#2677: drug reports : Gill comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Mark Gill <markgill@midwest.net>

have noted several posts re drug situation in Haiti....some simply
forward reports that are made public and some respond by saying the drug
problem is due to the US, etc....

the real question, it seems to me is as follows:  (a) the US has tried
to curb drugs flowing from Haiti for something like 20 years and (b) we
note a marked increase in these efforts....thus, the question is "why
now"?

i think one has to consider that the US military is in process of
rethinking its role and one can read many articles on this
subject....the military is responding to the end of the "cold war" and
since it is a bureaucracy, its main purpose is survival....along with
the defence industry which is large....

plus, the civilian authorities are rethinking the role of the military
also....

point - one can expect an increasing amount of publicity about drugs
both in the islands and central/south america....and, one can expect a
"buildup" of data which would provide goverhment "justification" for
intervening on some level....

of course, this can be called "hegemonic", or "imperialistic" and this
would be correct....however, in the world of "realpolitik", the question
is whether those with less power can prevent such from happening....the
one with hegemony usually has many ways of insuring compliance......

i think we will see more of this during the next 10 years on the part of
the US in regards its southern neighbors....

m.gill