European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes wednesday september 19,1990 j. Kilpatric Short Ferm Success in Long term . Drug War How goes the War on illicit drugs the question brought conflicting answers when Bill Bennett called a press conference to pass along some Good news. Sen. Joe Biden scheduled a meeting of his judiciary committee to emphasize the bad news. Bennett a staunch Republican is director of the office of National drug control policy. Biden a staunch Democrat is a senator from Delaware. The War upon illicit drugs is much too serious to be left to politics but in Washington d.c., almost everything is politics. Less than two months before election Day the president s strategy is either working or it is not working. You pays your Money and you takes your Choice. My Money goes to Bennett. He has statistics. Biden has impressions. To be sure Bennett s figures have their limitations As he emphasized in his latest report but they arc the Best figures we have. Says Bennett a they describe a drug problem that has been getting better not As the Field commander in the drug War Bennett relies chiefly upon three sources of intelligence. These Are the National household Survey on drug abuse the drug abuse warning network Dawn and the annual National High school senior drug abuse Survey. Findings from All three sources provide reasons to be encouraged. The household Survey begun in 1972, is based upon a Sample of 4,000 to 9,000 randomly selected households. Professional pollsters do face to face interviews. Respondents arc assured that their answers will be kept in strict Confidence and will be used for statistical purposes Only. Questions then focus on the use of specific illicit drugs what kind of drug How often How much the most recent household Survey 1988 found that 37 percent of those interviewed had used an illicit drug one or More times in their lives. An estimated 14.5 million people qualified As a current they had used a drug at least once in the preceding month. The figure is disturbing a appalling is perhaps a better word a but it compares with 23 million Quot we have the enemy in our sights Chie current users in 1985. In this three year period the number of current users of cocaine has dropped by half. Confirming evidence comes from the Dawn data Bank. This program also began in 1972. It is based upon reports from More than 700 Hospital emergency rooms in 21 metropolitan areas supplemented by reports from chief medical examiners in 17 cities. Doctors on emergency duty see the worst victims of drug abuse. Most of their patients Are hard Core addicts on the Edge of death by overdose. Others Are inexperienced novices who have not developed a tolerance for the forbidden substance. The picture improves. The fourth Quarter of 1988 saw 11,247 emergency room cases involving cocaine. In the fourth Quarter of 1989 physicians reported Only 8,627. One ought not to speak of a Only Quot so Many cases for each Case carries a tale of human tragedy but year by year comparisons Are useful. Through the High school senior Survey begun in 1975, Bennett a office gets a perspective on what May lie ahead. The Survey is based upon a Sample of 17,000 students in 130 Public and private High schools. Respondents anonymously fill out a questionnaire that reflects not Only their actual use of drugs but also their attitude toward substance abuse. Here the news is Good. High school seniors were asked have you used a drug within the past year in 1979 More than half of them 54.2 percent said yes. Last year that percentage dropped to 35.4. A growing percentage of the students disapprove of both marijuana and cocaine. In his statement last week Bennett candidly acknowledged the shortcomings of his three sources. In face to face interviews even with abundant assurances of Confidence people will lie. Emergency room data Tell us nothing about drag use in Rural areas. The annual Survey of High school students misses those who have dropped out. Even so because the same data Are gathered at the same intervals a firm base has been created. The picture slowly brightens. Yet Joe Biden a pessimism has a sound basis also. Drug treatment centers Are overflowing with patients. In Many cities the bloody turf wars Between drug dealers grow More Homicidal. The number of hard Core addicts is increasing. In the past four years the number of deaths attributed to cocaine overdose has More than tripled. No one Ever thought the presidents declared War upon drugs would be a Quick Campaign. Winning the War will require persistent support for years to come. For now there is More Good news than bad news but we have a Long Way to go before any significant Victory maybe claimed Universal press Syndicate William Safir Ethree top candidates for unemployed status Here Are three officials who ought to be looking for new jobs 1. The chief Legal counsel in the Mossad has just made an oxymoron out of Quot israeli intelligence and deserves to be fired. A disgruntled Young Man after 14 months As a Cadet in the Mossad vents his spleen in a Book that May endanger agents lives making wild charges that Israel could Nave done More to warn . Forces in Lebanon to beware of terrorists. The sensible reaction would be to protect vulnerable sources and ignore or dismiss the Book As the work of a malcontent. If necessary Mossad should counter the Poison by showing How closely israeli and . Intelligence worked in 1983. Instead a legalistic Ossadnik blew his stack and attempted to get an american court to Stop publication Here. Not even Margaret Thatcher acted that foolishly in her attempted a spy catchers suppression. Result instant Best seller with the enriched author posing As a putative Salman Rushdie and Israel suffering a deserved Black Eye. Such abysmal Lack of judgment in Jerusalem Calls into question the vaunted Mossad a effectiveness in the Field. 2. The architect of appeasement of iraqi president Saddam Hussein in our state department should receive no Reward for transgression. Assistant Secretary of state John Kelly a kowtowing in Baghdad on Lincoln a birthday Ted the iraqi dictator to discount american resolve. Kelly later instructed our ambassador there april Glaspie to apologize for a Strong voice of America editorial on human rights. One week before the invasion of Kuwait it was Kelly Friio killed a july 25 broadcast that would have warned Iraq that a the United states remains strongly committed to supporting the individual and collective self defense of its fiends in the persian on that Day Glaspie was taking a Tongue lashing from Saddam who threatened terrorist response to any . Pressure for restraint. Instructed by Kelly to be soothing she did not respond to the blustering insults instead our Overly distraught Diplomat pleaded for a better relations Quot which further emboldened the dictator. He released a tape of that session to demonstrate our weakness his bugging habit May Boomerang at a War crimes trial in that last week before invasion . Intelligence was warning of some sort of move into Kuwait. Reveal ugly Glaspie later told Elaine Sciolino of the new York times a obviously i did no to think and nobody else did that the iraqis were going to take All of Kuwait. Not All a just part a and despite that assessment no Strong warning was permitted to be Given Iraq privately or broadcast publicly to potential hostages. Kelly then did something strange though warned of imminent hostilities he pulled our ambassador out of her Post of duty. That is Why Glaspie was homeward bound when iraqi troops crossed the Border her career is now being ruined As the posterior covering Kelly tries to make her the Scapegoat for Secretary of state James a. Baker ill s policy of appeasement. 3. The Commerce departments see no evil officials a who fought for the Sale to Iraq of machinery that could be used for making nuclear weapons a should be Given Early Access to the revolving door. Dennis Kloske undersecretary of Commerce for Export administration is one of those responsible for the steady shipment of a dual use Quot Materiel to Iraq often Over the protest of defense department officials. Even though the manufacturer of a $10 million Furnace useful in the production of nuclear components revealed its dangerous potential Kloske and his mindless minions oked its shipment. It took the National Security Council to cancel this act of Folly in the Nick of time to this Day Kloske derides Pentagon watchdogs As shameless a while sen. Ernest f. A Fritz Quot Holings d-s.c., of Senate Commerce is asleep at the oversight switch. The defense department has its own explaining to do the failure of our a fast sea lift Quot to do the Job it was paid to do cannot be dismissed As a the Justice departments two year botch of the Lavoro scandal an Atlanta banking Dodge that enabled Iraq to finance billions in arms purchases cries out for oversight from Senate judiciary. Around the world democracies need not be burdened by the foolish the feckless and the fatuous. We know who the miscreants Are and some of the damage they have done they should be called to account before they do any More. New York times
