Pubdate: Sun, 13 Dec 2015
Source: Herald-Dispatch, The (Huntington, WV)
Copyright: 2015 The Herald-Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.hdonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1454
Author: Christopher White

US SHOULD FOCUS ON FIGHTING ISIS

Our government doesn't care enough about protecting Americans from
terrorism. If government officials cared, they would end the drug war
and focus instead on ISIS.

Imagine our country without a drug war. I see a country with $40
billion extra per year to fight terror. I see a country that focuses
all its current drug war might, which is used to arrest hundreds of
thousands of Americans every year, with literally no reduction in
drugs, on breaking up ISIS. I don't mean that we keep bombing them
only. When we bomb, we may kill terrorists, but we also kill
civilians, and those civilians have family and friends who join the
terrorists in vengeance against us. I do not want us to back down at
all. I want us to dedicate a massive amount of resources toward
creating more professionals like Ali Soufan. He was an FBI agent who
spoke fluent Arabic and he was able to flip many Al Qaeda terrorists
to work for our side to break up terror networks.

The drug war ensures that the terrorists are able to fund themselves
with drug money, only because drugs are illegal. We need to
re-legalize drugs (because they were legal until 1914) in order to
take that money away from the terrorists, and we need to put the DEA
and other anti-drug units on the hunt for ISIS instead. They also need
to use historically proven methods, not just anger.

After all, ISIS used to be Al Qaeda in Iraq, which grew powerful in
response to the U.S. invasion of that country. If our leaders want to
show us that they want to protect us, they'll re-examine our
priorities. What scares Americans more? Drugs or terrorists?

Christopher White

Barboursville
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt