CANDIDATES SILENT ON FAILURE OF DRUG WAR The war on drugs continues to cause enormous harm and do precious little good. Neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore has presented his plan for winning the war. If we had wasted as many dollars, destroyed as many lives and taken as bad a licking in any other 30-year-old war, people would be demanding that our politicians present their "exit strategies." How are the politicians going to get us out of this mess? Drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who embodied the drug war more than anyone, is resigning effective Jan. 6, but not before launching his "Plan Colombia" disaster. There is still time to ask Bush and Gore how they will replace McCaffrey. In what direction are they going to take the war on drugs? How do they measure success? When will the mission be complete? What impact does the war on drugs have on the prison building boom, the increasing violence of police SWAT teams, our civil rights, racial profiling in law enforcement, the spread of HIV, mandatory minimum sentencing, civil asset forfeiture, intimidating foreign governments and other issues? These questions need to be debated publicly before we vote and before we allow our government to continue to aimlessly flail away. Paul Mozina, Milwaukee
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