Editorial:
Not
a
War
2/25/00
Adam J. Smith, Associate Director, [email protected] Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey has been very busy for the past couple of weeks, traveling to Latin America, testifying on the hill and generally taking the heat for the Clinton Administration's proposed $1.6 billion (mostly) military aid package to Colombia. One question that McCaffrey has never answered, however, is how he can continue to claim that "war" is an inappropriate metaphor for our drug policy while shilling for a plan to send heavy artillery into battle to "combat drugs." Of course, it's not surprising that sending military equipment, including more than 60 combat helicopters into a forty year-old civil conflict, is "not a war," since the reason we are sending them there is not "drugs." In fact, critics of the plan point out that the US-Colombia Business Partnership -- founded in 1996 to represent US companies with interests in Colombia, has lobbied hard for military aid. Among the members of the partnership are Occidental Petroleum and BP Amoco, oil companies whose Colombian operations are sometimes targeted by rebel groups. This week, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) noted that these corporations "are really appreciative of what we are doing in getting rid of the narco-traffickers." Neither the ONDCP spokesman, nor any oil company, as far as anyone can tell, seems to be quite so concerned about the drugs being trafficked or protected by the Colombian military, or by the right-wing paramilitaries working hand-in-hand with the Colombian forces. But the Business Partnership represents just some of the corporations who stand to benefit from US military aid to Colombia. If the aid package goes through, two large defense contractors, Shirosky Aircraft Corp. and Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. will receive orders for 30 and 33 combat helicopters, respectively. Shirosky Aircraft, by the way, is located in Connecticut, the home state of Senator Christopher Dodd, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Narcotics. Shirosky also happens to be in the Congressional district of Rep. Sam Gejdenson, ranking member of the House International Relations Committee. It should surprise no one, then, if Senator Dodd and Representative Gejdenson fail to ask why, if this is not a war, we are sending the tools of war to combat drugs. And further, why we would do so when even the Government Accounting Office has stated that source country eradication and interdiction have had virtually no impact on the problem despite billions of dollars invested to this point. But this is not a war. No matter how many helicopters, or guns, or military advisors we send into an ongoing conflict. It is not a war, no matter how much property is seized without trial by our government, no matter how many doors are kicked in, nor how many prisoners we take. No, General McCaffrey tells us that the drug war he is running is not a war. Which makes sense. Since it is not really about drugs, either.
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