops vs. drugs dies, House rejects use of soldiers on Mexican border Contact: Source: Los Angeles Times Title: Plan to Use Military in Drug Fight Dies Contact: 2132374712 Source: San Francisco Chronicle Title: Plan to Use Military in Drug Fight Dies Contact: Pubdate: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 By RICHARD A. SERRANO Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON An ambitious proposal to enlist 10,000 U.S. soldiers in the war against drugs on the Southwest border has died a quiet death on Capitol Hill, the victim of continuing disagreement over whether the Pentagon should have any role in fighting the Mexican narcotic cartels. The proposal, which twice won overwhelming support in the House this summer, was never embraced by the Senate. Ultimately, it was stricken late last week from a conference committee report agreed to by Senate and House negotiators on the 1998 defense authorization bill. On Tuesday, the House passed the bill without the amendment to vastly increase the U.S. military presence on the border. Undeterred, the proposal's chief sponsor vowed to try again to place the might of the American military behind this country's crimefighting apparatus on the border. "The cartels have too much power," Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., DOhio, said in an interview. "There's just too much money and firepower down there." Critics charged Traficant's proposal would set dangerous precedents in the divisions of responsibility between the Pentagon and law enforcement officials. That was one reason Senate conferees prevailed in getting the amendment dropped from the defense measure, according to John DeCrosta, a spokesman for the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said Senate leaders also noted that each state can deploy its own National Guard to supplement law enforcement efforts in fighting drug trafficking. And, DeCrosta said, there was concern that troop reductions have left fewer soldiers to go around. "You can't just keep piling missions on," he said. Traficant's proposal came at a time of heightened emotions over the support that the armed forces already had been providing local and federal law enforcement agencies in protecting the 2,000mile border from Texas to California. In May, a U.S. Marine corporal inadvertently killed a teen age Texas goat herder, leading to the Pentagon's decision to temporarily stop using ground troops in antidrug missions until a full review of the 8yearold program could be examined. "It is not clear to me that this mission is any longer necessarily required," Barry McCaffrey, a former army general who now serves as the White House drug czar, said in an interview. "Personally, I always felt uncomfortable with it." At the same time, however, cries for increased numbers of Border Patrol agents have continued, and federal law enforcement officials have warned that the Mexican cartels are growing and pushing an expanding number of illegal drugs into this country. Traficant contended that since U.S. soldiers conduct other peacekeeping operations abroad, they should be actively involved in drugfighting efforts. "Our troops are vaccinating dogs in Haiti," he said. "They are building homes in Italy, they are guarding the borders in the (Middle East)." And yet, he added, "a new report states that the use of heroin by 12 to 17yearolds in America is at historic levels, and our borders are wide open." Rep. Silvestre Reyes, DEl Paso, a former Border Patrol supervisor, was among those preferring the military to stay out of police work. "Border Patrol agents are trained to understand the terrain and the habitants of the area they are patrolling," he said. "However, military training promotes a more confrontational approach under generally hostile environments. So clearly, the military is not properly suited for patrolling border areas."