The real dope on Clinton's Columbian plan

Business operates on the basis of supply and demand. It�s even more profitable if a supplier can create the demand and then feed those who crave the product. But if the demand is killed, you eliminate the need for the product.

In that context, President Clinton�s brief visit to the South American country of Colombia to deliver a $1.3 billion down payment on a more than $7.5 billion promise was wrong-headed, if the purpose of the pre-Christmas cash bonanza was to kill the drug trade.

The 12 heads of state of South American countries meeting for the first time saw through the so-called "Colombia Plan" for the potential dangers that Mr. Clinton�s meddling contains. In a joint declaration at the end of the two-day meeting in Brazil, the heads of state rejected the use of military means to weaken the cocaine cartels, the opposition guerrillas or the death squads that have been linked to the Colombia�s own military.

The presidents fully support "the peace process, which implies negotiations," said Chile�s President Ricardo Lagos, and which is therefore "distinct from the problem of narcotics trafficking."

Looming over the discussions is what one South American president and legislators in the U.S. Congress describe as "the Vietnamization of the entire Amazon region." South American presidents are concerned that the spread of the conflict might destroy their economies and ecologies while U.S. policy-makers fear body bags with U.S. soldiers being returned from south of the border.

Indeed, Colombia is sorely in need of a peaceful resolution to the years of indiscriminate killings of civilians and political executions. But will U.S. money and military aid solve a problem that started with peasant farmers and Colombian drug lords realizing they can make more money growing coca-leaves than crops to feed the people of their countries? President Clinton even acknowledged to the worried South American presidents that if the Colombia Plan is successful, then it would likely "cause the problem to spill over the borders" into neighboring countries. But, don�t worry, he said, the U.S. is willing to provide "a substantial amount of money to help other countries deal with those problems at the border when they start."

Also, consider that of the $1.3 billion delivered by Mr. Clinton, 82 percent of the money will be spent on military assistance. A significant portion of $466 million to be spent to increase the capability to intercept shipments of drugs will be spent to purchase 63 helicopters manufactured by two U.S. firms.

[That proposal sounds awfully similar to U.S. aid plans for southern Africa to fight AIDS, but the money must be used to purchase U.S. pharmaceuticals.]

In addition, to make Colombia eligible for the aid, Mr. Clinton overrode "for national security reasons," six human rights conditions that the Senate had attached to the aid bill.

Where is the logic in Mr. Clinton�s Colombia Plan? Is this just an election-year facade being dealt to the public to make us believe that the Clinton-Gore administration is tough on drugs.

If so, why not spend the money to kill the demand? According to California Republican Congressman Tom Campbell, there are 3.6 million drug addicts going untreated right here in the United States. He rightfully added that "it makes no sense" to spend the billions of dollars in Colombia to fuel military sales for U.S. firms when it�s much more cost-effective to implement good drug treatment programs, and the results are better.

When you boil it all down to the bottom line, Mr. Clinton�s drug policy and the government�s internal drug war policies are driven by corporate interests whose only desire is to make money, not save lives.

That�s why while the Colombian military is being bankrolled by U.S. aid dollars, the borders remain wide open for shiploads of cocaine and heroin to enter the country (a few ships are stopped now and then for photo-ops of "drugs seized"). Furthermore, the Black and Brown communities are targeted for drug arrests and denied treatment in order to fill the beds of the prison hotels being built across the country that now are on the stock market and where American products are now manufactured.

It�s that simple.