NOT REALLY FIGHTING DRUGS

I couldn't help but wonder while reading "Fungal herbicide weighed as tool
to kill coca in Colombia" (Nation/World, July 6) just how far we will let
them go. There's little doubt that our nation's drug warriors are prepared
to lay waste to Colombia to continue their feast of pork called the "War On
Drugs," but what will happen when coca cultivation mounts in a neighboring
country?

How about when coca farming expands to Afghanistan, which will shorten the
supply lines to Europe, where a burgeoning market awaits?

The "Golden Triangle" opium country in northern Thailand would probably be
an excellent place to grow coca, and surely such a lucrative crop would
draw the attention of the world's heroin suppliers. What then? Are we
prepared to unleash all manner of pestilence upon these people to further
the careers of the drug warriors and expand the pork-barrel politics of our
nation's drug war? How much more havoc will drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey
and the world's drug warriors wreak upon our planet before we are convinced
that enough is bloody enough? End this charade before it ends us.