Whack-a-mole: The Never-Ending War on Drugs

A fairly detailed review of how U.S. government policy makers are looking at the expansion of the drug war into Central America and the Caribbean. The Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. accurately calls this strategy a game of Whack-a-Mole. 


Of course, one major assumption underlies the strategy. Only as long as the U.S., with the U.N., maintains the prohibition of drug sales and use will the world, "always have drug smuggling," and the game of Whack-a-Mole will go on forever. And it isn't moles, but the nations of Latin America and their people that are being "whacked."

The Never-Ending War on Drugs - Newsweek: "'You’ll always have drug smuggling in this world,' a senior State Department official told NEWSWEEK. 'The question is how do you make that manageable so it doesn’t threaten the state?' The change is promising, but the magnitude of the problem, coupled with the reality that drug traffickers are often able to stay one step ahead of authorities, means that what was once referred to as a drug war—however necessary—is not likely to end any time soon. As Steve Wetzel, the deputy director of strategy, policy and plans for the U.S. Southern Command put it: 'I’m not sure anyone … can tell you how long this can go on.'

.... Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, says “Mexico’s successes since a year and a half ago … [are] impacting national security for a host of countries,” “This is in many ways … playing Whack-a-Mole.”" Oct. 29, 2010