INDEX
part 1 of article
part 2 of article

WAR OR PSEUDO-WAR? footnotes

by Joseph Miranda

1. George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four." New York: Signet Books, 1960, p. 164.
2. Any number of dates can be designated as the beginning of the "war on drugs." The year 1986 saw a quantum leap forward in government and media attention on drugs and, indeed, the term "war on drugs" was first popularized during the Reagan administration (1981-89). Previously, the Nixon administration attempted to politicize drug prohibition and launched several largescale campaigns against drugs, none of which had any long term effect (see, for example, Edward Jay Epstein's "Agency of Fear," London: Verso, 1990). And, of course, there is a history of drug prohibition in the United States going back into the 19th century. President George Bush's nationally televised speech on drugs, 5 September 1989, marks a major turning point because this made drug enforcement a primary focus for American national policy. Spending for the "war on drugs" has progressively increased since then ($1.5 billion in 1981, $2.3 billion in 1986, $13.3 billion in 1995).
3. Carl von Clausewitz, "On War." New York: Penguin Books, 1981. pp.101-109.
4. "National Drug Policy Board Strategy Plans," Hearings Before the Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, House of Representatives, April 14, 1988, p.23.
5. "Review of International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: Mid Year Update," Hearings before the Commission on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Second Session, October 7, 1987, p. 339.
6. More recently, U.S. Congressional leaders have moved the target date for "victory" in the "war on drugs" back to the year 2001.
7. "Review of the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: Mid Year Update, Second Session, pp. 2-24.
8. One reason is that many drugs, such as cannabis, have positive uses. Francis L. Young, "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition, Opinion and Recommended Ruling, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision of Administrative Law Judge, Docket No. 86-22," Drug Enforcement Administration document dated September 6 1988.
9. "Study Indicates Drug Use Among Teens Rising," Los Angeles Daily News, April 14, 1993. p. 1.
10. See, for example, Sir Robert Thompson, "Revolutionary Warfare in World Strategy," New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1970, for an analysis of the problems of fighting an unconventional foe.
11. Orwell. The discussion of the state's permanent war strategy is found on pages 152-164 of the above edition of "Nineteen Eighty-Four."
12. James Burnham, "The Machiavellians, Defenders of Freedom," Washington DC: Gateway Editions, 1987. In his classic work on political theory, Burnham elaborates on how one must determine the true political objectives of a government in order to understand its policies. Burnham was a major influence on Orwell.
13. The 1996 U.S. presidential elections saw both major party candidates engaged in much posturing about how "tough" they would get on drugs.
14. Stuart Reges, "I Am A Casualty of the War on Drugs," Liberty magazine, July 1991, pp. 38-40.
15. "Coalition Fights to Legalize Use of Peyote for Indians," The Washington Times, August 22, 1992, p. B4. More recently, the right of certain American Indian groups to use ceremonial drugs has been restored.
16. In fiscal year 1991, the Drug Enforcement Administration made 18,946 domestic seizures of non-drug property, valued at approximately $956 million. "Drugs & Crime Data. Fact Sheet: Drug Data Summary," U. S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 1991, p. 2. It is interesting to note that one of the main rationales for drug prohibition is the claim that drug addicts steal to support their habit; yet drug enforcement agencies seem to have little moral problem with their own seizures of other peoples' property. See also footnote 36, below.
1) Jacob Sallum, "A Vial Crime," Reason magazine, May 1995.
18 See the Forfeiture Endangers American Rights web site, www.fear.org.
19 Gary S. Green, "Occupational Crime," Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1997, p. 166.
20 For example, Robert Daley, in his book "Prince of the City," describes how officers in New York City's elite Special Investigative Unit began by stealing drug traffickers' money, then went on to commit a series of increasingly corrupt activities. Robert Daley, "Prince of the City," Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978.
21. Lt. Colonel Charles J. Dunlap, jr., "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012," Parameters (the magazine of the U.S. Army War College), Winter 1992-93, pp. 2-20. For another example, see Hance H. Hamilton, "The Drug War Flunks," in Proceedings (the magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute), February 1993.
