The 50-year US war on drugs has been a total failure, with hundreds of billions of dollars flushed down the drain and our civil liberties whittled away fighting a war that cannot be won. The 20 year “war on terror” has likewise been a gigantic US government disaster: hundreds of billions wasted, civil liberties scorched,...
Read More
Assassination as Policy in Washington and How It Failed, 1990-2015
As the war on terror nears its 14th anniversary -- a war we seem to be losing, given jihadist advances in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen -- the U.S. sticks stolidly to its strategy of “high-value targeting,” our preferred euphemism for assassination. Secretary of State John Kerry has proudly cited the elimination of “fifty percent” of...
Read MoreThe Failed War on Drugs in Mexico (and the United States)
They behead people by the hundreds. They heap headless, handless bodies along roadsides as warnings to those who would resist their power. They havepenetrated the local, state, and national governments and control entire sections of the country. They provide employment and services to an impoverished public, which distrusts their actual government with its bitter record...
Read MoreCops Arrest 450 Suspects to Avenge Death of Colleague
When police use their power to carry out personal vendettas, innocent people suffer. Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies conducted a massive nationwide roundup of drug trafficking suspects this week, arresting more than a 450 people on narcotics-related charges. The sweeps, which were dubbed Operation Fallen Hero, were a response to the killing of...
Read More