21 January 2014

Drug Wars- Allies and Enemies in -The Game-

While the United States has long played a controlling and interventionist role in Mexican politics, it seems to have reached new heights with Felipe Calderon's escalation of the Drug War in 2006.

Since then tens of thousands of people have died and as usual the drugs keep coming. However, the Drug War is a massive business in and of itself and it must be asked... do those in power really want it stop?

The economy of tension and exploitation is as old as the hills. But it's a game. Oil companies benefit from political tension and escalating prices, but go too far and the model breaks. We see this in many industries, finance and medicine just to name a couple. Sometimes these interests become so powerful and wealthy that the tax-payer can be induced to save them when they've thrown the dice one time too many.

We may be reaching that point in the war on drugs. It's breaking society and has already broken the social order in other countries. The liberalization of drug laws and judiciary reform threatens the profits and power of those who are benefitting from war.

There are massive corporate interests that profit from the Drug War. The fools are those engaged in the fight. They are trying to win a battle that many believe the Establishment doesn't want to end. They are killing and being killed for nothing. They are expendable pawns.

I'm reminded of the movie adaptation of Clancy's 'Clear and Present Danger' where a Columbian Cartel figure meets with a White House official and suggests a deal... help him defeat his cartel rivals and he'll ensure the American Drug War Establishment will get the public victories they need to maintain viability. The street inventory will be restricted, driving the price up... benefitting both parties.

I don't think this is a shadowy conspiracy, nor did Clancy promote Leftist worldviews of government corruption. I think this is unofficial policy, an open secret. It's implemented by the US collaborating with groups like the Sinaloa Cartel. They can't beat them, so instead they work with some of them and play them off against each other.

Some might suggest this is just a prudent tactical move even if it doesn't look very good to the public.

Others will disbelieve it entirely or ascribe these documented activities to rogue elements within the DEA and Security apparatus.... kind of like what we see in the movie. They would believe that most people in government and industry are 'good' people. There are only a few bad apples.

And finally others with even greater cynicism believe the Drug War is more or less a farce and a smokescreen and would point to US government involvement in drug activity extending back over 50 years.

What I don't doubt is that the agents on the ground and perhaps even the agents engaged in negotiations with the cartels are sincere. They really believe in what they're doing. I just happen to believe they are deceived. Unable to see the big picture, they press ahead and in their hearts believe they are fighting for a just cause.

Those that start to see the forest through the trees have two choices.... become corrupt and personally benefit from scam or get out of the game in order to maintain integrity.

Sadly, people with pensions and benefits are usually more inclined to look the other way, keep their heads down, do their time and after twenty years...walk away. Some are bitter, others spend the rest of their lives re-working the narrative in their minds in order to justify a career, a lifetime spent engaged in worthless endeavours and in some cases very destructive behaviour.

In some ways these types of people (and they fill the ranks of the military, the police departments, corporate offices and hospitals) are the problem. They are not the instigators. They are the collaborators. They see that their career choices are rooted in corrupt systems but they won't break with the system...and so it never ends. And in fact many to assuage their consciences become advocates and defenders, justifying their corruption by pointing to the faults of others. 'Everybody's doing it,' or 'If they would stop, then we could.'

Many in the financial and medical world fail to see the violence and harm done to others that their system has generated. They're two steps back and isolated. But those involved in the Drug War, those carrying arms, those working in the prisons...they know better. They can see what's happening. They have a front row seat in the drama of destroyed humanity.

These people on the front lines 'must' believe in the cause. They have to really give themselves over to the propaganda and their masters realize they have to get the public in on it too. We're barraged with images in movies and television. The news media collaborates too and does much to promote these law enforcement 'heroes'. This is necessary to keep them strong and believing in the cause.

Don't encourage them to open their eyes. Don't encourage them to develop a conscience. Then they would see the death and the waste of it all, the profiteering by the criminals, corrupt officials (on both sides of the border) and the corporate interests.

There are other lessons to be learned from all this. This is a yet another example of how the United States deals with its allies and coalition partners. The United States operates like a Mafia Don. It demands total loyalty, honour and respect but thinks nothing of throwing allies to the dogs, stealing from them and stabbing them in the back.

In the end the War on Drugs is just another power game. And like all these games it overlaps with other spheres... but the same fools are at the bottom, the same evil men at the top and it is the poor who suffer. There is plenty of fault and wickedness to go around.

What is sadder? The impoverished young men who join a cartel or become a 'mule' looking for a way out of dead-end poverty, or the middle-class white American who blindly volunteers for one of the many ranks and positions within the Drug War?

If America is a manifestation of Babylon and we wish for peace and social stability, how do we approach issues like narcotics? Sure, we want nothing to do with the stuff, but it's all around us and its prohibition has only increased its grip on society. The lessons from the 1920's have not been learned.

Why do lost people do drugs? Because they're lost. If this life is all there is...who would want to live it? It's full of hollow joys, evil and injustice. The Pollyanna's of the world can float through it and have no answers when life in a fallen world slaps them in the face.

Anyone who reflects on this life apart from Jesus Christ to my mind is either going to commit suicide or try and find some meaning in escapism.

This does not condone their actions. I raise the point because while we would like to see drugs disappear from our society at the same time what can we possibly expect from the unbeliever? Do we destroy them in order to reach them with the Gospel?

Will the clean and morally upright citizen accept their depravity before the addict at rock bottom?

What of the past...the era before drugs? Look a little closer and you'll see the past is not so rosy. The social problems leading to widespread drug use are deep and pervasive and reach back to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and the titanic shifts which took place in society and in the world economy. Urbanization and the Industrial Age destroyed old social models and foundations, changing the world more profoundly than we can even grasp.

The Christian response to this morally clear but practically complicated issue is clouded by visionary fictions of a Sacral Society and the theologically dubious myth of a Christian social order which can somehow legislate the agenda of the Kingdom.

There are many lessons here about the corrupting nature of power and a need to reflect on prohibitionism and using violence to affect morality.

Here are some pertinent links dealing with US-Cartel collaboration:



I'll even post a Bircher link:


A dissenting interpretation:


 

 

1 comment:

  1. An update on the Trump administration's approach the Latin American Drug War... another disaster in the making to be sure

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-trumps-disastrous-secret-drug-war-plans-for-central-america?source=twitter&via=mobile

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