Dear Dirty America

MICHAEL J BLAIR
Perthshire, Scotland

There was a minute’s silence here at football matches in remembrance of six British soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan this week. This takes the total of dead British servicemen and women to 403! No weasel words from our elected representatives can disguise the utter waste of life this lunatic adventure has cost.

Back in 2001, just after 9/11, NATO forces headed by British and American troops went into Afghanistan, with the remit to topple the Taliban government and push Al Qaeda terrorist groups out of the country.

Toppling the Taliban government was done in fairly quick time, with minimal casualties. It was only then that the aims of the invasion became confused. Were they there to try to put a western style democratic government in place? Or were they there for peacekeeping duties? Maybe it was to cut off the supply of opium to the west.

US/NATO Troops Patrol Opium Fields

If stopping opium production was the aim, it failed spectacularly! The supply of the drug has increased at least twenty fold in the years of occupation. My take on this, and I’m not the only one, is that this increase is quite deliberate! The so called “war on drugs” is a total sham. Western governments are perfectly happy for their citizens, mostly the young citizens, to ingest as many types of drugs as possible.

This is a way of controlling the youth. Keeps them in need. Keeps more in jail (owned by private companies). Gives government an excuse to make them look as if they are doing something important. I’m no advocate of taking drugs, but if an adult wants to indulge in drug taking, that’s up to them. Informed choice is the adult and responsible option.

If government wanted to end the so called war on drugs, it could be done very easily. Official legalisation is the answer the government doesn’t want to hear. If that happened, the war would be over.

Drug dealers would be out of business instantly. Their mystery making, a thing of the past.  Properly run, a scheme for dispensing drugs, would free up police to do what they were set up to do. Preventing crime and protecting the citizenry.

Of course there are several drawbacks for police and government. One is there would be no trumpeting of hugely successful drug finds and convictions. Politicians, being publicity hungry, would have fewer chances to tell us they were being tough on crime and the causes of crime. We would be able to tell them, we would be tough on bullshit and the causes of bullshit!

In essence, we have an internationally engineered drug problem, followed by an internationally engineered war on drugs.  It’s all smoke and mirrors.  If they keep saying something often enough, the public will believe what it’s told!

If drugs were to be legalised, the overall crime rate would fall. Break-ins would drop dramatically as addicts wouldn’t need to turn to crime to feed their habits. Women wouldn’t need to turn to selling their bodies to stave off drug withdrawal.Basically it’s a win-win situation for the majority. Top police officers can see the merits of legslisation. A few brave politicians can as well. But government won’t go for this solution. They have a vested interests in keeping the status quo.

The “war on drugs” slogan has the same effect on the general population as the “war on terror” mantra. For them, it says “we, the government, are actively doing something.” When it’s palpably obvious they are doing nothing. Governments only do things for themselves, not the people!

War on Drugs, War on Terror, War on the Poor

I started this piece by telling you about the loss of six fine young men, doing their duty for Queen and Country. They deserve much more from their political masters than the well rehearsed platitudes we hear on television and radio. They deserve the truth about why they are in a God forsaken country, being shot at and bombed on a daily, if not hourly basis! They, like us, will probably never hear the truth.

Be aware, be vigilant and don’t let them fool you.

Michael J Blair is a regular contributor at DDA. He can be reached at: michaelblair43@googlemail.com