DdC

In order for the war on terrorism to be successful, citizens of every country, especially those of the United States, need to do their part. It's the effort by ordinary citizens -- keeping a look out for terrorists and those who help them, staying up-to-date on the risk those people of interest pose and taking action when necessary -- that will be a key to victory and eventually ensure the safety of all citizens of this planet.

So, as the self-proclaimed director of the citizen's faction of the U.S. Homeland Security Department (HSD), I request all taxpaying U.S. citizens to turn themselves in to the regional HSD office. Those who cooperate will only be charged with one count of financing terrorist activities in Colombia -- a deal I suggest you take, or be hunted down like your al-Qaida, Taliban and Republican Guard brethren.

U.S. taxpayers contributed to a $605 million check for military assistance to Colombia last year, money that paid for chemicals to be sprayed on the citizens of that country. One could compare that to what Saddam Hussein did to the Kurds, since the U.S. government knew about that as well, but in the Colombia case, the U.S. government helped plan the chemical attack, and paid for it, as part of a program called Plan Colombia.

In an attempt to curb the flow of cocaine from Colombia to the millions of cokeheads in this country, the U.S. and Colombian governments have decided it's OK to drop loads of the enhanced version of the weed killer Roundup across the countryside in order to kill the fields of coca plants that are grown there. But when dropping chemicals from crop-dusting planes at much higher altitudes than the process is designed for, there is no accuracy; when the crop dusting planes strike, part of the chemical falls straight to the ground, and the rest hovers in the sky, literally, like a black cloud. Since there's no controlling it after it is unleashed it from the planes, it falls beyond the intended patches of coca plants, onto legal agriculture and livestock, into bodies of water and, most deplorably, into the lungs of people.

The warnings on the bottle of regular Roundup should say it all; urging users not to ingest the chemical because it will irritate the digestive tract "as demonstrated by signs and symptoms of mouth membrane irritations, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea." It also warns against adding it to bodies of water "such as ponds, lakes or streams as Roundup can be harmful to certain aquatic organisms." Unfortunately, the lives and livelihoods of innocent people aren't valued that much by the U.S. and Colombian governments, in the context of the 30-year struggle called the "war on drugs."

Putting human life at risk in order to kill a plant is not only a violation of basic human rights that supersede any man-made piece of legislation, but also a badly formed and illogical policy. If someone wants to do cocaine, someone will produce it, regardless of the legal and moral consequence. The only thing that will change is the price, increasing as the risk and penalty does. So in effect, the misguided drug policy Americans' pay for is actually making drug production more profitable, making drug traffickers more money and increasing the incentive to grow and sell it.

It's not the kingpins that grow the coca though; it's the poor peasant farmers just trying to feed their family. Yet the U.S. government wants the farmers to stop growing a crop that makes money and start growing more bananas. But as militant, by-any-means-necessary capitalism has taught the world, the bottom line is the bottom line, which is why most farmers don't care about a crack-head in Kalamazoo. They have said no to the alternative crop subsidy program, which is where the U.S. pays farmers to grow crops other than coca, in order to stem production. Coca plants make more money than legal crops though, and the drug traffickers offer door-to-door service. The United States expects farmers to grow crops that don't make as much money, pack them into forms of transportation they don't have, drive them through the country on non-existent roads and put them into markets that they obviously don't have. Growing coca makes more sense and cents.

In these difficult financial times, government-spending priorities need to also be cost effective. According to the conservative RAND Corporation, drug treatment is 23 times more cost effective than aerial fumigation in the attempt to stop drug use. As the federal deficit grows, so do the bills for war, while tax revenue goes down (thanks W). That leaves the ax to fall on the programs that benefit the neediest among us, like elementary school funding and veteran's benefits (no child left behind and support our troops, eh?).

On May 1, 2003, President Bush used these cautionary words to declare the end of major combat in Iraq: "Any person, organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world -- and will be confronted."

Is this nation ready to look in the mirror? Do Americans support terrorism as a double-standard policy? Are Americans so blinded by fear that whatever the Democrats and Republicans in D.C. say actually goes without critical thought? If so, then there goes the purpose of democracy, and any meaning behind the constitution and the real struggle for freedom both at home and abroad. The purpose of the United States then becomes as transparent as the air we breathe. At lease there's no Roundup in it.

Ben Lando, a Western Herald opinion columnist, is a junior form Kalamazoo majoring in political science.

United States' Answer To Drug War Proves Harmful By Ben Lando
Source: Western Herald (MI) * Published: October 08, 2003
Contact: Herald-Opinion@groupwise.wm ich.edu * Website



Related Articles & Web Sites

Colombia Drug War News
EU Scientists Legalize Controversial Herbicide
How Safe Are Your Illegal Drugs?



Cannabisnews Search: Colombia * The Real Reason for US Aid to Colombia
Stop the WoD on Colombians * Plan Colombian WoD Deception and Murder
USA: Critics Detail Risks of Colombian Coca Spraying

The Hypocrisy of the Peace Process
Plan Kentucky: How would we like it? Poster
Colombian Guerilla Army Declares it Shot Down U.S. Drug Plane
Progressive Comment: Stop the War on Colombia! * Flier
Colombia: A War Without End! * Field Reports



Toxic Drift: Monsanto and the Drug War in Colombia
A prominent U.S. Senator and other government officials from both Washington and Bogotá stood on a Colombian mountainside above fields of lime-green coca -- the plant sacred to Andean Indians, but also the source of the troublesome drug cocaine. They were awaiting a demonstration of aerial herbicide spraying, part of the U.S. drug war in Colombia. The spectacle, put on by the U.S. embassy in Bogotá last December, was supposed to address Senator Paul Wellstone's doubts about the accuracy and safety of the U.S.-sponsored drug fumigation program. Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota, is a fierce critic of military aid to Colombia and the demonstration needed to come off without a hitch, to win him over to the use of aerially sprayed herbicides. The night before, U.S. officials had responded to the Senator's skeptical questions by assuring him that the spraying would target coca fields without harming food crops.

"They had said that by using satellite images they could hit very precisely targets without any chance of danger to surrounding crops" said Jim Farrell, Wellstone's spokesperson, who was also there. However that turned out not to be the case. "On the very first flyover by the cropduster, the U.S. Senator, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Colombian National Police, and other Embassy and congressional staffers were fully doused -- drenched, in fact -- with the sticky, possibly dangerous (herbicide) Roundup."

DdC

WoD on the Environment * Genetic fungus
Spraying Misery * Poison Pot * Fear in the Fields



We're Being Shot At! * A Witness Against War on Drugs
Colombia Drug War News * Good Morning, Colombia
Rights Group List Abuses by Guerrillas in Colombia



The Colombia Deception Friday May 04, 2001
Colombia. Texaco, BP hired cocaine-funded paramilitary death squads for security by Bush-Cheney Big Oil. Colombia report. "Paramilitary death squads are tearing apart Columbian families and culture as they defend U.S. oil interests. ... Texaco and BP have hired local paramilitary groups for 'security,' ... paramilitary gets seventy percent of its money from cocaine."

Columbia Support Network

TOO DEADLY TO IGNORE: The complexity of Colombia’s drug-fueled war
does not erase our responsibility to help stop U.S. military intervention.
- A 1997 Seattle Times investigation found that, across the nation, industrial wastes laden with heavy metals and other dangerous materials are being used in fertilizers and spread over farmland. The process, which is legal, saves dirty industries the high costs of disposing of hazardous wastes.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS: Latin American elites have shunned military regimes
in favor of civilian police and, increasingly, private security.



NASA GISS: Tracking Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuel Burning
Judge Orders Cheney Records Released
Bush Flatly Refuses to Hand Over Energy Papers
Bushit Cheneynagans D.E.A.th & Oil!

BORDER WAR: As the U.S. military melds with civilian police agencies,
the first casualties are immigrants.
Hemp Products that would sustain the poor at home, deterring dangerous immigration.
Hemptech
Top Generals Complicit in Drug Trade

War Sale Poster

We Don't Want Your Wars George!!!
safeaccessnow * cannabisnews * antiwarcommittee

Resisting the war on Ganja-Hemp
hempcar * mpp.org * jackherer * green-aid
novembercoalition * Ganjagas * N.O.R.M.L.
Hemp Ind Assoc * rxmarihuana * Mikuriya, M.D.

Resisting the war on Iraq or fill in the blank...
citizenworks * votenowar * indymedia * rcnv.org



Resisting the war on Liberty
pieman * fair.org * freespeech tv * aclu.org
freedomtoexhale * cognitiveliberty * Community Media
How FIJA Saved My Life!
Erowid Freedom Vault : Jury Nullification

Resisting the war on the Environment
circleoflife * ran.org * wildcalifornia * savetheredwoods * sempervirens



Resisting the war on Colombia
americas * witness * colombiasupport * witnessforpeace
narconews * pacifica * democracynow * indymedia

Make Love Not War! Poster
Free the Children Peace in Colombia! * peace protests pix
Good Morning, Colombia
Colombian Activists On The Receiving End Of 'Plan Colombia'



D.E.A.th Deceptions * USAl Qaeda * Free Colombia(graphic)
World Murder Rates * Hempron * Copter Stoppers * Sikorsky Helisculptures

__________________