Posted on 10/19/2007 8:51:31 PM PDT by april15Bendovr
Dr. Paul’s Writings › War on Terror? It’s as Bad as War on Drugs
Summary:
For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved. This war has been behind most big government policy powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy.
by Ron Paul, Dr. August 22, 2007
October 30, 2001
I would like to draw an analogy between the drug war and the war against terrorism. In the last 30 years, we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on a failed war on drugs. This war has been used as an excuse to attack our liberties and privacy. It has been an excuse to undermine our financial privacy while promoting illegal searches and seizures with many innocent people losing their lives and property. Seizure and forfeiture have harmed a great number of innocent American citizens.
Another result of this unwise war has been the corruption of many law enforcement officials. It is well known that with the profit incentives so high, we are not even able to keep drugs out of our armed prisons. Making our whole society a prison would not bring success to this floundering war on drugs. Sinister motives of the profiteers and gangsters, along with prevailing public ignorance, keep this futile war going. Illegal and artificially high priced drugs drive the underworld to produce, sell and profit from this social depravity. Failure to recognize that drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease rather than a crime, encourage the drug warriors in efforts that have not and will not ever work. We learned the hard way about alcohol prohibition and crime, but we have not yet seriously considered it in the ongoing drug war.
Corruption associated with the drug dealers is endless. It has involved our police, the military, border guards and the judicial system. It has affected government policy and our own CIA. The artificially high profits from illegal drugs provide easy access to funds for rogue groups involved in fighting civil wars throughout the world. Ironically, opium sales by the Taliban and artificially high prices helped to finance their war against us. In spite of the incongruity, we rewarded the Taliban this spring with a huge cash payment for promises to eradicate some poppy fields. Sure.
For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved. This war has been behind most big government policy powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy. Those who support the IRS's efforts to collect maximum revenues and root out the underground economy, have welcomed this intrusion, even if the drug underworld grows in size and influence.
The drug war encourages violence. Government violence against nonviolent users is notorious and has led to the unnecessary prison overpopulation. Innocent taxpayers are forced to pay for all this so-called justice. Our eradication project through spraying around the world, from Colombia to Afghanistan, breeds resentment because normal crops and good land can be severely damaged. Local populations perceive that the efforts and the profiteering remain somehow beneficial to our own agenda in these various countries.
Drug dealers and drug gangs are a consequence of our unwise approach to drug usage. Many innocent people are killed in the crossfire by the mob justice that this war generates. But just because the laws are unwise and have had unintended consequences, no excuses can ever be made for the monster who would kill and maim innocent people for illegal profits. But as the violent killers are removed from society, reconsideration of our drug laws ought to occur.
A similar approach should be applied to our war on those who would terrorize and kill our people for political reasons. If the drug laws and the policies that incite hatred against the United States are not clearly understood and, therefore, never changed, the number of drug criminals and terrorists will only multiply. Although this unwise war on drugs generates criminal violence, the violence can never be tolerated. Even if repeal of drug laws would decrease the motivation for drug dealer violence, this can never be an excuse to condone the violence. On the short term, those who kill must be punished, imprisoned, or killed. Long term though, a better understanding of how drug laws have unintended consequences is required if we want to significantly improve the situation and actually reduce the great harms drugs are doing to our society.
The same is true in dealing with those who so passionately hate us that suicide becomes a just and noble cause in their effort to kill and terrorize us. Without some understanding of what has brought us to the brink of a worldwide conflict in reconsidering our policies around the globe, we will be no more successful in making our land secure and free than the drug war has been in removing drug violence from our cities and towns.
Without some understanding why terrorism is directed towards the United States, we may well build a prison for ourselves with something called homeland security while doing nothing to combat the root causes of terrorism. Let us hope we figure this out soon. We have promoted a foolish and very expensive domestic war on drugs for more than 30 years. It has done no good whatsoever. I doubt our Republic can survive a 30-year period of trying to figure out how to win this guerilla war against terrorism. Hopefully, we will all seek the answers in these trying times with an open mind and understanding.
So we caused all this when we started the war on drugs. He sounds like a liberal making victims out of everyone but the addicts and criminals. Where is the personal responsibility in this article? Lets hear from the libertarian potheads.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1913772/posts
Look at how peaceful Amsterdam is where drugs are legal?
I guess if we just forget about all the terrorists hell-bent on destroying the USA, and legalize drugs so poor innocent drug addict victims won’t be criminalized, that the world will be a happier place, and rainbows and sunshine will abound, and little butterflies and ladybugs will flutter about happily, and all will be well in the world...
[SMACK]
Oops. Sorry for that trip into Barbie’s Fairytopia. Got a little verklempted reading Doc Paul’s cure for the WOD and the WOT! ;-)
I guess if we just forget about all the terrorists hell-bent on destroying the USA, and legalize drugs so poor innocent drug addict victims won’t be criminalized, that the world will be a happier place, and rainbows and sunshine will abound, and little butterflies and ladybugs will flutter about happily, and all will be well in the world...
[SMACK]
Oops. Sorry for that trip into Barbie’s Fairytopia. Got a little verklempted reading Doc Paul’s cure for the WOD and the WOT! ;-)
Hmmm...sorry for the hiccup!
Been seeing a lot of these on FR today, guess JimRob needs more hamster treats for the server! :-)
My god, what an imbecile!
He’s right about the drug war. He’s so very wrong that there is a strong parallel between it and the war between Islamofacism and the rest of the world. In the first case, the root causes are the human desire for intoxication that in some cases turns terribly destructive, plus the government’s willingness to make war on its own citizens to try to stomp it out.
In the second case, there’s a violent, expansionist religious sect that has been able to use oil money to export itself around the world and wage war on modern civilization. I don’t see the comparison.
What kind of a Doctor would prescribe a dysfunctional society as President.
Ron Paul just won the Straw Poll here in Oregon.
What is wrong with my fellow Oregonians?
Anyone know if Paul has won any other straw polls?
Tree hugging dope smokers
Maybe we can change the name from Straw polls to Pot polls
There is nothing wrong with your fellow Oregonians other than being a bunch of sheeple who love Socialism and collectivism and vote for liberals.
Ron Paul supporters are experts at deleting cookies, voting multiple times and manipulating IP addresses. They are definitely motivated and sick of Gubmint. That is more motivation than I see for any consensus GOP candidate.
I have to fix some other people’s posts, so you will have to excuse me....
Wowser. Who knew?
Leave the comedy to people with a sense of humor.
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