'WAR ON DRUGS' LACKS AMERICAN COMMITMENT

As President-elect Bush prepares for the exchange of power in his new role
as commander in chief, it would be instructive to the American people if he
were to consider the losses in our longest running war ... the War on
Drugs. We have had more Americans die due to illegal drugs than in any war
in the last 50 years.

You may think it odd to broach this subject at this time; however, there
will be no better time to do it. Once George W. Bush takes office on Jan.
20, it will be too late. The War on Drugs, during the past eight years, has
been a "sham," and I will tell you why.

The two terms of President Bill Clinton have moved our nation backward in
the fight against illegal narcotics and, far worse, have put thousands upon
thousands of young Americans at risk, needlessly.

Today, the epicenter of illegal drugs comes from one nation in South
America: Colombia. According to the DEA, this troubled Andean democracy
accounts for approximately 90 percent of the cocaine and 80 percent of the
heroin that ends up on our city's streets, in our neighborhoods and in our
schools. Just think about it. We can point to a singular location and know
that the borders of that country contain the drug lords and the raw
materials responsible for the deaths of at least 52,000 Americans, each
year, according to Clinton drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

The facts are clear. The efforts by the Clinton administration have been
next to non-existent until forced by a Republican-led Congress to act!

The well-kept secrets of this looming disaster have been guarded by
Madeleine Albright's State Department. These so-called diplomats who have
slowed down and at times canceled the much-needed support to our allies in
the Colombian National Police, fear that the truth will surface now that
there will be a change in administrations.

Consider that since 1993, the first year of the Clinton administration, the
amounts of illegal drugs coming into the United States have doubled. The
number of hospital emergency room mentions of drug overdoses has tripled.
And, the No. 1 source of these drugs, Colombia, is a long-standing
democracy teetering on the brink of chaos.

Today, in Colombia, there is a raging drug-financed insurgency that has
already, in the past decade, cost the lives of more than 40,000 Colombians.
During this same time-frame more than 5,000 police officers have been
killed fighting the war on drugs in Colombia. When I mention this to
American lawmen, they shudder at the thought of such casualties.

The mainstream media have willfully ignored these facts and to a greater
extent allowed the Clinton administration to take a "pass" on this target
that comes home to us every day, in the form of illegal drugs.

To provide some illustrative examples, consider the following facts:

The Colombian narco-guerrillas control a sizable portion of the country,
and have an army that numbers more than 20,000 well-armed fighters.

More than 70 percent of the drug market for these narco-guerrillas is in
the United States, where American citizens help finance the drug trade that
supports these terrorists.

The Clinton administration has ignored this situation for the past eight
years, allowing these terrorist organizations to flourish, while
withholding law enforcement and military assistance to our allies in the
Colombian National Police.

During the past five years, 10 American citizens have been taken hostage
and murdered by these same narco-guerrillas. During this time, the U.S.
State Department has opened secret negotiations with these groups, in
complete violation of stated U.S. policy on dealing with terrorists.

It is mind-boggling that the most powerful nation on earth has not been
able to do anything about this plague during the past eight years. From my
perspective, I choose to believe that there was little or no effort made on
the part of the Clinton administration to do so.

What will be even more troubling is if the new Bush administration fails to
recognize this threat and then act on it decisively.

As President-elect Bush prepares himself to become the first American
president of the new millennium, I hope he will examine the facts about a
war America has not fought.