Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list 9-11peace); Wed, 27 Feb 2002 09:00:23 -0500 (EST) Return-Path: <bulletin@9-11peace.org> Delivered-To: 9-11peace@complete.org Received: from c009.snv.cp.net (c009-h018.c009.snv.cp.net [209.228.34.131]) by pi.glockenspiel.complete.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7BB333B80D for <9-11peace@complete.org>; Wed, 27 Feb 2002 08:59:36 -0500 (EST) Received: (cpmta 17890 invoked from network); 27 Feb 2002 05:59:34 -0800 Received: from 151.203.226.98 (HELO sylvester) by smtp.surfree.com (209.228.34.131) with SMTP; 27 Feb 2002 05:59:34 -0800 X-Sent: 27 Feb 2002 13:59:34 GMT From: "Eli Pariser" <bulletin@9-11peace.org> To: <9-11peace@complete.org> Subject: America's Other War Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 09:03:40 -0500 Message-ID: <NFBBILDICDMBFNGCLHNECEDHDGAA.bulletin@9-11peace.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Importance: Normal X-archive-position: 23 X-Approved-By: eli@morethanmoney.org X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: 9-11peace-bounce@complete.org Errors-to: 9-11peace-bounce@complete.org X-original-sender: bulletin@9-11peace.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: bulletin@9-11peace.org X-list: 9-11peace

AMERICA'S OTHER WAR: THE WAR ON DRUGS Wednesday, February 27, 2002 Susan V. Thompson, ed.

Read online, subscribe, or unsubscribe at: http://www.9-11peace.org/bulletin.php3

CONTENTS --------- 1. Introduction: A Pound of Cure 2. One Link 3. War on Drugs = War on Terror? 4. Afghanistan 5. Colombia 6. Bolivia 7. America: The Home Front 8. Get Involved 9. About the Bulletin

INTRODUCTION: A POUND OF CURE ------------------------------ "If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America." -- President Bush

If you were watching this year's Super Bowl, you may have heard something like this: "Where do terrorists get their money? If you use drugs, some of it might come from you." In two 30-second ads costing over $3.2 million to produce, the Bush administration attempted to directly link the War on Terror with the United States' longstanding War on Drugs. In the commercials, normal-looking kids say things like "I helped kill a judge" or "I helped bomb a school." But this simplistic linkage between the two Wars white-washes over the complex issues and controversy involved in America's War on Drugs both at home and abroad.

In the United States, the War on Drugs has many detractors. Some argue that the legal prohibition of drugs creates and maintains the black market for them, just as the prohibition of alcohol once did. Others note that the current policy of giving addicts jail sentences rather than treatment does nothing to address the actual problem of the addiction. There are many who believe that marijuana and perhaps other drugs should be legal for use by patients with painful diseases such as AIDS. Criminalization of minorities is another important issue in the drug war which could certainly bear more examination.

But the American War on Drugs is also being waged in several foreign countries, and this front in the drug war is just as controversial. For years, the US government has been sending military forces abroad in an alleged attempt to shut down the supply of cocaine and other illicit drugs. These interventions thus far have had little success, and indeed often result in the punishment or murder of the poor peasant farmers growing coca and poppy crops, rather than those actually involved in the commercial trade of drugs. These efforts have brought Bolivia and Colombia to the brink of civil war, a fact which seems to indicate that American foreign policy in this area is acting as a destabilizer, rather than a constructive force for change. Rather than pull out, however, it looks as though America's long involvement with Colombia in the name of stanching the flow of drugs is about to expand into a new, larger, dirtier, and ineffective conflict under the banner of the War on Terror.

For this reason we have decided to devote this week's bulletin to the War on Drugs and the controversy which surrounds it. We hope to begin to answer the question of whether the Wars on Terror and Drugs are actually linked or whether this is just a new way of creating support for an unpopular and ineffective set of American policies.

ONE LINK --------- "Terrorism is now being used and has been used pretty much the same way communism was used. If you want to press some agenda, you play the terrorism card. If you don't follow me on this, you're supporting terrorism. That is absolutely infantile, especially when you consider that much of the history of the drug trade trails right behind the CIA and other US intervention programs."

