Our policy toward Colombia was already ill-advised when it consisted of an expensive front in our failed "war on drugs." Plan Colombia, launched nearly 2 years ago, sent $1.3 billion to Colombia under the guise of this war on drugs. A majority of that went to the Colombian military; much was no doubt lost through corruption. Though this massive assistance program was supposed to put an end to the FARC and other rebel groups involved in drug trafficking, 2 years later we are now being told – in this legislation and elsewhere – that the FARC and rebel groups are stronger than ever. So now we are being asked to provide even more assistance in an effort that seems to have had a result the opposite of what was intended. In effect, we are being asked to redouble failed efforts. That doesn't make sense.

At the time Plan Colombia was introduced, President Clinton promised the American people that this action would in no way drag us into the Colombian civil war. This current legislation takes a bad policy and makes it much worse. This legislation calls for the United States "to assist the Government of Colombia protect its democracy from United States-designated foreign terrorist organizations . . . " In other words, this legislation elevates a civil war in Colombia to the level of the international war on terror, and it will drag us deep into the conflict.

There is a world of difference between a rebel group fighting a civil war in a foreign country and the kind of international terrorist organization that targeted the United States last September. As ruthless and violent as the three rebel groups in Colombia no doubt are, their struggle for power in that country is an internal one. None of the three appears to have any intention of carrying out terrorist activities in the United States. Should we become involved in a civil war against them, however, these organizations may well begin to view the United States as a legitimate target. What possible reason could there be for us to take on such a deadly risk? What possible rewards could there be for the United States support for one faction or the other in this civil war?

As with much of our interventionism, if you scratch the surface of the high-sounding calls to "protect democracy" and "stop drug trafficking," you often find commercial interests driving US foreign policy. This also appears to be the case in Colombia. And like Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, and elsewhere, that commercial interest appears to be related to oil The U.S. administration request for FY 2003 includes a request for an additional $98 million to help protect the Cano-Limon Pipeline – jointly owned by the Colombian Government and Occidental Petroleum. Rebels have been blowing up parts of the pipeline and the resulting disruption of the flow of oil is costing Occidental Petroleum and the Colombian Government more than half a billion dollars per year. Now the administration wants the American taxpayer to finance the equipping and training of a security force to protect the pipeline, which much of the training coming from the US military. Since when is it the responsibility of the American citizen to subsidize risky investments made by private companies in foreign countries? And since when is it the duty of American service men and women to lay their lives on the line for these commercial interests?

Further intervention in the internal political and military affairs of Colombia will only increase the mistrust and anger of the average Colombian citizen toward the United States, as these citizens will face the prospect of an ongoing, United States-supported war in their country. Already Plan Colombia has fueled the deep resentment of Colombian farmers toward the United States. These farmers have seen their legitimate crops destroyed, water supply polluted, and families sprayed as powerful herbicides miss their intended marks. An escalation of American involvement will only make matters worse.

At this critical time, our precious military and financial resources must not be diverted to a conflict that has nothing to do with the United States and poses no threat to the United States. Trying to designate increased military involvement in Colombia as a new front on the "war on terror" makes no sense at all. It will only draw the United States into a quagmire much like Vietnam. The Colombian civil war is now in its fourth decade; pretending that the fighting there is somehow related to our international war on terrorism is to stretch the imagination to the breaking point. It is unwise and dangerous.

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

Newshawk: Paul Armentano - http://www.norml.org/
Source: LewRockwell.com
Author: Congressman Ron Paul, MD
Published: March 8, 2002
Copyright: 2002 LewRockwell.com
Contact: rockwell@mail.mises.org
Website: http://www.lewrockwell.com/
Info: http://www.lewrockwell.com/about.html
DL: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul19.html

Related Articles & Web Site:

Colombia Drug War News
http://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm

Don’t Let U.S. Get Sucked into Colombia Quagmire
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12205.shtml

Oil a Key to U.S. Role in Colombia
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12150.shtml

COUNTERMEDIA http://www.geocities.com/countermedia/4.html

From the article:

"Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ruling circles in the rich capitalist nations, led by the United States, proclaimed the dawn of a “New World Order”. But it really is not so “new”. A more correct term for this post Cold War era is “Corporate World Order”.

and:

"A global system dominated by a small minority in the North of the globe, with only one superpower, the USA, acting as the new world’s policeman. The crisis of the international capitalist system impels the ruling elites to maintain their death-ridden system by accelerating their robbery, domination and exploitation of the developing nations in the South of the globe. While at home they carry out attacks on the basic rights and living standards of working people. Dr. Ali Mazrui, the renowned African scholar, argues that this “New World Order” is “a kind of global apartheid.”

and:

"In its drive for greater profit and a unified global market, capitalism respects no national boundaries, no national culture and no national identity. The unifying vision of capitalism’s One World Order is the transformation of the planet into a global shopping centre peopled by uniform consumers.

Richard Barnet and John Cavanagh write that this global shopping mall is:

a planetary supermarket with a dazzling spread of things to eat, drink, wear and enjoy. Dreams of affluent living are communicated to the farthest reaches of the globe, but only a minority of the people in the world can afford to shop at the mall. Of the 5.4 billion people on earth, almost 3.6 billion have neither cash nor credit to buy much of anything. A majority of people on the planet are at most window-shoppers. (Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and the New World Order)

and:

"Government does not seek to embody the popular will, but is a Big Brother protecting the free market, the interests of money. On the international level, national governments are only accepted into the “civilised world” when they accept the free market, along with the rigid conditions of the International Monetary Fund and Western consumer values. Nations, as well as religious and ethnic unions, who refuse the Corporate World Order, are subject to embargoes, demon-isation by the world media, and splits along all possible fractures (see how the CIA actively promotes separatist groups in target countries).

and:

"The United States is today the bastion of global capitalism. In many ways it is not a true nation, but a gigantic commercial-industrial complex. US citizens have very little say in government affairs and are effectively excluded from the decision making process. Policy is formulated and manipulated by the cosmopolitan financial oligarchy, through a powerful network of interlocking think-tanks, lobby groups, and related ‘opinion makers’. This capitalist ruling class uses the political, military, and economic power of America as an instrument to achieve mercenary interests and purposes. Take as an example the ongoing US campaign against Iraq. The American people are told that the murderous 1991 Gulf War was in the ‘national interest’. The national interest requires Iraq to be kept weak and isolated. The facts are America’s capitalist oligarchy — ‘secret government’ — wants to maintain its privileged dominance of Arab oil. Arab nationalist states, like Libya and Iraq, who challenge foreign exploitation of Arab resources, are the evil enemy. The interests of the American oil conglomerates are erroneously and deceptively termed national interests.

There's more, and it's a pretty good primer for those who have just tumbled to the idea that 'our' so-called 'public servants' in truth serve Mammon, not us.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drugnews/message/5710

It seems obvious to this Norwegian caveman that the only alternative is to legalize this product.

The demand is there, and therefore cocaine is going to be widely distributed. Your basic supply is at hand. The facts cannot be denied.

The only possible answer is to legalize.

Obviously, prohibition does not work.

Since when did the people of Colombia become the enemy?

Man O'live and Good God Almighty, the trade will not subside.

Editor's Note: This article is the first part of a two-part article.

"When we fight drugs, we fight the war on terror," President Bush explained on Feb. 12 as he announced an increase in the budget for the war on drugs.

Complete Article: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/3/7/212349.shtml

Part II:

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Get Out of Colombia by Congressman Ron Paul, MD
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul19.html

In swearing in his White House staff last January 22, the president said:
"I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct. This means avoiding even the appearance of problems."

