As my learned colleague previously noted, “it is time to declare victory in the War on Terrorism and move on.” There is simply no value in war without end. And in this slightly dated, but no less relevant article from the Atlantic Monthly, writer Ken Dermota notes how the war on drugs has become less effective over time.
Clearly, policing has a big impact on cocaine prices: On the streets of Bogotá, a gramo of cocaine can be had for under $2. Recreational users in America, on the other hand, typically pay upward of $50 a gram. Yet over time, cocaine prices per pure gram in the United States have steadily fallen, from $600 in the early 1980s to less than $200 by the mid-1990s. In 2000, under Plan Colombia, the U.S. took the fight directly to the coca fields, spending nearly as much each year on aerial coca eradication and fighting cocaine-dealing rebels in Colombia as Ireland spends on its entire military. Plan Colombia has cost $4.7 billion since its inception, but cocaine on U.S. streets has only gotten cheaper, while American demand has remained steady.
No one is here to make a direct comparison between the war on drugs and war on terror, but if a war on a nebulous enemy is declared and never formally finished, the policies become aimless, results hard to calculate, yet the money is still ready to be pumped by politicians.
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COMMENTS / 6 COMMENTS
Lexington Green added these pithy words on 12 Apr 08 at 8:45 pmThe war on drugs is an expensive failure, from one angle.
Here is an alternative way to look at it.
But what if the typical voter is getting what he or she wants out of the war on drugs? The products, though available, are kept out of the mainstream of acceptable suburban behavior, the sources of supply are restricted to “bad” areas and disfavored ethnic groups, the black and hispanic personnel who staff the illicit industry are of no concern to the typical voter (other than hoping to never see one on their suburban street), and to the extent that these disfavored young men end up filling the prisons instead of being out on the street or driving around in their cars, the average voter probably considers that a bonus.
(I use the phrase “average voter” here in a similar sense to the way Sen. Obama talks about a “typical white person”, a fairly uniform category he is expert on and is free to generalize about based on his deep knowledge.)
Maybe the war on drugs is accomplishing its aims. Maybe it is going just fine. Declare victory—- and keep on doing what we are already doing?
dj added these pithy words on 12 Apr 08 at 10:47 pmKill the demand, deal with cocain users like Singapore does.
Seriously, in Hypocritical Hollywood there is the big movement to make sure Diamonds are not blood diamonds. However all the coke they smoke has cause much death and misery in Columbia and Mexico.
dj added these pithy words on 12 Apr 08 at 10:48 pm*Smoke/snort whatever they do.
kende added these pithy words on 13 Apr 08 at 1:55 amEnd the War on Drugs and refocus the War on Terror. Unlike the drug war, I don’t think we can just call it over and be done with it. There is a global war against a nexus of Islamic supremacists and Cold War remnants that needs fighting whether we like it or not. Yes, we have have failed in describing the threat and the enemy by instead focusing the public on a nebulous method meant to evoke a political feeling. But the war remains and is not likely to end for a good long time.
If we want it to be much shorter than the Cold War we will need to become much better at communicating our objectives and much keener at using the full spectrum of our strengths to achieve them. Kaplan’s small footprint is the right idea, but not enough. The Patreaus counter-insurgency model is the right idea, but not enough. Confronting Iran and otherwise reminding belligerent second-tier states that we will not stand by while they threaten their regions and the world, is urgently necessary, but not enough. Understanding that we have to juggle the challenges of the Islamic world, China, Russia, and the post-state transition of Europe at the same time, is entirely obvious, but not enough. And getting our own financial house in the plus column, financing the spread of our ideals, our methods, and our merchandise is needed for all of the above, but can’t truly be done in this globalized world without either stepping up our effectiveness in dealing with these threats/challenges or surrendering our position as the lead power in the world.
On that last point, I’d worry and expect that a return to a world of multiple roughly even great powers competing over everything is a recipe only for a repeat of the first two great World Wars. So really, we have only one choice other than disaster. It’s time to step up, or to step up.
lirelou added these pithy words on 16 Apr 08 at 4:27 amThere has never been a war on drugs. It is a PR device to make the governed feel good about their elected politicians only. Otherwise, the U.S. would have bever “reviewed” its policies on Colombia minutes after that country shot down a suspected drug carrying aircraft. The day you see footage of suspected drug carrying aircraft lying shattered on the bed of Lake Ponchartrain, or suspected drug carrying watercraft at the boottom of Biscayne Bay, or news shots of the bodies of dead drug growers killed by Army Rangers on National Forest lands, there will be a war on drugs. And we will be winning, for a change.
Nick added these pithy words on 18 Apr 08 at 11:11 amI’ve recently been reading Richard Sakwa’s excellent biography of Vladimir Putin. In October 2000, a newspaper report wryly noted, with regard to the Second Chechen War:
‘Russia has won. The war continues.’
Grozny was recaptured in February 2000 (Russian operations began in August 1999). It’s hard not to see the similarities between both the ‘War on Drugs’ and the ‘War on Terror’.
However, my main beef with the War on Drugs is the futility of using military means to crack down on a … consumer product. It’s the same with opium in Afghanistan.
When it comes to narcotics, the market will always beat the military.
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