This one got to me because it reminded me of Bush’s purported reason for the 1989 Panama invasion. Isn’t personal responsibility a conservative edict?
Conservative edict is just a facade.
A conservative listener of my Politics Done Right program attempted to blame Biden for the drug trafficking problem. Coming from a conservative, I thought the criticism was rich.
I started my reply with a notion conservative Republicans have appropriated even though they have always been unable to live up to said tenet, personal responsibility. I then told him the story about George Herbert Walker Bush’s pretext for invading Panama.
Americans have an appetite for drugs. The government made certain controlled substances illegal as they did alcohol in the past unlawful. Just as occurred during prohibition when the supply found demand by all means necessary, so do illicit drugs.
The dictator of Panama, Manuel Antonio Noriega, was a CIA operative. The United States turned a blind eye to Noriega’s work assisting the drug cartel in laundering their money. They did not care then that Noriega was facilitating drug trafficking to the United States. When Noriega refused an ask by the CIA, the United States decided to arrest Noriega for money laundering. In other words, Americans are hungry for drugs. Noriega, like any capitalist, facilitated the transaction. The United States, instead of curbing its need for illicit drugs, attempted to stop the supply facilitated by Noriega. So they invaded an independent country to arrest its leader for fulfilling the drug desires of many Americans. And for that, 10,000 Panamanians died as Bush bombed Colon, David, and Panama City’s police headquarters in very crowded areas before arresting Noriega. I guess when we kill innocent civilians, it takes on a different tenor.
Racist notions about drug trafficking across the border are not the answer. If we want to stop drug trafficking, we need to clean our houses. We need to stop our dependency on the drugs capitalists will always be willing to sell us. After all, the users are not manufacturers. It is your wealthy businessmen who create the chemicals drug addicts are ingesting.
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