Hi Raoul,

I see you're optimistic.
After 9/11, the US had enough support and backing, we could have helped weed out Al Qeda with the co-operation of other countries.
Now we have inflamed all the arab and muslim countries and the "terrorists" are a whole new breed and their new idealogy is anti-western culture and hatred.

When you have a large percentage of these countries who democratically elect groups such as Hezzbollah, the rot has already started. We have radicals now in our own country, as evidenced by some of the comments on this board. (Not to mention our own president.)

Democracy is dead here. There are some people who HOPE it's still alive, but our country has been taken over by the hard-liners, and although it doesn't look like a dictatorship yet, it appears to be moving that way. The international drug trade moves through other countries with dictators and their militaries and alliances are changing. It has nowhere to go but DOWN. We are part of that process.

From Viet Nam and the Golden Triangle, from Noriega and Panama to Iran Contra to Mena, Arkansas, the drug trade has been moving through the militaries, along with the arms trade. The US has a long history of working with or propping up these dictators, all for our special interests. Many people have been assassinated or brutally murdered to keep the drug lines open and the money rolling in.

With this so deeply embedded in the economies and the military of so many countries, how do you think any of that can change?

People aren't going to give up their drugs.