Word: planned
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Bennett's plan is part of a broader Andean initiative that would expand economic and military aid not only to Peru -- source of more than half of the world's coca -- but also to Bolivia and Colombia. That initiative, in turn, is part of an overall antidrug plan that calls for stiffer penalties against casual users, such as loss of a driver's license or of federal student loans. Already the plan is raising questions in Congress and even parts of the Administration. As the battle against drugs escalates, so will the complicating side effects, particularly in U.S. foreign policy...
...first complication is cost. Bennett proposes to increase antidrug expenditures about $1 billion, with $100 million to $270 million going into a superfund to finance the Andean initiative. Bush last week embraced Bennett's plan in broad outline, calling it "balanced, decisive, effective and achievable." The President was vague about where he would get the money, though he spoke of "reallocation of resources," meaning shifting funds from other programs...
...military aspects of the plan, however, are stirring the most misgivings. To fulfill Bush's campaign promise to "attack drugs at the source," more and heavier U.S. weapons would be dispatched to Colombia, and more arms and men to Peru and Bolivia. In Colombia drug gangsters killed three officials last week: gunmen assassinated Senator Luis Carlos Galan, a leading presidential candidate; the Medellin provincial police chief, and a local judge. The focus of the U.S. effort, though, would be on Peru, where attempts to eradicate the coca crop have been stalled since February because of attacks by guerrillas and traffickers...
Even so, Bennett's plan has stirred qualms within the Administration. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh worries about militarizing antidrug operations abroad. Says a Justice Department official: "Law-enforcement officers are trained to extract criminals from society, to think about the rights of innocent people and to be mindful of the sovereignty of other nations. Military forces are trained to take on whatever gets in the way, to destroy the enemy...
Where U.S. geopolitical interests collide with drug policy, geopolitics usually wins. Bennett's plan may change that. After years of complaining that Washington was not serious about the drug fight, the public may soon learn the cost of fighting a full-scale war -- at home and abroad...