A HULKING DRUG PROBLEM

After 8 Years and Billions Spent, Cocaine Production in South America
Appears Bulletproof.

It was probably unintentional, but "The Incredible Hulk" is much more
than a summer afternoon's escape; it's clearly a satire, a perfect
depiction of Washington's boneheaded belief that firepower can resolve
any problem. Although the creature is obviously bulletproof, soldiers
shoot him anyway. They get bigger guns, then tanks. He survives. They
get cannons. They shoot and shoot. The Hulk sulks for a bit and then
is fine.

Unfortunately, combative redundancy is also our strategy for fighting
drug trafficking. In South America, we throw money, military equipment
and aerial fumigation at the problem, and as a result, coca growers
relocate, regroup and production thrives. We repeat the cycle. Yes,
there may be occasional dips in production after a particularly
successful mission (the Hulk sometimes goes for months "without
incident"), but inevitably the coca growers, cocaine producers and
drug traffickers return.

A recent report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found that,
despite billions of U.S. dollars spent on intensive aerial fumigation,
manual eradication and aggressive interdiction efforts, coca growth in
Colombia rose 27% between 2006 and 2007. Colombian farmers have
planted coca in a combined acreage roughly equal to the gargantuan
sprawl of Los Angeles. U.S. officials are shocked.

Although this is proof that neither fumigation nor manual eradication
work -- farmers develop herbicide-resistant strains of coca or simply
scatter their operations -- here's betting that Washington will
continue to help Colombia fumigate and manually eradicate. In other
words, it will just keep shooting and shooting at the bulletproof
monster. Meanwhile, almost every other government in the region is
united in opposition to this summer-blockbuster approach to drug
suppression. They understand, as ours seems incapable of doing, that
rural aid to farmers is the best weapon against coca cultivation. Not
guns, not planes, not poison dropped from the sky.

Eight years and $5 billion. To be fair, all that money has had some
positive effects. Colombia is a more stable country. President Alvaro
Uribe has seriously weakened the leftist rebels who threatened to
overrun the country and who finance themselves through drug
trafficking. What it hasn't done, however, is halt cocaine production
and trafficking in the Andean region. Our two main allies, Colombia
and Peru, are also the world's top two cocaine traffickers.

In the grand scheme of hit movie plotting, it makes sense that the
Hulk isn't easy to kill -- his indestructibility sets up Parts II and
III. But Washington is now on Revenge of the Drug War Parts VIII and
IX. Why not rethink our strategy and opt out of a sequel?