Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.
Posted on 02/25/2010 7:46:39 PM PST by jazusamo
It's a war the so-called mainstream media apparently have decided to ignore. Though its death toll is higher than Iraq's and Afghanistan's combined, it evidently isn't worth covering; and unless you're reading this in the Southwest, you probably haven't even heard about it.
The conflict, a full-blown narco-insurgency, has claimed the lives of more than 17,000 combatants and innocents, threatens to undo several democratically elected governments and poses a real and present danger to the United States. It's not the one being fought in Afghanistan. It's the war being waged from the Andean basin all the way north to the Rio Grande.
Last week, while our Fox News team was in Texas and New Mexico on a completely unrelated matter, "the war next door" was the principal topic of conversation among the locals we encountered. Just days before we arrived, 16 teenagers celebrating a birthday party were machine-gunned in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, less than a mile from the U.S. border. In the past 12 months, nearly 2,700 people have been murdered in this border city -- about 1,000 more than the previous year -- making it the deadliest place to live on the planet.
The Mexican drug cartels perpetrating the violence next door are competing for "distribution rights" in the lucrative marijuana, hashish and cocaine markets on this side of the porous U.S.-Mexico border. According to current and former officials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, the Mexican cartels -- most of them "family organizations" -- have become the "delivery service" for cocaine that originates in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela. These "distributors" are now exporting their violence, as well. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, cartel "hit teams" have carried out murders and kidnappings in more than 230 American cities. Phoenix seems headed for becoming the kidnapping capital of the U.S.
Though overall violent crime has declined in Arizona generally and Phoenix in particular, kidnapping has spiked from fewer than 50 cases in 2005 to more than 350 last year. Local and state law enforcement authorities say nearly all of this increased crime is directly connected to the illicit drug trade coming across the state's 375-mile border with Mexico.
When our Fox News team accompanied DEA and Customs and Border Protection agents on patrols along the border, they described "routine ambushes and shootouts" that occur when heavily armed cartel members are moving narcotics north. The most recent report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement predicts increasing violence as the Mexican cartels engage in "ruthless targeting of rivals." The Justice Department describes Mexican drug cartels as the "largest threat to both citizens and law enforcement agencies."
The Obama administration seems to be of two minds about what needs to be done about the problem. To its credit, it has continued to fund and even expand the Bush administration's Merida Initiative, aimed at improving Mexico's internal police and security services with $1.6 billion in training and equipment. Unfortunately, Obama administration officials also speak routinely about "reforming U.S. drug laws," suggesting that having "user amounts" of illicit narcotics would no longer be a criminal offense. How that would reduce the demand for drugs in America is hard to fathom.
There are other challenges the administration has failed to address, as well. Everyone involved -- from the Andean basin to the streets of Chicago -- knows that the flow of drugs north won't stop until the flow of money south is interdicted. Arizona's attorney general, Terry Goddard, recently won a major settlement with Western Union about illicit financial transactions. The departments of Justice and Treasury lauded the outcome of this contentious matter because Western Union has agreed to turn over money transfer data on suspicious transactions.
Arrests and prosecutions from this information are likely. Equally certain is that the cartels will look for new ways to move money. According to those engaged in this fight, cartel bosses always are looking for new ways to move drugs and money. Unfortunately, our ability to detect cash transfers through European banking institutions suffered a crippling setback last month, when the European Commission shut down U.S. law enforcement and intelligence access to data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which was so important in the aftermath of 9/11.
If the Obama administration is serious about stopping the violence threatening Americans from our southern border, it needs to initiate some urgent diplomacy to reinstitute our access to SWIFT data -- and stop talking about "legalization."
Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.
Getting SWIFT data is easy. Just tell the Eurowenies that we are cutting the SWIFT line to the US. Or else.
You'll never stop the flow of cash south into Mexico.
Legalizing small amounts of drugs isn't going to solve the problem.
Legalizing Weed and Hash (completely making it legal) will allow domestic companies to grow and sell it, and people to buy it without resorting to "illegal drug dealers", this puts every street level dealer and supplier out of business as major drug companies/tobacco companies use economy of scale to simply undercut them.
But then again, there is too much money being made by prisons/law enforcement suppliers/politicans/lobbiests to have this happen.
The Drug War is a multi-billion dollar a year business and supports a large part of the economy, without it, lots of people would be out of business and unemployed.
The war on drugs continues unabated despite its forty years of failure and its mounting toll of death and misery.
the world will not be better if weed/hash were legal...
there will always be people willing to kill for the next high...
why don't we as Americans STOP our worship of drugs completely....
True, I doubt dispute that, but there are far less instances of people killing because they can't get their perscription drugs as opposed to the illegal drugs.
the world will not be better if weed/hash were legal...
Once again, I'm not disputing that and I am under no illusions that legalizing illegal drugs will "make the world a better place", it WILL however sharply decrease the violence related to drug gangs fighting over territory and enforcing their markets. Making proxy drugs available that don't have the addictive qualities of the current street drugs, while still allowing for a high is one spinoff of this plan.
why don't we as Americans STOP our worship of drugs completely....
That would be nice, everyone just getting along, drug free, violence free. Its a pipe dream though.
Anyone know why ?
