Pubdate: Wed, 09 Sep 2009
Source: Santa Barbara Independent, The (CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Santa Barbara Independent, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.independent.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4348
Author: Richard J. Steckel, M.D.

Stop War on Drugs

Recent comments by prominent columnists such as George Will and by
other individuals in public life have emphasized the need for clearer
(and more immediate) "exit strategies" for the U.S. in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Let us also place an equal priority on developing an
effective exit strategy promptly for our third pointless (and
exhorbitantly expensive, in terms of life and treasure) current major
war: the government's "War on Drugs"! In all three of these ongoing
wars, the nation's youth and those of other ("allied") countries, as
well as hundreds of billions of our tax dollars are literally being
thrown to the wind! It is incontrovertible too that huge profits are
being made by entrepreneurs from all three conflicts, whether they be
security and defense contractors, arms traders, or (in our Drug War
activities) prison builders and operators, police and military
enforcers, transnational drug syndicates and street drug operatives,
and tens of thousands of others who continue to exploit the drug war
to their own advantage. Meanwhile, generations of our young people who
are heavily weighted demographically toward nonwhites and the poor,
are being locked up and (when eventually released) rendered
unemployable as "felons," their offspring and families decimated, with
our own society and those of our country's neighbors thrown
increasingly into disarray!

Is this what our founding fathers envisioned for America? Are the
hundreds of billions of dollars and the degradation of hundreds of
thousands of people (and their families) who are being hurt and killed
by these conflicts "worth it" to our nation?

How DO we exit these wars as quickly and in as orderly a fashion as
possible, and then redirect the enormous ssvings that will be realized
thereby to improve our lives and those of our children and
grandchildren, not to mention our neighbors across the planet ?

Can you imagine how the people and the billions in resources that can
be saved by ending 3 wasteful wars can be put to work over the next 10
years to bring affordable health care to all of our nation's citizens?
(!), to educate our children, to save precious energy and reduce
global pollution, to fight AIDS, and to pay-down our debts ?? Does
"democracy-building" in strange lands among hostile and resentful
populations justify our putting all (or any) of these critical
national priorities off, and leaving the solutions to our progeny?

I think not, and if told the truth directly and led effectively, I am
confident that the majority of Americans will agree!

Richard J. Steckel, M.D.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr