John Montgomery Presents This Week's	April 28, 2001	Creep Logo by Alan Fraser
	The Drug War Warriors
	Flying High and Crashing Hard in Peru

It was a mistake. A big time screw-up. A failure of communication and competence in very high places. "This terrible tragedy," as Snippy called it. A spokesman for the Peruvian Air Force called it a "lamentable accident in which two people died.'' This week, a plane carrying American missionaries was shot down by air force fighter jets in Peru. It crashed into the Amazon river, killing Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, who are pictured above along with the other two members of their family who survived.

You might be wondering why the Peru Air Force would shoot down a plane full of missionaries. Are they against religion down there? Were they afraid the plane was going to dump a pile of bibles on their heads? Did they go on a murderous rage after watching too much of Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour?

No. They shot the plane down because they thought it was carrying illegal drugs. And why would they have a stoned-out, paranoid delusion like that? Because the CIA told them so. Yup, the American Central Intelligence Agency routinely operates drug surveillance flights in the region. Evidently, the CIA has its drug-sniffing dogs stick their heads out the windows of the aircraft, and when they start barking wildly and wagging their tails at another plane, that means "I SMELL DRUGS! GIMME A BONE!" The feds notify the locals, who then get out the big guns and blast away.

Those flights may be routine, but the official finger pointing and dissembling we heard this week reminded me of one of those Cheech and Chong routines where the drug dealers are scrambling around the apartment flushing all their stash down the toilet while the cops are banging on the door. Snippy tells us the American role is "simply to pass on information" about suspected drug flights. "The only thing I can tell you is that the air force followed the procedures," claims Peru. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, when asked if that were true said, "The information that we are in receipt of indicates no.'' He went on to say, "There are questions about the way the mission was carried out.''

No shit, Ari, and I can offer a few right now. Why in the flying hell are we down in Peru chasing drug dealers in the first place? What do we think we're going to accomplish by shooting down planes that are carrying drugs? Will that stop people in the United States from smoking pot, snorting coke and shooting heroin?

Ari provides an explanation, "The war on drugs is an important mission of the United States government,'' and even a justification, “In fighting the war against drugs, many lives have been saved.” Former US Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey offers this rationalization: "Remember, the Peruvians have reduced coca cultivation by 65 percent in the last five years. Huge reductions." That sounds suspiciously familiar. If Timothy McVeigh were the spokesman, he'd say Veronica and her baby were collateral damage in the war on drugs.

Secretary of State Colin Powell knows who to blame: "The real problem in the region is not caused by the region, it is caused by what happens on the streets of New York, the streets of all our other major cities... It's actors who over and over and over again continue to use drugs in an unlawful way," a clear reference to Robert Downey Jr, who got busted once again for drugs this week and lost his Ally McBeal gig in the process.

So that's it, Colin? We're shooting down planes in the jungles of Peru to protect self-destructive losers like Robert Downey and Darryl Strawberry from pissing their lives away with illegal substances? Let 'em piss! I don't care if I never see another Ally McBeal show with Robert in it, so why should the government? Robert and Darryl are big boys, living in the land of personal freedom and smaller government. We spend millions of dollars on fighting the supply side of drugs but give no attention to the demand side beyond Nancy Reagan's insipid "Just Say No!" You think that works? I will just say NO!

But as long as we insist we're in that business, let's get some real benefit from it. The next time Jerry Falwell flies south of the border, would someone please paint some marijuana leaves on the side of the plane and install some loudspeakers playing Jimi Hendrix at top volume? That would get a lot of people high without using any drugs at all.