MILITARY'S STAKE RISES IN WAR ON DRUGS

Support Role Exacts A Precious New Cost

The U.S. military has been fighting the war on drugs since the 1980s
in a wide-ranging effort that has cost billions of tax dollars.
Wednesday, it cost more: the lives of four Marine reservists.

On any given day, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines - active duty,
National Guardsmen and reservists - help federal and state
law-enforcement officers track down suspected drug smugglers. The
military uses warships, helicopters, radar planes, special operations
troops and submarines.

The war on drugs also has claimed the lives of civilians, including an
18-year-old Texas man killed by a Camp Pendleton Marine in 1997.

The Pentagon's role is not one of direct law enforcement, but one of
support.

The military has helped federal, state and local law enforcers with
surveillance, transportation and training.

Military aircraft, ranging from Army, Marine Corps and National Guard
helicopters to sophisticated Navy Hawkeye radar planes, have become
airborne eyes for the U.S. Customs Service and Drug Enforcement Agency.

For more than five years, San Diego-based destroyers and frigates,
with Coast Guard law enforcers on board, have deployed to the eastern
Pacific and the Caribbean.

But, is the military winning the war on drugs?

"They've had many successes, but it hasn't stopped the flow (of
drugs)," said Heritage Foundation defense analyst Jack Spencer. "It
hasn't worked real well."

The anti-drug effort hasn't been too burdensome, said Chris Hellman, a
defense expert at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.

There even have been some benefits, because the anti-drug role
provides realistic training for some military personnel, he added.

"A guy in a Hawkeye (radar plane) looking for low-flying aircraft . .
. that's great training," Hellman said.

In California, the National Guard has been actively supporting local
officials since 1990, said spokeswoman Maj. Kim Oliver. Last year, 425
Guardsmen participated in 566 support missions, she said.

National Guard members regularly fly aerial surveillance for the
Border Patrol and search for backcountry marijuana plots for the Drug
Enforcement Agency. It was on a marijuana search that a Guard
helicopter started a fire near Julian in July that eventually burned
61,690 acres.

The part-time troops and airmen all are volunteers, and most have
received specialized training to assist law enforcement, Oliver said.
"They go through thorough training before they go on those missions."

Because of the National Guard's extensive counter-drug flights, she
said, California has the most experienced pilots and crews throughout
the National Guard.

The military's drug battle isn't limited to the United
States.

In Central and South America, the Pentagon is training
counter-narcotics and anti-terror squads in several nations, including
Peru and Colombia. Air Force and Navy surveillance aircraft fly from
bases in Honduras, Peru and the Caribbean island of Aruba. Radar sites
scan for drug planes in South America.

The Pentagon's domestic and international drug war cost $871 million
this fiscal year, said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Ben Owens.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a debate has ensued on
whether the military has the wherewithal to combat drugs while
fighting a worldwide war on terrorism.

"When we need all our men and women in the armed forces to fight the
war on terrorism, can we be fighting the war on drugs?" defense
analyst Spencer asked.

Said Hellman: "It's a war on drugs and it's a war on terrorism,"
particularly in Colombia, where an aggressive U.S. program is helping
the government fight guerrillas involved in cocaine-trafficking.

The military's drug war has been controversial.

"We're concerned about military involvement in civilian law
enforcement," said Chris Ford, co-director of the Border Action
Network, a Tucson, Ariz., organization that opposes U.S. immigration
policy.

"The military's main job is killing people; law enforcement's main job
is figuring out who commits a crime," Ford said. "There is a blurring
of lines between the military and civilian law enforcement."

The group was founded after the May 1997 shooting of a Texas man by a
Camp Pendleton Marine who was on a counter-drug patrol near the Rio
Grande.

Esequiel Hernandez Jr., 18, was herding goats when he apparently fired
several shots toward Marines hiding in brush. They fired back and killed him.

The death generated protests along the border and ended the patrols by
military personnel.