Well, since the economy is tough, let's not legalize.
this puts every street level dealer and supplier out of business as major drug companies/tobacco companies use economy of scale to simply undercut them.
I disagree, the economy of scale is already owned by the drug cartel kingpins. Legalization simply legitimizes the illegal drug industry; much like Joseph Kennedy's rum-runners suddenly became legitimate alcohol product "distributers" following the 21st Amendment radification.
Cheers,
OLA
The problems related to illegal drugs can be boiled down to two:
1) Issues of addiction and the lives ruined from it. This would include the (usually) petty crimes of addicts, but is primarily about how their own lives are destroyed.
2) Issues of the black-market trade, nationally and internationally, the immense organized crime networks supporting it, and the incredibly severe violence associated with it—for users and non-users alike...
Ollie North obviously is focusing on #2 here, and it really is the worst part of the two issues of illegal drug use.
However, in spite of the fact that various strong hallucinogens have been available for hundreds of years, the TRADE was never a source of organized crime and murder UNTIL THE GOVERNMENT GOT IN THE BUSINESS OF ATTEMPTING TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR BY PROHIBITING CERTAIN DRUGS.
It is interesting to me that old line conservatives like North think such is the proper role of government...as it seems to me Government attempting to modify the behavior of free people is really a liberal/socialist approach, and not one for limited, constitutional governance.
Legalization, of course will not eliminate the #1 problem above....but, then again, neither has criminalization. As a matter of fact, the addiction rate in countries like ours, with stiff drug laws, IS WORSE than in places like Holland, where such laws are not enforced.
Logically then, if you’re really concerned about addiction...drugs like marijuana and even cocaine should be legalized, regulated, and taxed... But even if it did make the #1 problem worse (or it stayed the same—as we live in a very imperfect world) at least the worse problem....of terrible violence associated with the trade, the #2 problem above, would be largely if not completely eliminated.
And we all know how many drive-by shootings, kidnappings and bombings companies like Jim Beam, Smirnoff or Jack Daniels have perpetrated since... It's absolutely frightening! (sarc/off...)
Funny you should point that out. Chicago Crime Commission indicates diversification into other more profitable, yet illegal business'.
https://www.chicagocrimecommission.org/CustomPages/Programs.aspx
THE NINE DANGER SIGNS OF THE SOCIAL CANCER KNOWN AS ORGANIZED CRIME
Social acceptance of hoodlums in decent society
Your community’s indifference to ineffective local government
Notorious mobster personalities in open control of businesses
Deceptive handling of public funds
Interest at very high rates to poor risk borrowers (the juice loan)
Close association of mobsters and local authorities
Arson and bombings
Terrorized legitimate businesses
Easily found gambling, narcotics and prostitution
No sarc tag
Cheers,
OLA
If you really think about it, the propaganda war IS the front for all wars that are getting negative and/or no coverage. If we don’t soon turn around the “Land Of The Last Story” starring the Lamestream Borg Media we are in serious trouble.
If a FRACTION of the resources our society puts into law enforcement related to the drug trade were actually kept by the citizens, and then voluntarily given to charitable groups which treat drug abuse--we could do far more to battle the scourge of drug addiction than our present, socialistic-long-arm-of-the-law-enforcement approach.
Apparently Joe Kennedy's crowd did, but, I don't believe Kennedy was a hardline mobster/criminal either before or after Prohibition made normal enjoyment of an ancient beverage--one Jesus Himself blessed--a crime.
My main point is however, it is that drug abuse, like drunkenness (or alcoholism) is a moral and medical issue--not one properly addressed by law enforcement.
You and I would likely agree that adultery is wrong, and an increase in it shows that society is going down hill. However, you and I would likely also agree, it is not the role of the police to try to prevent or stop adulterous affairs. Moral instruction, and social enforcement (by shame) of private voluntary institutions (like Churches) is our primary (and proper, I believe) defense against society spiraling downward into moral depravity.
I'm only arguing that drug abuse (like alcohol abuse) is a similar ethical issue as adultery. All three are privately done...and all three cannot be practically controlled by law enforcement in a free republic--unless that nation becomes something more like a totalitarian police state.
If a FRACTION of the resources our society puts into law enforcement related to the drug trade were actually kept by the citizens, and then voluntarily given to charitable groups which treat drug abuse--we could do far more to battle the scourge of drug addiction than our present, socialistic-long-arm-of-the-law-enforcement approach.
The Drug War is a multi-billion dollar a year business and supports a large part of the economy, without it, lots of people would be out of business and unemployed.
And this, my very astute FRiend, is the entire problem. Not the drug war, per se, but the corruption that makes crime of all kinds and at all levels, not only profitable but safe for the government,s parasites.
I see your point and to an extent I agree, but as I said the only people this plan puts out of business are the street level dealers and suppliers, in essence the ones commiting the most violence and who have the most to lose. It doesn't touch the big cartels except to make them legitimate suppliers, and thusly by being legimitate, reducing the violence they need to exert to keep their markets.
People have been addicted to substances since time began, we're not going to get rid of that problem, prohibition clearly isn't working. What we need to get a handle on is the violence aspect of the drug trade that is tearing the US and indeed the world apart.
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