FRIENDLY FIRE PLAGUES WAR ON DRUGS

WASHINGTON There's a new battleground in America's war on drugs, and
it's fraught with friendly fire.

One of the combatants is Clinton administration antidrug czar Barry
McCaffrey, a retired fourstar Army general. The other is William Cohen,
the secretary of defense. Their fracas is over footing the bill for the
fight against illegal drugs. And it is likely to fall to the commander in
chief to restore the peace.

The unusual internecine war began when McCaffrey recently attacked the
Pentagon's draft 1999 budget for antidrug programs. The $809 million
earmarked for such efforts as the interdiction of drug cargoes at sea and
training of Mexican military members in drugfighting techniques was
woefully inadequate, McCaffrey charged.

When his private attempts failed to persuade Cohen to add another $141
million, McCaffrey staffers in late November leaked a stern letter from
their boss to Cohen admonishing the Pentagon chief to cough up more.

That didn't sit well with Cohen, who complained in a letter back to
McCaffrey that he didn't appreciate the public release of the previous
missive ``prior to my having had a chance to review it with care.''

Besides, Cohen argued, the Pentagon is strained nearly to breaking as it
is, paying for more peacekeeping operations and upgrading weapons even as
the defense budget continues to deflate. The money McCaffrey has designs on
would better be put to purely military uses, Cohen and other Pentagon
officials contend.

Left unsaid was the longheld antipathy within the military to taking on a
major role in the fight against drugs a war viewed as being monumentally
hard to win and one that brings the armed services perilously close to
violating the prohibition against involving the military in civilian law
enforcement.

McCaffrey so far is undaunted. He is continuing his campaign to build the
fiscal arsenal he believes is needed, arguing the Pentagon should contribute:

An additional $24 million for Mexican smuggling interdiction. Cohen's
proposed budget offers only $12 million.

Another $75 million for Andean coca reduction. The budget allocates $150
million.

An extra $30 million above the $132 million the Pentagon is pledging
for antidrug operations by the National Guard.

Another $12 million to combat violent crime in the Caribbean and assist
in interdiction. The Pentagon thinks $380 million is the most it can commit.

If Cohen and McCaffrey can't come to terms, the feud could land in
Clinton's lap when the president rules on the fiscal 1999 budget, which is
expected to be presented to Congress late in January.

McCaffrey, as skilled at rallying public opinion as he was at commanding
troops, already is lining up support in Congress. Casting the war against
drugs as a cause that breaks partisan boundaries, McCaffrey has managed to
sign up two Democrat and two Republican senators to his cause already.

``We agree with Gen. McCaffrey's determination that the Defense
Department's fiscal year 1999 request of $809 million is inadequate,'' said
the letter signed by Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and
Bob Graham of Florida and GOP Sens. Paul Coverdell of Georgia and Charles
Grassley of Iowa.