Noam Chomsky's take on the drug war at home and abroad: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12420

WAR ON DRUGS = WAR ON TERROR? ------------------------------ "It's one thing to drop an egg into a frying pan to demonstrate that drugs are bad for you, and quite another to link drug users to bloodthirsty murderers." This article includes a description of the Super Bowl ad mentioned above and why its reasoning is flawed. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=12794

This is another excellent article on the Super Bowl ad that explains almost all of the issues in the drug war clearly and concisely, from the full jails in the States, to the CIA, to the American presence in the Andean region. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=12753

Here is the official explanation of how drugs and terror are linked, from the website that is the center of the new phase of the US government's campaign against drugs. http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=105

AFGHANISTAN ------------------ While the Bush administration seems to be trying to include the long-standing American War on Drugs within the new War on Terror, it is instructive to examine the current situation in Afghanistan. The recent War on Terror there has completely destroyed the progress of the War on Drugs in that country, which begs the question of whether the aims of these two wars are as compatible as the Bush administration claims.

Just a couple of years ago, Afghanistan was the world's number one producer of heroin. Then the Taliban successfully banned poppy farming, which led to a 91% drop in poppy production. But now the US has ousted the Taliban, and that has led to an unexpected consequence -- the hungry people of Afghanistan have begun replanting their poppy fields. http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=106

The main drug control agency in Afghanistan has just been evicted by the new government there. http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=116264

COLOMBIA -------------- Colombia is not only a very good example of all the failings of American foreign intervention in the name of the War on Drugs, it is also becoming the focus of expanded military efforts as part of the War on Terror. Coincidence?

Read this excellent history of the conflict in Colombia. It contains a concise critique of the contradictory and generally counterproductive nature of American foreign policy in the country. The article also includes a number of suggestions as to how to change American foreign policy for the better. (Note: article was written in 2000) http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=107

This article focuses specifically on the origin and history of FARC (the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia). Read it to find out what FARC is, and why the American classification of FARC purely as a group of drug traffickers is myopic and inaccurate. http://www.tni.org/drugs/pubs/farc.htm

For many years, American counter-narcotics efforts in the region have included spraying herbicides and defoliants (targeted at coca fields) that have been killing legitimate food crops and polluting the area. http://www.guerrillanews.com/war_on_drugs/doc53.html

Despite the fact that American troop activities in Colombia are supposed to have been confined to anti-drug efforts, the Clinton administration was also providing support and training to the Colombian army. http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=108

According to two recently commissioned reports, the War on Drugs is just a pretext for ongoing American intervention, and this pretext should be dropped to allow expanded American military operations in the country. http://www.antiwar.com/cockburn/c080201.html

The Bush administration is now considering naming the rebels in Colombia as a specific target in the War on Terror. America's activities in the region have so far been limited to counter-narcotics activities, rather than risk sending in troops and possibly creating a situation similar to Vietnam. http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?redir=109

The Bush administration's new budget contains a request for $98 million, which would be used to provide helicopters and other military aid for Colombian troops. This means that the US is already publicly tying its military aid to the Colombian government's war against FARC, rather than only to anti-drug efforts. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=12784

America's broadening intervention since Sept. 11 has basically closed the book on the peace process, and will probably lead to a very dirty full-scale civil war within Colombia. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=12671

BOLIVIA ---------- To read a quick summary of how the drug war is leading to civil war in Bolivia, click on the "tell me more" link on this page for action against US foreign policy in the region. http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/boliviawar/

AMERICA: THE HOME FRONT ----------------------------------- A history of the drug war within America, in point form. http://www.hr95.org/dw101.htm

On Feb.12 of this year, the President unveiled a new anti-drug strategy aimed at cutting the use of illegal drugs by 10 percent over two years and 25 percent over five years. The DEA has already begun acting on this strategy by raiding medical marijuana clubs in California. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12414

But perhaps the drug war is being fought on the wrong fronts.

American domestic policy is generally to jail people with addictions. But this does nothing to address the addiction itself. Read the story of Jill, a meth-addicted single mom, and how treatment rather than jail turned her life (and her toddler's life) around. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12277

The official line is that the Bush administration is focusing on cutting demand by focusing on treatment and prevention. However, the author of this article argues that the US government is saying one thing, while in reality, doing the opposite. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12439

And finally, the author of this article argues that the new laws and domestic security measures will eventually be used as part of the drug war.

"The domestic tools of the War on Terrorism will be applied to major drug traffickers, fortified by the claim that the illegal drug trade funds terrorists. The traffickers will soon become terrorists in public perception." http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12455

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