22. Adam Starchild, "U.S. Imports Criminals to Fill Domestic Shortage," Liberty magazine, November 1989, p. 25.
23. Amnesty International web site, http://www.amnesty.org; Colombia Support Net web site, http://www.csn.igc.org.
24. Thompson.
25. Such as New York City police officer Ed Burn, assassinated by drug traffickers.
26. Cynthia Cotts, "Hard Sell in the Drug War," The Nation magazine, March 9, 1992, pp. 300-302. There has been much misinformation spread in the interests of the drug war. For example, politicians and the media frequently allude to "crack babies," a supposed epidemic of children who were physically or mentally impaired by their mothers' use of cocaine during pregnancy. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse ("NIDA Notes," January/February 1992) the "crack babies" are largely a myth; the majority of such children show no difference in development compared to non-exposed children. Most of the problems involved with these children were caused by a combination of malnutrition, alcohol abuse, and lack of prenatal care on the part of the mothers (in other words, the standard pathologies of the underclass). In effect, the persecution of "crack mothers" is the government not only blaming the victims of unequal economic and social policies, it is also the government jailing them. It will be interesting to see as more Americans become impoverished due to the cutbacks in welfare and corporate downsizing if the government will use similar laws to jail more of the disenfranchised.
27. In 1993, the Drug Abuse Warning Network reported 8,541 drug abuse related deaths to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (based on incomplete data). Opponents of drug prohibition frequently compare this to the estimated 350,000+ deaths caused annually by tobacco, and 150,000 by alcohol. This is not entirely accurate, as the drug abuse related deaths usually include only drug related emergency crises, not long term deaths as do the tobacco and alcohol statistics. On the other hand, 20% of the 8,541 drug related deaths were suicides (and, presumably, would have occurred anyway with the deceased using some other means than drugs), 40% were in combination with alcohol (a legal drug), and an uncertain number due to external factors, such as impure substances used to dilute illegal drugs. "Annual Medical Examiner Data 1991," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, DHHS Publication No. (ADM) 92-1956, 1992. p. iii.
28. For example, the 26 April 1993 issue of U.S. News & World Report magazine contains an editorial "Fighting the Right Drug War" on page 74, while running advertisements for Heineken beer, Johnnie Walker whiskey, and an individual medication tracking system.
29. There are various estimates of the number of workers killed/injured due to management malfeasance. Something like 10,000 Americans are killed annually due to industrial accidents, and another 100,000 die from occupation related diseases. About 45% of these deaths are due to managerial violations of the law. James William Coleman, "The Criminal Elite," New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998, p.10. See also Russell Mokhiber's "Corporate Crime and Violence," San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988.
30. For example, in one episode of the television documentary series "American Detective," Oregon detectives are shown arresting a narcotics trafficker and lecturing a child on the dangers of drugs; later in the same episode, the same officers are shown celebrating by drinking alcohol.
31. Just as the telescreens in Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" continually announce endless victories in Oceania's war against Eurasia and Eastasia.
32. See my online article, "The Military and the War on Drugs," on the Drug Reform Coordination Network web site, http://www.drcnet.org, for a more complete analysis of the involvement of the United States military in the war on drugs.
33. On 2 October 1992, a federal-led drug enforcement task force raided the house of Mr. Donald Scott of Ventura California in a marijuana growing investigation (apparently, the task force wanted to confiscate his considerable property holdings under asset forfeiture laws). The task force failed to find any illicit substances and, in an ensuing confrontation with Mr. Scott, shot him to death. The Ventura County District Attorney's office later declared the raid illegal. "A Violent Confrontation Ends Man's Colorful Life," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1992, p. A3.
34. "Review of International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: Mid Year Update," Hearings Before the Commission on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, First Session, October 7, 1987, p.75.
35. "Drugs & Crime Data. Fact Sheet: Drug Data Summary" pp. 3-7.