THE POLICE STATE COMETH by Rep.Ron Paul
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=47.topic

It's a joke. Greed and the desire to take drugs are two separate things. If you want to separate the two, the thing you do is make drugs legal. Accept the reality that people do want to change their consciousness, and make an effort to make safer, healthier drugs."
Jerry Garcia Rolling Stone Nov. 30, 1989

THE DRUG WAR IS A FRAUD
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=67.topic

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."
Thomas Jefferson

SENTENCING IS PERVERSE IN WAR ON DRUGS
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=119.topic

Yeah, man. It's time to let de people get good herbs and smoke. Government's a joke. All dey wan' is ya smoke cigarettes and cigar. Some cigar wickeder den herb. Yeah, man, ya can't smoke cigar. Smoke herb. Some big cigar me see man wit', God bless! Me tell him must smoke herb."
Bob Marley

The Drug War: Suppression Tactics Will Never Work
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=44.topic

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will."
Frederick Douglass

The Duplicity of the War on Drugs
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=43.topic

"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime. . . Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there."
-William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, 1937.

The Cold War of the '90's
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=42.topic

"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
Dolores Ibarruri (1895-1985)

JUST SAY NO TO AMERICA
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=39.topic

"The media's the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses."
Malcolm X

Domination and Control?
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=127.topic

"Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy rotten system."
Dorothy Day

DRUG PROHIBITION: A PERVERTED INSTINCT?
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=33.topic

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?"
- Willie Nelson

March 11, 2002
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleagues,

The results of yesterday's Congressional elections in Colombia are in..

Voters massively rejected the nation's two traditional political parties on Sunday. When the new Congress takes office on July 20th both houses will contain an absolute majority consisting of Senators and Representatives of smaller independent parties..

The two largest vote-getters, Senator-elect Antonio Navarro and > Representative-elect Gustavo Petro, are former armed combatants in the M-19 guerrilla movement who favor a negotiated peace settlement with the rebels. The daily El Espectador analyzed the former rebels' victory as "a rejection by a large part of the popularion of the idea of 'frontal war' against subversion that the electorate identifies with the figure of Alvaro Uribe." President Andrés Pastrana's Conservative party shrunk to just 13 seats in the 100 member Senate, and 21 seats in the 175 member House. The chief of his party resigned in disgrace last night after the electoral drubbing.. The Liberal Party, which has backed Pastrana's recent declaration of war against the rebels, suffered an even more massive loss: It lost 34 of its House seats and 19 of its Senate seats.. For details on the election results, and analysis of the dishonest and distorted report today by Associated Press reporter Jared Kotler, see: http://www.narconews.com/ The only foreign press agency to so far report the results accurately is the Spain-based EFE news agency, as quoted in our report this morning..

In sum, Colombian voters have rejected Plan Colombia, as they did in the October 2000 gubernatorial races..

Again, we ask: Where Is The Press?

..from somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
narconews@hotmail.com

Subscribe for free alerts of new reports:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews Suscribete gratis para alertas de reportajes nuevos en Español:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconewsandes

Changing Planet news service is the socio-metaphysical-political-science-spirituality list that doesn't hold back any punches and demands that you think for yourself in determining truth.
On the web at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/changingplanet/

"Since when is it the responsibility of the American citizen to subsidize risky investments made by private companies in foreign countries? And since when is it the duty of American service men and women to lay their lives on the line for these commercial interests?

The ugly truth is...it happens all the time. It's happening right now in Afghanistan, with Unocal hoping the fighting will die down so it's pipeline workers can start construction unmolested...guarded by US and Russian troops.

Children, whenever you hear some policy wonk talk about "American interests", always insert the word 'economic' between them...and then ask yourself if said policy wonk has stock in the company that will directly benefit from the effort. All of Shrubya's Cabinet do. Every one of them is either Big Oil, Military contractors, or Construction.

But none of them will ever get their hands dirty. None of them will ever know what words like 'shots fired in anger' or 'pucker factor' means. None of them ever have the embarrassing experience of having to 'make like Jake the Snake' and hit the pavement when a car backfires. That is, the lucky ones that didn't stop a bullet too hard.

I wonder how much more damage the white house could do, then I see this:

Alarmed officials from Moscow to Tehran warned that the "power crazy" President, buoyed up by the successful campaign in Afghanistan, could plunge the world into chaos. US Nuclear Hitlist http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0311-02.htm