> >From: "Bill Howard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >Colombia Chopper Wars (the drug war grinds on) > >Foreign Affairs Opinion (Published) Keywords: COLUMBIA, DRUG WAR, >Source: www.ariannaonline.com >Published: June 26, 2000 Author: Arianna Huffington >Posted on 06/27/2000 13:27:11 PDT by 34665287 > >A full three months after the House approved a $1.7 billion drug-war aid >package for Colombia, the Senate finally passed its own scaled-down $934 >million version. You might assume that the world's greatest deliberative body >took so long because of a heated debate over the merits of further involving >ourselves in a country in the midst of a 40-year-old civil war or, indeed, >over the merits of fighting the drug war through interdiction rather than >treatment. But you'd be wrong. The delay actually had a lot to do with a >Blackhawks vs. Hueys Beltway battle. Call it Chopper Wars -- a >behind-the-scenes dogfight as absurd as it is revealing about what drives >public policy. > >The prize was a huge contract to manufacture Colombia's copter of choice. On >one side were lobbyists for United Technologies, whose Sikorsky Aircraft >produces the Blackhawks. On the other were lobbyists for Bell Helicopter >Textron, which produces the Hueys. > >The House had split the difference and approved a package that included >roughly 30 of each aircraft, at a total cost of nearly $450 million. But >despite the fact that the Colombian military, the Pentagon and the State >Department made it abundantly clear that they preferred the high-tech >Blackhawk to the smaller, slower, far less expensive Huey, bargain-hunting >senators on the Appropriations Committee shot down the Blackhawks and settled >for 60 refurbished Hueys -- a steal at the priced-to-move cost of $188 >million. ``There's no reason for anybody to be ashamed to fly a Huey into >combat,'' harrumphed Appropriations chair Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). > >Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) begged to differ. Usually a stickler on human >rights and a hands-off approach in Latin America, he has lately taken the lead >on pumping millions in military aid to the Colombian army, one of the worst >human-rights abusers in the world. Why? Well, it's probably just a >coincidence, but Sikorsky just happens to be headquartered in his state, and >through its parent company has -- also coincidentally, no doubt -- given Dodd >more than $38,000 worth of combat aid (in the form of campaign donations) in >the last election cycle. > >Anyway, Dodd wasn't about to let his hometown helicopter go down without a >fight. He took to the Senate floor and offered an amendment that would leave >the choice of choppers to the ``experts'' in the Pentagon and the Colombian >military -- a smooth move that would have guaranteed the Blackhawks would >prevail. > >After all, Gen. Fabio Velazco, the Colombian Air Force commander, is on record >expressing his contempt for the Huey: ``It's like comparing a '60 Ford to a >new Mercedes.'' And Colombian Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez chimed >in, clearly forgetting the adage about not looking a gift Huey in the mouth. >``When the Huey is coming,'' he whined, ``the first thing you hear is the >noise, even 10 minutes before you see it. It's a very noisy helicopter. With >the Blackhawk, by the time you hear it, it is practically overhead.'' > >But Stevens and his coupon-cutting cronies were undeterred. ``The Blackhawks >are the tip of a sword going into another Vietnam,'' he claimed, playing the >Southeast Asian-quagmire card. Which raises the question: If 30 Blackhawks put >us on the road to another Vietnam, where do 60 Hueys lead? Another Grenada? > >In the end, the Hueys won the Senate dogfight, but the Blackhawks will clearly >live to fight another day. As the House-Senate Conference Committee tries to >reconcile the two bills, Colombia's ambassador to Washington has warned that >his country will insist on the state-of-the-art Blackhawk. > >As absurd as the Chopper Wars are, they are in keeping with the overblown >rhetoric of the Colombian coke issue. Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) announced >that ``Colombia is the heart of the drug war, and we'd better get on with it. >If we lose Colombia, then we lose everywhere.'' It's the domino theory all >over again, with coke instead of Communists. > >Dodd was equally overwrought: ``When we step up and offer the Colombian >democracy a chance to fight for themselves, we're not only doing it for them, >we're doing it for ourselves.'' Translation: ``When we step up and offer a >major campaign contributor a chance to make an enormous profit, we're not only >doing it for them, we're doing it for ourselves.'' > >But the crowning absurdity was the ongoing pretense that the Colombian aid >package is about winning the drug war at home. If that were really the goal, >you'd think all those senators looking to get more bang for their bucks would >have relished the chance to vote for Sen. Paul Wellstone's (D-Minn.) amendment >that, had it passed, would have transferred $225 million from military aid in >Colombia to drug-treatment programs in the United States. Treatment, after >all, has proved to be 10 times more cost-effective than interdiction. > >As if to underscore the futility of the drug-war package, Colombia's national >police chief, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, who has been hailed on The Hill as >``the best cop in the world,'' stepped down last Friday. ``We'd rather see >drug consumption drop than get any of this aid,'' he told the Associated >Press. > >If everyone knows that's how to win the drug war, then why are we spending >more than a billion dollars in Colombia? And if everyone doesn't know it, why >aren't we debating that instead of bickering over Blackhawks and Hueys? > >ARIANNA ONLINE >1158 26th Street, P.O. Box 428 >Santa Monica, CA 90403 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >_______________________________________________ >Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To change your options or unsubscribe go to: >http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list > > >______________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
