This shortfall in military strength due to the Second Iraqi War is a great example of the choices we have to make when deciding to expend resources on an issue. We can either try to spread ourselves so thin we don’t make a positive impact on anything or we can pick the battles we really want to win and use the right level of force to get the job done.
Stretched thin from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has sharply reduced its role in the war on drugs, leaving significant gaps in the nation’s narcotics interdiction efforts.Since 1989, Congress has directed the Pentagon to be the lead federal agency in detecting and monitoring illegal narcotics shipments headed to the United States by air and sea and in supporting Coast Guard efforts to intercept them. In the early 1990s, at the height of the drug war, U.S. military planes and boats filled the southern skies and waters in search of cocaine-laden vessels coming from Colombia and elsewhere in South America.
Since 1989, Congress has directed the Pentagon to be the lead federal agency in detecting and monitoring illegal narcotics shipments headed to the United States by air and sea and in supporting Coast Guard efforts to intercept them. In the early 1990s, at the height of the drug war, U.S. military planes and boats filled the southern skies and waters in search of cocaine-laden vessels coming from Colombia and elsewhere in South America.But since 2002, the military has withdrawn many of those resources, according to more than a dozen current and former counter-narcotics officials, as well as a review of congressional, military and Homeland Security documents.
Since 1989, Congress has directed the Pentagon to be the lead federal agency in detecting and monitoring illegal narcotics shipments headed to the United States by air and sea and in supporting Coast Guard efforts to intercept them. In the early 1990s, at the height of the drug war, U.S. military planes and boats filled the southern skies and waters in search of cocaine-laden vessels coming from Colombia and elsewhere in South America.But since 2002, the military has withdrawn many of those resources, according to more than a dozen current and former counter-narcotics officials, as well as a review of congressional, military and Homeland Security documents.Internal records show that in the last four years the Pentagon has reduced by more than 62% its surveillance flight-hours over Caribbean and Pacific Ocean routes that are used to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and, increasingly, Colombian-produced heroin. At the same time, the Navy is deploying one-third fewer patrol boats in search of smugglers.
Then again, since neither the Iraqi War or the War on (some) Drugs was an intelligently articulated effort against a true danger to this country or planned with any wisdom, insight, or strategy it isn’t surprising that things in both theaters of action are going as badly as they are.
Good, perahps some decent quality drugs will actually get here, its about time (mebbe some moroccan hash!!)
PS – this “war on drugs” doesnt work – I can goto any city in this grand country and find a bag of pot faster than I can find a hotel – but thats just economics
Can’t we call this war the name it deserves yet? Bush War 2.
I was under the impression that it was Regan’s idea
Whoa. Everything I was about to say about the war on drugs just got said
by that guy. He’s right.
I’ve been a cop for twenty years and my attitude towards the War on Drugs has taken a major turn as my career has progressed. I went from hardcore drug warrior to seriously questioning what we are doing. What have we accomplished since 1973 when Nixon declared the War on Drugs? We have spent an incredible amount of money with no discernible effect. I have no doubt that drugs are destructive and they can wreak havoc in an abuser’s life but we have to get over our tendencies to run everyone’s personal life and to legislate morality. We need to keep the drugs away from kids at all costs but otherwise I say make it legal.
#6 – is there a disticnt difference between an “abuser” and a “casual user” in the cop-minded-individual? Mebbe you can give us some insight
I been down on this thing ever since we supposedly took Afghanistan. I have seen no hash from there. NO HASH NO WAR
Don’t call it the “Second Iraqi War”, it is just the latest in a series of was conducted in Iran/Iraq by the U.K. and U.S.A. Ever since oil was discovered in Persia around 1910, wars have been fought over it.
Germany’s navy had just converted from coal-burning to oil-burning so Germany started work on completing a rail link from Germany to Persia right after oil was discovered there. The British navy had also converted to oil-burning. So they decided the Germans had to be stopped. Where do you think the first British troops were deployed at the start of WWI? France? Belgium? No – Persia. They wanted the oil. And since that time the U.K. and U.S.A. have invaded Iran / Iraq (formerly Persia) on a regular basis.
#1 – PS – this “war on drugs” doesnt work – I can goto any city in this grand country and find a bag of pot faster than I can find a hotel – but thats just economics
Then please help me. Maybe I’m just too shy in person, or maybe I just fell in with a good crowd… But damnit, I need a bag of good quality weed and I just don’t know who to ask.
#6 We need to keep the drugs away from kids at all costs but otherwise I say make it legal.
Not at ALL costs… Civil liberties and personal freedom (which we may someday have in America) are far more valuable than children.
But lets make some distinctions… When “authorities” (defined as over 5 foot 3 and in possesion of a High School diploma or GED) talk about drugs and their life ruining properties they never seen to differentiate between the guy smoking a joint on Sunday afternoon while watching a movie in his living room, and the heroin junkie robbing a Stop and Go to raise money for his fix.
The fact is, drugs are not as dangerous as the governments makes them out to be. Users do not deserve to be locked up. The resources are wasted on a fruitless effort. And those who support these efforts are typically hypocrites anyway.
Either legalize marijuana and all other natural pychoactive hallucinagens or outlaw alcohal, cigarettes, TV, and football. I don’t care which one we choose just so long as we choose one.
And on an unrelated note, if you are wearing a nylon jersey with a giant number on the back to work, and you are not a pro football player, then you are a moron and the only reason I don’t kick your ass is that it would be illegal for me to do so.
Sorry if it seems like I am making a series of unrelated points, I’m sorry but I’ve really been smoking this … Oh look… Shiny… What is this? Spiders? SPIDERS! HELP ME! GET THESE FREAKING SPIDERS OFF OF ME!
#6 is right. The war on drugs has only created a violent black market. When I was a kid it was easier to buy beer than drugs. Now the drug warriors have pushed drug sales onto the streets while beer is closely regulated. Ask your own kid what’s easier to get, drugs or alcohol.
It’s idiotic to blame street corner violence on drugs. It’s the black markets that create the violence and black markets draw thugs like crap draws flies. What do the drug warriors want to do about it? Make the penalties worse and entrench the black markets that much more solidly in an untaxed, unregulated, violent underground economy.
As a shining example of the Law Of Unintended Consequences at work, in the early 80s, at the instigation of Vice President G. H. W. Bush, the penalties for marijuana smuggling were raised to match those for cocaine smuggling.
In ’82-’83, an ounce of weed in Miami was $15 to $25, depending, of course, on quality. A gram of coke ran $120 to $150, again, by quality.
A couple years later, an ounce of reef was over $100, while a high-purity gram of coke was available most anywhere for $25 or less.
And that, ladies and gents, was the true birth of the ‘crack’ phenomenon. Courtesy of Bush, Sr.
#12 – and now its flipped around again – oh wait, you said gram – we use 1/8th’s around here (as in 1/16th of an oz)
#10 – you just need to know where to look, if you’re not in, you’re out
#13 – I’m out.
But not because I’m out. Rather, because I’m in Indiana.