Blogger’s Head Explodes

Our favorite drug czar was speaking to the press again, this time in preparation for today’s release of President Bush’s national drug control strategy for 2005.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States should employ some of the techniques it is using to fight international terrorism in its war on drugs, U.S. drug czar John Walters said on Tuesday.

OK, before I break something, let’s take a trip in the wayback machine.
1.

“I want to escalate the war on drugs,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft in his first interview after being nominated for the post. “I want to renew it. I want to refresh it.” [link]

2.

A draft of Ashcroft’s “Strategic Plan” from Aug. 9, 2001, does not put fighting terrorism as one of the department’s seven goals, ranking it as a sub-goal beneath gun violence and drugs. [link]

3.

In an attempt to show just how benign the War on Terror will be for law-abiding citizens, Ashcroft has chosen an odd model: the War on Drugs. At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Ashcroft repeatedly said that the tools in the fight against terrorism should be at least as strong as the ones used to fight gambling, organized crime, and illegal (“illicit” in government parlance) substances. Law enforcement officials, he said, should be able not only to freeze terrorists’ assets, but seize them–“Just like we have for those individuals involved in drug trafficking.”[link (9/27/01)]

4.

The drug war and the war on terrorism is converging both practically and,
more important, rhetorically. This will allow the Justice Department and the
Defense Department to use all their new, extraordinary powers for both.
Timmy the drug user will go from being an exaggerated fictional ad to a
basis for ignoring due process for street-level drug investigations and for
involving the military in more domestic law enforcement.[link (11/29/02)]

5.

Ashcroft: “And finally, the Patriot Act updated our anti-terrorism laws to reflect new technologies and to give us the same tools used to fight against drug dealers and organized crime so that we can fight against terrorists.”[link (6/8/04)]

and back to the present…

The United States should employ some of the techniques it is using to fight international terrorism in its war on drugs, U.S. drug czar John Walters said on Tuesday.

OK, can I break something now?
But wait!!! It goes from being horrifyingly inane to mind bogglingly stupid.

On the other hand, Walters said it ought to be easier to go after drugs traffickers than terrorists because the drugs trade involved many thousands of people, making it potentially more vulnerable to attack and disruption.

??? Um. Can you repeat that?

On the other hand, Walters said it ought to be easier to go after drugs traffickers than terrorists because the drugs trade involved many thousands of people, making it potentially more vulnerable to attack and disruption.

Excuse me while my head explodes.