Pubdate: Fri, 01 Sep 2000
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2000 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Author: Robert Sharpe
Newshawk Note: This PUB LTE was actually written in response to the article 
cited in the current focus alert [FA #182 
http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0177.html], not the article referenced in the 
edited letter.

COLOMBIA AID IS RISKY

President Clinton's $1.3 billion ''Plan Colombia'' poses a security risk 
(''Clinton pledges aid, not force,'' News, Thursday).

Both Colombia's civil war and coca production could very well spread 
throughout Latin America. Communist guerilla movements do not originate in 
a vacuum. U.S. tax dollars would be better spent addressing the underlying 
causes of civil strife rather than applying overwhelming military force to 
attack the symptoms.

Forcing Colombia's FARC guerrillas to the bargaining table at gunpoint will 
not remedy Colombia's extreme poverty and societal inequities.

We're not doing the Colombian people any favors by fueling civil war. Nor 
are we protecting Americans from drugs. Rather than waste resources 
attempting to overcome immutable laws of supply and demand, policymakers 
should look to the lessons learned from America's disastrous experiment 
with alcohol prohibition.

I would think American policymakers would have a better grasp on the basic 
economic principles upon which capitalism was founded.

Robert Sharpe, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, George Washington 
University, Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens