"This is Not Vietnam": Our war against Colombian coca farmers is good for Sikorsky, says Sen. Lieberman. But are we on right side?
Boot, William
"This is Not Vietnam" Our war against Colombian coca farmers is good for Sikorsky, says Sen. Lieberman. But are we on the right side? BY WILLIAM BOOT Four thousand five hundred policemen were...
...Sometimes they would kidnap wealthy landowners for ransom...
...Professing Marxism, they remained hidden in the Andes for decades...
...On December 22, Karen DeYoung reported in the Washington Post "When a Colombian army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in October, the government in Bogota blamed pilot error...
...Durbin of Illinois noted that 9,000 prisoners in Illinois were guilty of possessing "a thimbleful of cocaine...
...R. WISHER, VIA THE INTERNET R. Emmett Tyrrell and I part ways with his article in the February 2001 issue where he "comes out" against the death penalty...
...News & World Report, American's Best Colleges THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE Catholic Liberal Education for the Third Millennium Great Books Great Seminars No Textbooks No Lectures Box 104,10,000 N. Ojai Rd., Santa Paula, CA 93060 (800) 634-9797 www.thomasaquinas.edu THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ¦ March 2001 19 erty rights," Francisco Thoumi writes in Political Economy and Illegal Drugs in Colombia...
...A corollary has been "the lost legitimacy of prop"A SWEEPING TOUR of the greatest and most influential works of Western Civilization...
...Time to call in the choppers and the Roundup...
...I am not proposing an amendment that mandates that the Black Hawk be the helicopter of choice...
...This was a "crucial miscalculation," the NewYork Times reporter on the scene boldly wrote...
...I always love reading anything that RET writes, but when I saw his recent piece titled "Capital Brutality" I was uplifted...
...Since then, coca leaf has been growing in Farclandia "like corn in Kansas," another visiting journalist wrote...
...Several months earlier, General Fred Woerner, another former commander of our forces in Latin America, had confidently predicted that "helicopters will be shot down...
...In the U.S...
...Some said President Pastrana's concessions were naïve, but who could blame the man...
...Pastrana looking at an empty chair in front of television cameras and photographers...
...He was instantly rebuked by that mysterious body called the Farclandia (as the Switzerland-sized zone was soon called) had been intended as a gesture of good faith, "to lure the rebels into peace negotiations...
...This applies to both private and public property, and legitimizes extreme predatory behavior so that today it is accepted for a person to take wealth from whomever has it, including the state...
...Army General Barry McCaffrey, on a recent visit to Colombia...
...The Colombian government estimates that FARC collects $400 million a year from the drug trade, and perhaps an equal amount from other activities, mostly criminal...
...There are cases of criminals so extreme they have killed other inmates...
...You see, for years I have thought that I am the only conservative who has consistently been anti-death penalty, in fact, probably the only person I know of any persuasion who is anti-death penalty—I would only add two things to what he said: (1) someone who is pro-life cannot also logically be pro-death penalty as so many of these advocates are—in other words, it is only God's prerogative to take away the life He created...
...Drug czar McCaffrey, formerly commander of the American military forces in Latin America—the two roles may not be entirely distinct in his mind—decided that enough was enough at that point...
...official told the Washington Post...
...On national television that night, Clinton said: "We do not believe your conflict has a military solution " But 60 armored helicopters would soon be on their way, along with herbicides to defoliate the coca fields, and military advisers to train new army battalions: Plan Colombia...
...MISSING INGREDIENT FOUND Tyrrell's anti-capital punishment essay and those awful cartoons made me look again to make sure I wasn't reading the New Yorker...
...One of the few to speak sensibly on the subject, he was defeated for reelection five months later...
...Coca leaf requires little soil preparation, and in the tropics several crops a year can be harvested...
...Nor is it Yankee imperialism...
...One additional point to be made is that everyone needs to read Manchester's magnificent work on Churchill, The Last Lion...
...At $30,000 per prisoner, the taxpayers of Illinois were therefore paying $270 million a year "because of what is growing in Putumayo Province...
...As has been amply testified to here on the floor today, Colombia is in a crisis that includes a flourishing drug trade emanating from that country...
...But when the president flew south for opening peace talks in the largest town in Farclandia, a few weeks later, according to the New York Times, "Mr...
...international community" and could not even secure a visa to visit the United States...
...Marulanda delivered a calculated snub by failing to appear, sending subalterns instead and leaving Mr...
...we are just helping some other country solve its problems...
...It enjoys a working relationship with the president of Colombia, a former television journalist by the name of Andres Pastrana, who was elected in 1998...
...Mitch McConnell of Kentucky: "My good friend from Connecticut has made a good case for a home state product, the Black Hawk helicopter...
...The seven bodyguards around Pastrana's children impressed him...
...That is "what has constantly happened in the past," he added...
...The "lack of legal protection" obliges the growers of drug crops "to band together to defend their assets, or call on traffickers to defend them," de Soto added...
...Some took to the hills in 1964, at the time of Che Guevara...
...RET's article did not persuade me in any way to even consider his fledgling thoughts and feelings on this issue...
...I never thought humor could be drawn from a tyrannical madman, but Tyrrell did just that...
...DONALD WARD, WALNUT, CALIFORNIA BOOK TALK When I subscribed to TAS over seven years ago, one section that I immediately enjoyed was the book reviews...
...The general insecurity of property in Latin America has also played a role...
...Land for peace...
...The head guerrilla is Manuel Marulanda, aged 70, and under him are commandantes galore...
...In the Andean foothills, poppies also flourish...
...Their weapons are seized from government forces, sometimes bought in black markets...
...Lieberman:"I rise to support the amendment offered by my friend and colleague from Connecticut...
...There is strict gun control in Farclandia, free birth control, "dry" laws against after-hours drinking, stern lectures for merchants tempted to raise prices...
...What I am concerned about, as chairman of this subcommittee, is that even U.S...
...We have not had any kind of national debate," said Slade Gorton of Washington...
...Like the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, they forcibly recruit teenagers, and profit personally from military victory...
...I would probably be making the same speech if I were from Connecticut...
...But the reality of the situation is that capital punishment exists for a more basic reason than mere "justice" or "retribution...
...and (2) our government is infected throughout with morally defective individuals, many of whom have the lawful ability to make a death sentence happen...
...Merely that it be an option...
...Colombia," and of the Black Hawk's superior cruising speed, passenger capacity, range, payload, versatility, and survivability...
...But isn't that almost always the way we begin an adventure of this nature, with pious declarations that our participation is limited...
...Pastrana withdrew all government forces from an area larger than Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island combined, and more or less let the guerrillas run their own show...
...Stein cares for others and his comments concerning the low pay of military personnel were greatly appreciated...
...It is a wonderful thing to be able to discuss CORRESPONDENCE the pros and cons about capital punishment as you jet from your relatively safe home to your relatively safe office in your relatively safe world...
...If RET has decided to undertake some sort of do-gooder crusade, I wish he would at least do so for crime victims—not even given honorable mention in his article...
...it is sold with labels warning users "not to apply this product in a way that will contact workers or other persons, either directly or through drift...
...No one suggested that that cost could be avoided by legalizing a thimbleful of cocaine...
...Some said this was naïve, but who could blame the man...
...As long as the farmers remain illegal landowners [because there is no legal framework for property rights], short-term cash crops, like coca and opium poppies, remain their only alternative," Hernando de Soto writes in his new book, The Mystery of Capital "For small farmers in some areas of the developing world, money advanced by drug traffickers is practically the only credit available, and because their property arrangements appear in no official system, law enforcement cannot even find them, never mind work out an enforceable crop substitution agreement...
...Capital punishment is a crude but effective way of assuring society that a particular heinous felon will never have the opportunity to maim, rape, or kill again...
...But in other respects they are up to date...
...The largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, 17,000 strong, is known by its Spanish-language acronym, FARC...
...BY WILLIAM BOOT Four thousand five hundred policemen were on hand to protect President Clinton last August, in the "secure oasis" of Cartagena, Colombia...
...Colombian farmers have become the world's most productive growers of coca leaf...
...Why should we have our government descending to the behavior of the absolute lowest of our society...
...There are cases here in Florida and other states where death-sentenced offenders and lifers escaped and went on criminal rampages resulting in the death of more innocent people...
...DAVID W. HESTER, MORRIS, ALABAMA 24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ¦ March 2001...
...It is intolerable, immoral, and highly uncivilized that such a state of affairs should exist...
...MARTIN GREGOR, BARKHAMSTED, CONN...
...Family and property disputes are mediated in small claims courts held under military tents...
...Aid dollars are raining down on the country, along with the herbicide Roundup, produced by Monsanto...
...Large parts of the country are said to be "government-tree," a vacuum abhorred by Congress...
...But the next Polly Klauss or the next Texas cop will thank you...
...McConnell: "The senator from Connecticut has done his usual articulate job of arguing for a home state interest...
...JAMES J. WHITE, RAPHINE, VIRGINIA I've been subscribing to, reading, and saving The American Spectator for more than 25 years and have always had a nagging feeling that something was missing...
...The National Review College Guide, America's Top Liberal Arts Schools A "CURRICULUM VIRTUALLY UNPARALLELED for providing students with a rigorous liberal arts education...
...The February issue showed me that what was missing were cartoons...
...He had already been kidnapped once, in the admittedly risky pursuit of running for mayor of Bogota...
...This is a guy that is the real deal," said Biden...
...NORMAN CAMPBELL, MARSHFIELD, MASS...
...Being responsible for a society is a tough job and sometimes you will have to do things that may fly in the face of your personal beliefs...
...Over the years, I have learned as much from them as I have from the outstanding articles...
...units don't have Black Hawks yet and will have to wait while these are sent to Colombia...
...Dodd reminded the Senate of the "explosion of cocaine production in The "right-wing death squads" have since gone into the more profitable business of protecting and "taxing" coca...
...Coca production, down elsewhere as a result of American pressure, has in recent years soared in Colombia...
...High-school graduates are actually forbidden to participate in combat...
...Violent protests rocked the American embassy in Bogota, and three banks were bombed...
...The piece was well-written (as all of his are), intelligent, and downright funny...
...Leftist influence since the 1960s has undermined all institutions, including the law...
...It is "totally safe," said drug czar and U.S...
...I am repulsed not so much by RET's failure to support capital punishment as I am by the weakness of his facts, arguments, and conclusions...
...Disregard any suggestions from anal-retentive types who might suggest that TAS now looks more like the New Yorker (the New Yorker should be so lucky...
...Colombia's crisis "is different than any crisis that any country has ever faced in the history of the world" said Sen...
...You forgot your intellectual property...
...there is a limitation of no more than 250 American military personnel to accompany the equipment we will be selling to Colombia...
...Many medical practitioners will not accept TRICARE because it pays a lesser percentage than Medicare, payments are late, and claims processing is a study in red tape...
...Unemployment rate: 20 percent...
...That would render powerless the $300 million in Plan Colombia for farmers who switch to legal crops...
...The cocaine is increasingly said to be "pharmaceutical grade...
...We should "step up to" our responsibilities, "fulfill" our commitments...
...That is the point of capital punishment...
...MICHAEL BLANCHARD, CICERO, ILLINOIS DON'T ASK, DON'T CARE In the February issue, Mr...
...The genius of the piece was his effort to tie it in with recent events concerning our former Fearless Leader, e.g., Boy Clinton...
...This is not Vietnam," he said...
...Pastrana cannot run for reelection...
...Or should we...
...Murder rate: ten times that of the United States...
...The question is, he added: "Will we replace them...
...But deals were made in conference, and in the end 16 new Black Hawks were appropriated and sent on their way...
...Dodd's amendment was defeated 47 to 51...
...Their ten-point plan has advocated a more just distribution of land...
...Colombia is more than twice the size of Texas...
...The young men and women in the service know how we who served before them have been treated—it is one of the reasons the military services are having a difficult time retaining personnel...
...A remote storekeeper near the border with 20 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ¦ March 2001 Ecuador shrewdly predicted that "in two years he will go to Harvard as a professor...
...Coca farmers in poor regions have been able to earn several thousand dollars a year from the crop...
...DAVID W. HESTER, MORRIS, ALABAMA 24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ¦ March 2001ppreciate them...
...we in the heart of Dixie sure appreciate them...
...The Black Hawk is not made in Kentucky, the Huey is not made in Kentucky...
...Black Hawks cost $12 million each, and over $1,200 an hour to operate...
...DeWine of Ohio...
