The $1 Million Drug War Trial That Means Nothing

Why is the U.S. government spending $1 million to bring drug charges against a man who's already going to die behind bars?

Colombian rebel leader Ricardo Palmera is already serving a 60-year prison sentence. Convicted in a hostage-taking conspiracy, he has no chance of parole and is likely to die in prison.

But U.S. prosecutors are about to begin a monthlong trial, which could cost more than $1 million, seeking to prove that Palmera and his guerrilla allies are drug traffickers. [AP]

So what's the point? AP explains it as well as I could:

For the U.S., however, the outcome matters a great deal. The Bush administration has taken a hard line against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, branding them not just a terrorist group but a violent drug cartel. A courtroom win would reinforce that stance.

As Pete Guither points out, the story's headline "US Seeks Symbolic Drug War Victory" couldn't more perfectly describe what's going on here. We are spending $1 million to stamp the "drug trafficker" label on a guy that's already been branded as a terrorist. In the absence of actual tangible progress in the war on drugs, these sorts of symbolic endeavors are the lifeblood without which the morale of the great drug warrior army might wither and disperse.

And when all is said and done, the only fact of any significance to emerge from this will be that drug prohibition provides income for violent paramilitary armies to buy guns and bombs for their political wars. Even when the desired verdict is handed down, the drug war is nothing other than an exhibit in its own futility.