Source: Los Angeles Times
Title: Plan to Use Military in Drug Fight Dies
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 2132374712

Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Title: Plan to Use Military in Drug Fight Dies
Contact: Chronletters@sfgate.com

Pubdate: Wed, 29 Oct 1997

By RICHARD A. SERRANO
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON An ambitious proposal to enlist 10,000 U.S. soldiers in the
war against drugs on the Southwest border has died a quiet death on Capitol
Hill, the victim of continuing disagreement over whether the Pentagon
should have any role in fighting the Mexican narcotic cartels.

The proposal, which twice won overwhelming support in the House this
summer, was never embraced by the Senate. Ultimately, it was stricken late
last week from a conference committee report agreed to by Senate and House
negotiators on the 1998 defense authorization bill.

On Tuesday, the House passed the bill without the amendment to vastly
increase the U.S. military presence on the border.

Undeterred, the proposal's chief sponsor vowed to try again to place the
might of the American military behind this country's crimefighting
apparatus on the border. "The cartels have too much power," Rep. James A.
Traficant Jr., DOhio, said in an interview. "There's just too much money
and firepower down there."

Critics charged Traficant's proposal would set dangerous precedents in the
divisions of responsibility between the Pentagon and law enforcement
officials.

That was one reason Senate conferees prevailed in getting the amendment
dropped from the defense measure, according to John DeCrosta, a spokesman
for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He said Senate leaders also noted that each state can deploy its own
National Guard to supplement law enforcement efforts in fighting drug
trafficking. And, DeCrosta said, there was concern that troop reductions
have left fewer soldiers to go around.

"You can't just keep piling missions on," he said.

Traficant's proposal came at a time of heightened emotions over the support
that the armed forces already had been providing local and federal law
enforcement agencies in protecting the 2,000mile border from Texas to
California.

In May, a U.S. Marine corporal inadvertently killed a teen age Texas goat
herder, leading to the Pentagon's decision to temporarily stop using ground
troops in antidrug missions until a full review of the 8yearold program
could be examined.

"It is not clear to me that this mission is any longer necessarily
required," Barry McCaffrey, a former army general who now serves as the
White House drug czar, said in an interview. "Personally, I always felt
uncomfortable with it."

At the same time, however, cries for increased numbers of Border Patrol
agents have continued, and federal law enforcement officials have warned
that the Mexican cartels are growing and pushing an expanding number of
illegal drugs into this country.

Traficant contended that since U.S. soldiers conduct other peacekeeping
operations abroad, they should be actively involved in drugfighting efforts.

"Our troops are vaccinating dogs in Haiti," he said. "They are building
homes in Italy, they are guarding the borders in the (Middle East)."

And yet, he added, "a new report states that the use of heroin by 12 to
17yearolds in America is at historic levels, and our borders are wide open."

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, DEl Paso, a former Border Patrol supervisor, was
among those preferring the military to stay out of police work.

"Border Patrol agents are trained to understand the terrain and the
habitants of the area they are patrolling," he said.

"However, military training promotes a more confrontational approach under
generally hostile environments. So clearly, the military is not properly
suited for patrolling border areas."