...One consequence is that peasants are discouraged from switching over to higher-valued, legal crops, such as coffee or pineapple, that require more capital investment and longer time horizons than coca...
...The key to understanding the drug war in Latin America is the symbiotic relationship between peasant growers and their "guerrilla" protectors...
...it is surely one of the most rigorous curriculums of any school in the country...
...Pastrana has chosen a more sophisticated course...
...Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Choosing The Right College: The Whole Truth About America's 100 Top Schools One of the nation's BEST VALUE'S in terms of quality and cost - U.S...
...The guerrillas use laptops at road blocks to check the bank accounts of drivers, allowing them to kidnap the richest...
...Andres Pastrana was elected as a "peace candidate," at one point being photographed with Marulanda himself, in the Colombian equivalent of a White House lawn photo-op...
...The Clinton Administration had requested 30 Black Hawks, but, in the Senate, the nod had gone to Textron's much less expensive Huey II...
...Population: 40 million...
...He started a "peace process" with the guerrillas...
...The landowners developed protectors of their own, known as "paramilitaries," occasionally as "right-wing death squads...
...Dodd...
...He wondered how long it would be before the first news story reported that the equipment was "showing up in the hands of the rebels, by capture or for that matter by purchase...
...He had already been kidnapped once, in the admittedly risky pursuit of running for mayor of Bogota...
...Since then, the negotiations have repeatedly stalled, with the FARC breaking off discussions every time the government refuses to bend to one of its demands...
...Keep on churning out the reviews...
...The commandantes think their adversary is still United Fruit, the Boston company that went out of business long ago...
...In the summer of 1999, the guerrillas launched a nationwide offensive that brought them within striking distance of Bogota...
...Now, as a police detective with a decade under my belt, I can say I am for the death penalty only if guilt is beyond doubt...
...The necessary legislation made its way through Congress last summer...
...But according to a Pentagon review of the incident, the loss was a guerrilla kill, pure and simple...
...When that level is reached, and the offender is so extreme that we know if he lives he will harm again, then it's time to pull the switch, hit the plunger, drop the gallows door, and end it...
...I love the cartoons and look forward to more of them...
...Joe Biden spent two full days with the President of Colombia— "ended up actually going with him on his Easter vacation by accident...
...My colleague [Joseph Lieberman] and I from Connecticut represent a division of United Technologies known as Sikorsky Aircraft, which produces Black Hawk helicopters," said Sen...
...However, in the February 2001 issue, Tyrrell's review of Burleigh's and Kershaw's books on Adolf Hitler was an absolute pleasure to read...
...McConnell prevailed...
...I grant you Sen...
...They tend to be dressed better, trained better, paid better and armed better than the Colombian army," a senior U.S...
...Volume two describes his lonely struggle in the wilderness, and his triumphant vindication...
...But they, too, have since gone into the more profitable, and victimless, business of protecting and "taxing" coca...
...The official Colombian military, 100,000-strong on paper, cannot be relied upon to leave the barracks...
...Poor people in Colombia, as in most other parts of Latin America, do not enjoy secure property rights, but the guerrillas protect their property in exchange for "taxing" the crop...
...Colombia furnishes the raw material for 80 percent of the worlds cocaine supply, and perhaps half the heroin...
...The illegality of the crop shelters both guerrillas and peasants from the competition of more efficient producers elsewhere in the world...
...Announcing a $1.3 billion American plan to eradicate the country's most valuable crop, the president sounded an unavoidably defensive note...
...In every defense of "Plan Colombia" we are reminded that the country is Latin America's "oldest continuous democracy") Pastrano's predecessor, Ernesto Samper, took the path of least resistance— six million dollars in "campaign contributions" from the traffickers...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ¦ March 2001 21 DEATH PENALTY BE NOT PROUD Your anti-capital punishment position ("Capital Brutality" by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., February 2001) is off-mark...
...Most people do not realize that this enlisted man in all probability faces a nightmare paying the hospital bill through the medical program (TRICARE) that the government contracts for military personnel to use when military medical facilities are not available...
...Obviously, I won't be renewing my subscription...
...This is a question of standing up for our children," said Majority Leader Trent Lott...
...Ben Stein tells of the military enlisted man in the hospital with his son who has cancer...
Vol. 34 • March 2001 • No. 2