36. Gregory A. Austin, "Drugs and Crime," Rockville MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1976. More recently, the U.S. Department of Justice's study, "Psychoactive Substances and Violence," came to a similar conclusion (Jeffrey A. Roth, Research in Brief, US Department of Justice, February 1994). See also Epstein's "Agency of Fear," pp. 178-182 for one of the origins of the myth that drugs cause the majority of crime in America. Epstein blames President Richard Nixon for a propaganda campaign blaming drug addicts for crime in America so as to have an excuse for increased federal police powers.
37. Coleman presents an estimate of corporate crime costing $250 billion in antitrust violations alone, compared to $13.3 billion in conventional crime. There is perhaps $200 billion lost due to various types of corporate/white collar fraud and violations of various environmental, safety and labor laws. Medical fraud costs an estimated $100 billion a year. The exact amount lost due to corporate/white collar crime is difficult to estimate because of its clandestine nature and the fact that relatively few law enforcement resources are directed against it. Coleman, p. 10.
38. Approximately 60% of federal prisoners are drug offenders. 30% of state prisoners are drug offenders. Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Connections Compendium," the Sentencing Project, 918 F Street NW, Washington DC 20004.
39. Significantly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has a primary responsibility for investigating corporate/white collar crime, has shifted some of its operations away from white collar crime/civil rights violations and towards drug enforcement. David Burnham, "The F.B.I.," The Nation magazine, August 11/18, 1997, pp. 11-24.
40. U.S. Department of Justice, "Uniform Crime Reports," Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. The 1990s have seen about 11,000,000 arrests annually. Approximately 600,000 are for FBI Crime Index Violent Crimes (murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault); 1,700,000 were for Property Crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson). Fraud is not considered a Crime Index crime.
41. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, "The Twelve Caesars," Harmondsworth, England, Penguin Books, 1973, p. 172.
42. Colonel Joseph Bergantz, "Military Support of the National Drug Control Strategy," Military Review magazine, June 1992, pp.67-72, recommends, among other things, that the U.S. armed forces coordinate intelligence operations (presumably including domestic intelligence) and provide correctional facilities (i.e., detention camps) for American citizens.
43. Again, see Orwell's analysis of the state's permanent war strategy as a tool for repression.
44. Stephen Duncan, "Counterdrug Assault: Much Done, Much to Do," Defense magazine, May/June 1992. The article announces various tactical victories won in the war on drugs without any relation to the deteriorating strategic situation.
45. Scott French, "Bum Trip in Bolivia," Soldier of Fortune magazine, August 1988, pp. 28-35. French provides a front line view of how the U.S. "drug war" strategy is failing due to alienation of the peasant sector.
46. Auberon Waugh, "Some Reasons for Wanting a Democratic Victory," The Spectator magazine, July 25, 1992, p.8. This article describes the illegal kidnapping of a foreign citizen by DEA agents.
47. Colonel William W. Mendel, "Illusive Victory: from Blast Furnace to Green Sweep," Military Review magazine, December 1992, pp. 82-85.
48. This can be seen by examining the editorials appearing the the National Rifle Association's official magazine, "The American Rifleman," (National Rifle Association, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030).
49. An issue raised quite frequently by supporters of a war on drugs is that the government is not doing enough to win. As demonstrated at the beginning of this article, the numbers of troops, weapons and equipment required to even begin to fight a "real" war on drugs are far beyond the capabilities of the United States to mobilize. For example, a 1994 U.S. Government Accounting Report, "International Efforts in Central America Have Had Little Impact on the Flow of Drugs," has stated that drug interdiction efforts have been largely ineffective (a copy of this report can be found at www.druglibrary.org/schaffer). See also Peter Reuter, "Sealing the Borders," Santa Monica: the Rand Corporation, 1988. These reports confirm the general failure of current drug war policies on the military level. Nonetheless, the pursuit of the pseudo-war on drugs has paid numerous political dividends to American government, corporate and law enforcement leaders.
50. It is interesting to speculate on what would happen were the "war on drugs" to come to an end (either by making America "drug free" or by decriminalization). Would a new scapegoat be found for American social problems, and would a new pseudo-war be launched against some new target?

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