U.S. Rethinks a Drug War After Deaths in Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

U.S. Rethinks a Drug War After Deaths in Honduras
By DAMIEN CAVE and GINGER THOMPSON
Published: October 12, 2012

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The Honduran Air Force pilot did not know what to do. It was the dead of night, and he was chasing a small, suspected drug plane at a dangerously low altitude, just a few hundred feet above the Caribbean. He fired warning shots, but instead of landing, the plane flew lower and closer to the sea.

“So the pilot made a decision, thinking it was the best thing to do,” said Arturo Corrales, Honduras’s foreign minister, one of several officials to give the first detailed account of the episode. “He shot down the plane.”

Four days later, on July 31, it happened again. Another flight departed from a small town on the Venezuelan coast, and using American radar intelligence, a Honduran fighter pilot shot it down over the water.

How many people were killed? Were drugs aboard, or innocent civilians? Officials here and in Washington say they do not know. The planes were never found. But the two episodes — clear violations of international law and established protocols — have ignited outrage in the United States, bringing one of its most ambitious international offensives against drug traffickers to a sudden halt just months after it started.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/world/americas/in-honduras-deaths-make-us-rethink-drug-war.html?_r=1

[jtuck004]

1. Maybe they could rethink the one on the American people while they are at it. n/t

[truedelphi]

4. I know, I know. Last weekend, an elderly

Guy was shot and killed by a SWAT team on an anti-drug raid. They were at the wrong address.

And then, as if my mood weren't bleak enough, someone FB'ed my spouse an account of a Vet from one of our recent wars - and the vet got shot 71 times by the cops. They refused to let the dying man have a paramedic until they cleaned up some of what they had done to him.

It later turned out he wasn't carrying drugs.

I can think of a few things that are negative about using marijuana. It can make you elated, sleepy and give you the munchies. It can make you paranoid. Or forgetful and "pot brained."

But in terms of its lasting harm to you, me or other humans, only the war on marijuana can kill a person.

[nebenaube]

6. There is no such thing as 'Pot Brained' n/t

[truedelphi]

10. No such thing as in "Why are my car keys

Under my socks and the plate of half eaten Nachos?"

Maybe you've escaped that, but I know some people who haven't.

[nebenaube]

11. There's

There's plenty of people who do that who have never partaken.

[Angry Dragon]

2. They should just use drones and then no problem

[Festivito]

3. Not because it cures cancer, not for illegally shooting planes, but for Honduras!

If only we had known.

[Socal31]

5. But how would the cartels, the "justice system" and Big Pharma make billions if this is stopped?

Won't someone please think of the little guys for once?

[dougolat]

7. "Collateral Damage" is largely ignored in all our wars...nt

[truebluegreen]

8. As an American ex-patriate living in Mexico

I can say with some assurance that it would be better for a whole lot of people in this world if the United States would fight their drug wars on their own territory, instead of others'.

This insanity, which I have always assumed was a policy designed by Tricky Dick et al to keep down certain parts of the population <cough>, has, over the last 40 years, cost us immeasurably in blood and treasure, has turned our police against the people they were meant to serve and has added to the militarization of our society and foreign policy. We have more people in jail than any nation on earth. We systematically destroy the lives of many young people, especially minorities. We start wars in other countries and enrich drug dealers around the world. Our only winners are the DEA, the military-industrial complex and the prison industry.

And what have we achieved otherwise? Cocaine and marijuana are cheaper, stronger and more abundant than ever.

The definition of insanity. Or maybe cancerous capitalism, eating itself. Or both.

[lib2DaBone]

9. Ryan wants to balance the budget? Stop the War on Drugs...

Billions $ wasted on DEA, TSA, SWAT, NARCO Teams.....

Fact: The Black Market drives the price of drugs..