The shoot-down of American missionaries in a Peru operation aimed at drug interdiction has properly led to widespread questioning of the tragedy's root cause: the U.S. policy of imposing an international drug prohibition.
A mother and child - Veronica and Charity Bowers - lost their lives needlessly when their missionary plane was shot out of the sky in another drug-interdiction effort gone awry.
In Latin America, where citizens from the Andes to the Caribbean die daily in the drug war's line of fire, the story has not ignited the passion and ongoing press coverage that it has North of the border. But inside the United States - precisely because the victims are U.S. citizens - the incident has opened the floodgates of questioning the policy behind the tragedy.
Here are some of the commentaries that have appeared in the United States press in recent days:
"Precisely because it is so gruesome, the tragedy calls for a reevaluation of its ultimate cause: the U.S. war on drugs."
- Peter H. Smith
Director of Latin American Studies
University of California at San Diego Los Angeles Times (4/29)
"The ultimate cause of their death was U.S. drug policy, the war on drugs; and that war has damaged the lives of millions of Americans."
Anthony Lewis
New York Times (4/28)
"Tragedy in Peru and the appointment of a Bush administration drug czar offer a chance to rethink strategy in the war on drugs."
- Seattle Times Editorial (4/27)
"The deaths of two members of an American missionary family in Peru should serve as a wake-up call about the state of the drug war."
- Robert Sharpe
The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation
The Washington Times (4/27)
"The mistaken downing in Peru of a plane carrying missionaries, not drugs, has added fuel to the raging debate in the United States over the war on drugs."
-San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial (4/25)
"Ever since Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs more than two decades ago, and appointed his vice president, George Bush, to wage that war, this nation has failed to achieve much in the way of success. What should be a domestic war has been pursued also as an international conflict."
- Howard Kleinberg
Cox Newspapers (4/25)
"I am not one who believes the sale and consumption of cocaine and other mind-altering drugs should be decriminalized, if not outright legalized. To do so undoubtedly would dramatically increase drug consumption, which would wreak further pain and suffering on millions of individuals and their families. But I find it problematic that we have been unable to do much to control the demand for drugs in the United States, which virtually drives the drug trade worldwide. Until we can effectively help curb the appetite for drugs here, we're going to continue to lose innocent lives like Veronica and Charity Bowers."
-Linda Chavez
Chicago Sun-Times (4/25)
"When the fighter pilot's fire ripped through a plane carrying an American missionary family over Peru last week, the bullet holes opened up ironic points of light into American foreign policy in Latin America."
-Tim Weiner
Mexico Correspondent
New York Times (4/29)
"How many more innocent people must die before we realize the only rational way to deal with the drug problem is to focus on rehabilitation, education, and treatment in our own country and crop substitution and economic development projects abroad. At the very least, Americans could sleep well knowing their tax dollars were being spent in their own communities, and to help other communities, rather than on military campaigns and toxic spraying that lead to the senseless deaths and internal displacement of innocent men, women, and children."
-U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia)
"This terrible loss of life that has occurred should prompt the Bush administration to review a policy that, of course, is not one it promulgated. While it would be a mistake for the administration to drop the policy without thorough consideration, the burden of proof should be on those who see benefits in the status quo that outweigh the costs and risks."
-Stuart News Florida, Editorial (4/26)
"Congress and other U.S. officials have figured that the benefits to the war on drugs were worth the risks of participating in possibly illegal actions that could threaten innocent people. What happened last week tragically proved how wrong they were."
-Winston Salem Journal, North Carolina, Editorial (4/27)
These are just a few samples of some of the thoughtful commentary of recent days. The massive press coverage (and welcome reflection) in the United States on this tragedy, however, should not obscure that deaths happen every day in the war on drugs: Latin Americans die in Latin America and U.S. citizens die in the United States.
What placed this story so prominently is that U.S. citizens died in Latin America. It reflects a double standard but it also reveals an important strategy opportunity for drug reform efforts. To the extent that U.S. citizens involve ourselves in shining a light on the indefensible drug-war tactics in Latin America - even to the extent of placing ourselves in the line of fire - we can bring the reality of this war home. That is how the Vietnam war was brought to an end and the same could happen to the drug war.
