4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, Aug. 2, 2004 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY4 STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NIAMH SLEVIN SUHAEL MOMIN Editor in Chief Editorial Page Editor Strong yetwongon drugs SAM SINGER TARE TTwo 0 2001, at a0 drug rehabili- tation center in Vien- na, Virginia, President George W Bush deli- cately briefed an engaged crowd of recovering drug addicts and health workers on the tenants of the U.S. drug enforcement policy. Citing the critical role that treatment facilities and educational campaigns play in the Administration's anti-drug efforts, the President explained, "But the best ways to affect supply is to reduce demand for drugs. The best way to impact supply of drugs coming into Amer- ica is to convince our fellow citizens not to use drugs in the first place." Oddly enough, no more than two months earlier, the President added $550 million to a military aid package called "Plan Colombia," one of the most hope- less and negligent extensions of the Amer- ican "war on drugs" in the policy's history. Plan Colombia is a symptom of the gov- ernment's misguided focus on disrupting the supply side of the illicit narcotics trade - the same supply side that President Bush downplayed to the enthused specta- tors in the Virginia rehab center. The $2 billion aid bundle equips and trains the Colombian military in exchange for its unyielding cooperation with U.S. efforts to eradicate the nation's clandestine cocaine industry. On a daily basis Army Green Berets can be seen instructing nascent Colombian counterinsurgency bat- talions while overhead, U.S. licensed Apaches fly cover for pesticide-laden spray planes. These planes blanket sus- pected areas of coca production with a highly concentrated formula of Roundup, a common household weed killer. Being that they are dispensed relatively indis- criminately, these potent herbicides often chance upon plots of legal crops, rural farming villages and natural ecological zones. As a result, the U.S.-backed Colom- bian military has dealt itself the country's worst humanitarian crisis of the century, as food and water supplies are poisoned, farming villages wiped out and thousands upon thousands displaced. U.S. organized aerial spraying opera- tions are mostly confined to the south, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftist rebel organization, con- trol much of the territory. Whether inad- vertently or intentionally, by aiding the Uribe Administration and rightwing para- military groups in their effort to crush FARC guerrillas, Plan Colombia has made the United States a major player in the four decade long Colombian civil war. And as one may deduce, the earsplitting cry of a U.S.-branded Hellfire missile hardly serves to pacify the FARC rebellion. To the contrary, U.S. military presence has roused anti-imperialist sentiments - only further augmenting the rank and file of the violent insurgency. After more than three years in exis- tence, the strategy has proven disastrous. Not only has the policy failed to curtail cocaine production, but it has continued at the cost of Colombia's fragile jungle ecosystems and U.S. credibility in the Andes region. But most significantly, Plan Colombia demonstrates a disturbing conti- nuity in the U.S's execution of the war on drugs, as anti-narcotic czars and their con- servative counterparts at home insist on broadening the multi-billion dollar crusade to halt the proliferation of narcotics at their source -the foreign manufacturer. Fighting the supply-side of a drug war is like squeezing a balloon - outside pressure will always have a displacing effect, never a popping one. As long as production premiums for illicit narcotics remain at their astronomical rates, the incentive to manufacture them will subsist. Supply responds to demand, not the other way around. None of this is news to the Drug Enforcement Agency. U.S. led cocaine interdiction campaigns in Bolivia and Peru in the '80s simply transferred the market to Colombia. And when Escobar and his Medellin cartel were bulldozed in the early '90s, narcotrafficking didn't decline, it was simply decentralized. Like- wise, Plan Colombia, despite having razed thousands of square acres of coca crops, has had minimal success in altering the street value of cocaine in the United States and Europe. These patterns don't suggest a drug enforcement problem - they sug- gest an economic problem. As long as demand in the Western developed nations continues to soar, policies like Plan * Colombia will remain exercises in futility. In speaking on behalf of the deluded audi- ence at the drug rehabilitation center in Vienna, Va., I must say, "Mr. President, put your money where your mouth is." Singercan be reached at singers@umich.edu. European graffiti BONNIE KELLMAN A B NiT DGE 6 Eeryday on my way to c lass ere in Sala- manca, Spain, I pass through a question- able-looking alleyway. The apartment build- ing on the right always looks half- deserted, and the walkway is littered with trash. As in any city back home, though, what really makes the alley threatening is the original artwork sprayed on the walls of the apartment building. Unlike its American counterpart, however, Spanish graffiti has strong politi- cal undertones. Instead of one gang trying to intimidate its rivals with a not-quite- impressive collection of swear words, the people who are responsible for the graffiti in Spain are trying to achieve definite socio-political objectives. "Toda victoria militar es una derrota social" (All military victories are social defeats), one writer proclaims. Not only that, but they encour- age their readers to become responsible citizens by exercising their right to vote. "No les votos botales" (Don't throw your votes away), one says. "Tus votos - ellos deciden" (Your votes - they decide). Granted, Salamanca is a university town, and therefore likely to be more intel- lectual and politically aware than the aver- age Spanish city. Still, I've noticed political graffiti in several other European countries, such as France and Italy. It says something about the political awareness of a country when even the rebellious youth, traditionally the most apathetic segment of society back in the United States, has strong political views. And if there's one thing Europeans feel strongly about, it's Americans. Although I still don't know enough Spanish to have complex political debates with the locals, I have had some interesting conversations with other English speakers. One night in particular stands out in my mind. While I was having dinner in Madrid's Plaza Mayor with a few other University stu- dents, two Englishmen spontaneously decided to join us on the pretext that our conversation was more interesting than theirs. They then proceeded to give us a long and detailed explanation on exactly why America (and Ameri- cans in general) totally suck. Their complaints were the usual ones. Like most Europeans, they spent a good amount of time criticizing America's involvement in Iraq. Their most inter- esting claims, however, concerned the characteristics of the average Ameri- can, who they said to be selfish, misin- formed and ignorant about the world. Despite the Englishmen's generaliza- tions and simplifications, it was hard to argue with them. There is something inherently self-centered about Americans' apathy concerning the rest of the world. Coverage of foreign events has always been scarce in American media. Accord- ing to Towson University, 80 percent of United States citizens don't own a pass- port, much less travel abroad. Further- more, despite only comprising 5 percent of the global population, Americans still manage to consume 30 percent of the world's natural resources (Oracle's ThinkQuest). Even in the University's study abroad program, a group supposedly dedicated to learning about and appreciat- ing a new culture, the students gleefully called the United States "the best country in the world" when they gathered in the Plaza Mayor on the Fourth of July. Politics and social issues just aren't something that keeps many Americans up late at night, inspiring them to deface pub- lic property with spray-painted expres- sions oftheir passion. Although places like Ann Arbor might be the exception, I doubt I'll ever find much political graffiti in the United States. After all, living in America, an ocean away from all the other countries in the world besides Canada and Mexico, it's easy to began to think that we're the only ones out there, that our country is all there isto the world. During that night in Madrid, howev- er, I felt differently. Suddenly, it was so obvious that we are not alone. Surpris- ing enough, we're sharing this planet with so many other people. There's nothing like traveling to make you actu- ally care about history and politics, the stories of our home. Kellman can be reached at bonkell@umich.edu.