Bush to Assess War on Drugs in Colombia

[Rose Siding]

BOGOTA, Colombia -- When President Bush comes to Colombia on Monday to discuss the future of the U.S.-funded war on drugs, he will find one of his last conservative allies in South America.

In a meeting with President Alvaro Uribe near the seaside city of Cartagena, President Bush is expected to reaffirm commitments launched in August 2000 to continue a $3.3 billion, five-year military aid program to combat narcotics and insurgent groups.

While the program, called Plan Colombia, has failed to keep cocaine off U.S. streets, it has helped bring a measure of stability to this Andean nation wracked by four decades of guerrilla warfare.

Under the program, a massive aerial fumigation program has reduced by 30 percent the cultivation of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine. Scores of drug traffickers have also been locked up and authorities have reported record drug seizures.

But overall cocaine production in the Andean region has not visibly diminished. Colombia is still the world's largest producer of cocaine, and remains a major supplier of heroin. Similarly, the price of cocaine in the United States is unchanged -- a sign there is no shortage of the drug.......
..........
The Bush administration tends to see the fight against Colombia drug trafficking and the rebels as being important to U.S. security, virtually ensuring continued funding after the current package expires in 2005
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-bush-visit,0,3237084.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. And this also will ensure that he has an uninterrupted supply of blow.

[daleo]

2. Let me guess - things are going great

But we need more of the same. Soon, there will be no more drugs.

[unblock]

5. things aren't going great, not enough dead brown people!

and it's all clinton's fault!

[acmavm]

3. Yeah, but during his younger days wasn't little georgie a customer of

those that sold the cocaine? Didn't he support these people with his money while he was snorting lines and being a total asshole?

So, as the commercial goes, if you buy drugs you supports terrorists. Therefore bush*s hands aren't any cleaner than the people he wants to put in prison for life for doing the same thing he did.

Why should he be forgiven and others not? Because he found God? Well he found a pretty mean, spiteful, petty, vengeful God, not the Jesus who's story is told in the New Testament.

The war on drugs is a total failure, always has been. Until you clean up the conditions that cause the manufacturing, sale, and use of drugs like cocaine and meth, you're always going to have them.

[maddezmom]

4. the one thing * could be an expert on

white powder :shrug:

[nine23]

6. RE: "It has helped..."

"It has helped bring a measure of stability to this Andean nation wracked by four decades of guerrilla warfare."

Fucking shite. Dream on. US policy re: Columbia has merely "drawn a line in the sand" in what is now a completely failed "drug war".

"Drawn a line in the sand". Sound familiar?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. Why would he do that?

Are profits dropping off?

[murray hill farm]

8. Would that be the oil rich Columbia?

yep!! After Iran, the next step will be control of central and south America. This is just the entry..step one.

[Sannum]

9. My First Reaction

Was the visual of * snorting coke off of a mirror in the oval office. He will assess the situation...sure.

[Deja Q]

10. This from the guy who had a chance to blow up Afghanistan poppy fields but

decided to leave them be, after 9/11.

[leesa]

12. Nope. The poppy fields had all been destroyed by the Taliban

We allowed/encouraged or actually planted the new crops. One of the speculative reasons we invaded there was to get the opium trade up and running. The world's economy depends on it.

[leesa]

11. Is it not getting his cut?

Is his cocaine supply down?

[Ima]

13. aerial fumigation program

roundup again, Monsanto

[mrbassman03]

16. While I disagree with helping the large corporations...

Roundup is MUCH better than some other herbicides...

[struggle4progress]

14. "War on drugs" in Colombia is an excuse to dump US arms ...

... into the region and to prop up ruling elites. It's a little laboratory for experimenting on how to screw over the general population. The "Ownership Society" will look a lot like Colombia.

[2cents]

15. The war must be going well...

...if he has to go to SA to cop some blow.