US NEEDS TO CHANGE ITS DRUG WAR POLICY

Editor's note: This article was written earlier this month when the
author was in Colombia.

Bogota, Colombia -- Well, yet another fine setting I have managed to
find my way into.

I arrived in Colombia concomitantly with a raid by Colombian Commandos
backed as always by U.S. military forces (Plan Colombia).

The raid killed Raul Reyes and 16 other drug operatives and suspected
revolutionary affiliate members. So what? That is good right? The
world really does not need drug smuggling revolutionaries, do we?

Problem is it seems the raid took place over the border and into the
sovereign territory of Ecuador. As one might suspect, Ecuadorian
President Correa is not too pleased. This also gave the opportunity
for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to rail against the evil American
Imperialist Empire and to declare Colombia to be a mere puppet state
of the U.S. (Actually a rather compelling argument can be made to
support that proposition.)

Colombia is the third largest recipient of American foreign aid
following only Israel and Egypt. Most of that money goes directly back
to the United States in mandated purchase programs buying hardware
from the U.S. military-industrial-complex. Good right? Buy America.
Somewhat strange, however, when contrasted with the actions of our
Pentagon, who only last week decided to purchase billions of dollars
for the next generation Air Force tanker from the European Airbus
Consortium and not from Boeing. Logic has never resided in the Pentagon..

There are more Blackhawks and other U.S. military hardware down here
than at a Fourth of July celebration at Ft. Jackson, S. C.

Things are getting tense here. Chavez is massing troops along the
border and people here (I am not included) take him seriously. Ecuador
and Venezuela have closed their borders with Colombia and have
recalled their ambassadors.

Why can I not just be satisfied with a week at a Club
Med?

The time has come for the American people through the ballot box to
take charge of the most moronic foreign policy we have endured in
decades -- perhaps ever. The U.S. approach to the Colombian drug cartel
is a prime example.

One of these days some American president will figure out that the
drug problem is nothing more than Economics 101 -- this is not tough
intellectual stuff. We will make no progress so long as our approach
is to attack the "supply"side as we currently do, sponsoring massive
chemical defoliating programs designed to destroy the coca crop will
not stop the inflow of product and will only worsen the economic
conditions for the peasants of this region. And if it were successful,
our program of crop destruction would only serve to drive the price of
cocaine and crack in the United States up. That of course would only
mean more street crime and murder on the streets of America -- the
demand for drugs of this nature is "inelastic" and therefore not
subject to price sensitivity.

Long term reduction will occur only when we domestically attack the
demand side of the equation. In other words, the problem is more of a
U.S. domestic matter and not one of foreign policy.

But so long as U.S. voters continue to elect politicians willing to
""take a tough stand on crime" (read military intervention in foreign
nations) and are unwilling to elect those ready to address the actual
problem, the lack of a meaningful, coordinated rehabilitation and drug
prevention program at home, nothing will change.

Photo ops and sound bites of fast boats and choppers interdicting drug
smugglers will get you elected to Congress or Pennsylvania Avenue and
keep you there. Promising to spend billions of dollars at home on
addicts and treatment centers is nothing short of political suicide.

And so it is, we continue to send billions to Colombia and expect the
problem to be addressed.

Instead we wind up funding programs like Plan Colombia which
accomplish only two things:

1. We drive the price of cocaine and especially crack cocaine through
the roof and thereby make American streets more like a Sunday drive in
Beirut or Peshawar...

2. We continue to foster anti-American and pro-Marxist groups in our
own hemisphere. By doing so we also increase the need for and presence
of right-wing paramilitary groups designed to defend the wealthy
landowners...

Our foreign policy is neither effective nor productive, it is also not
merely benign. I wish it were. It is, unfortunately completely
counter-productive. Day by day this administration, this state
department and this Pentagon wander though the world without a plan or
a clue and all the while declaring our right to be a unipolar hegemon.
Such endearing and productive qualities. That, my friends, simply has
to change.

Irrespective of who wins the presidential election in the fall..
Republican or Democrat we can do no worse in the area of foreign
policy than we have for the past several years.

Here is to November. As much as I love and long for summer, it cannot
come soon enough.

James Randall Johnson is an attorney with offices in Auburn and an
adjunct professor at Saginaw Valley State University. Also, he is the
co-founder and director of the Center for Politics and Public Service,
located at but separate from SVSU.