Pubdate: Fri, 16 Nov 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Gerald Kamin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/colombia (Reports About Colombia)

U.S.-COLOMBIA FOREIGN POLICY BREEDS HATRED

Like so many academics before him in the tortured history of U.S. foreign 
policy, Michael Shifter misses the mark completely ("Colombia Policy Should 
Not Be Terror's Next Victim," Opinion, Nov. 11). Current U.S. policy toward 
Colombia is a disaster waiting to happen. What we are doing there is 
setting the stage for the next generation of anti-U.S. hatred, this time in 
a neighboring region of the world.

The picture that accompanied the article was worth 1,000 essays by 
wishy-washy, ivory-tower analysts afraid to rock the boat. It showed an 
airplane poisoning fertile farmland in a futile effort to stop the growing 
of a crop (coca) that has been produced in the region for thousands of 
years. We will never stop the production or consumption of cocaine. What we 
will do is destroy the livelihood of thousands of peasants, wreak mass 
environmental destruction on the sensitive Amazon environment and give a 
new group of poor and desperate people reason to vilify and seek revenge 
against the U.S.

Gerald Kamin, Los Angeles
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