U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's heralded announcement this morning in Nogales of a new border strategy that targets drug-smuggling sounds suspicious.
Like one more chapter in America's failed Drug War.
Make that the world's failed drug war. Perhaps the former Arizona governor has no time to read in her highfalutin D.C. job, but last month a 19-member, international panel concluded that drugs should be decriminalized. Here's a quote that received wide coverage:
Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to
articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the
evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not
solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot,
be won...
Oh, and all that gun smuggling? Yeah, it's a problem, but one that's not as bad as most people think, with 36 percent or fewer -- as opposed to the 90 percent figure often quoted -- of U.S. guns being found at Mexican crime scenes.
But what the heck -- the border policy hasn't exactly been a screaming success, so why not pair it with something else that's failed: Drug policy. Sure, more people -- including children -- will die in the resulting violence, but it will also help keep our nations prison administrators employed.
Here's your morning poll:
