DRUG WAR WON'T BRING PEACE TO LATIN AMERICA

In response to "Let's be a good neighbor to Latin America" (Feb. 7 Viewpoint):

It astounds me how rational people can bend their own arguments out of
shape and end up supporting policies that would only exacerbate the
situation they are attempting to correct. Such is the case with Jennifer
Watson Roberts.

Inserting the U.S. military into the Colombian civil war is not going to
bring peace. It will only bring more bloodshed. That's because the
revolutionaries are awash in so much drug money that they are better funded
than the Colombian army.

The drug war has only rewarded the drug cartels and the rebels by inflating
the price of a $5 bag of cocaine to more than $500. If prohibition becomes
even more successful, the price on the street goes even higher.

If we really want to bring peace to South America, we will end drug
prohibition now.

Arthur Cole, Hope Valley, R.I.