Monday, October 02, 2006

Coca Production Rises Despite "Winning" US Battle Against This Crop

Here we see the US singing its own praises in reducing coca acreage in Colombia. It is yet more evidence of the vast gulf that separates reality from the American propaganda of "winning" a "battle against Colombian cocaine traffikers". The US Drug Czar's claims are clearly at odds with the fact, reported here, that coca cultivation has actually RISEN 8%. The US$4.7 billion used to prosecute this war have been put to great use.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You might appreciate these thoughts I posted on my LeftIndependent blog about the puff piece propaganda about Plan Colombia by the Christian Science Monitor last week and another about how the FBI is still not connecting the terrorism dots.

FBI still not connecting the dots

Plan Colombia: Informed Myopia

Sept. 21, 2006 testimony by one of America's leading experts on Afghanistan, New York University Professor Barnett Rubin, who appeared before front of the United States senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The international drug control regime, which criminalizes narcotics, does not reduce drug use, but it does produce huge profits for criminals and the armed groups and corrupt officials who protect them. Our drug policy grants huge subsidies to our enemies."

Dr. Rubin concluded: "If it were not illegal, it would be worth hardly anything. It's only its illegality that makes it so valuable."


I think that terroism and the economics of prohibition is the most powerful argumentthat reform has against the drug war. These pieces try to quantify that argument.