Nice job obummer !!!

Admittedly... it would seem fun to run down a drug boat in an Apache...  or an A-10.  Just mess with them for a bit with the cannons before you lock on and blow them out of the water.

Pax Americana, biatches.

nmemkha: We just HAVE to blow the money shooting at brown people.

In the War on Drugs, everything is black or white.

I have no recollection, Senator

Cythraul: military industrial complex

This term always seems so crude to me.  Sometimes these interests do not cooperate.

Budgets: use it or lose it.

Why is Obama driving up the price of weed?

war will never be over until the great & terrible day of the Lord!

Yea, cause the war on drugs is going sooo well...

nmemkha: We just HAVE to blow the money shooting at brown people.

Would you prefer we shoot at really white people? I hear Germany gets uppity every few decades or so. Idiot

Oh yeah thanks America,your unrelenting focus on prohibition has made the world a better place. For heartless cops and the most ruthless inhuman gangsters.

Grist for the grinder.

AirForceVet: I hated doing drug interdiction work personally while on active duty. The REAL problems stem from my fellow Americans excession consumption of illegal drugs.

/Legalizing pot would be a step in the right direction, IMHO

I'm sorry sir... Did I really just hear a US Military Vet take an alternative position to that ordered to the nation the Federal Government? 

<favorites>
<passes out>

The Glorified Jailer: Why is Obama driving up the price of weed?

I was under the impression that the good stuff was grown in the US and you only got "ditch weed" from Mexico/ Latin America.

Torqueknot: The Glorified Jailer: Why is Obama driving up the price of weed?

I was under the impression that the good stuff was grown in the US and you only got "ditch weed" from Mexico/ Latin America.

You are correct, however if K-Mart and Wal-Mart is taken out of the picture Target drives it's prices up due to increased demand.  Savy?

SpectroBoy: Cythraul: You really thought the military industrial complex was going to sit on its hands, subby?

I'd rather have them trashing another country than building more jails and filling them with people who commit victimless "crimes".
Sorry South America, but it's you or us. Nothing personal.

[i.imgur.com image 850x605]

"Central" America would be more accurate. Chile and Argentina (South America) don't seem to have as much of a drug trade as Central America (Mexico, etc) and North America (The US & Canada).

War is profitable for the one percent.

End of discussion.

One thing should be clear with drugs: if you make them illegal, you are basically guaranteeing large and ongoing profits for organized crime, so that should always be taken into account when deciding which to ban, meaning that only things that are seriously dangerous should be banned, which things like alcohol, mj, cocaine and so on should be regulated, taxed, and public awareness campaigns to mitigate the harms, etc.

Pair-o-Dice: Yea, cause the war on drugs is going sooo well...

Since 2000 we've spent over $600 a second on the war on drugs for no appreciable positive outcome.

/true story

While I'm all for legalization of some drugs, commitment of military assets to dealing with drugs isn't that bad.  Even with pot legal, we'll still have issues with things like heroin which I assume won't be legalized any time soon.  In additional to that, some cartels present border security problems.  Others have gotten in local politics and are destabilizing regimes in their home country (or started as a rebel movement that sells drugs to fund operations).

Just look at Mexico, where mayors who stand up to corruption and cartels die in a hail of gunfire.  I'm not exactly bothered by the thought of the Zetas coming into contact with a USMC platoon and finding out what it feels like to be at a firepower disadvantage.

Honestly 20 billion or so does not seem that excessive.  If the cost balloons out of control, then we need to think about scaling back funding, but it doesn't seem to be at that point.  If anything I'd rather see more attempts to build up Latin American forces along the lines of how we helped train and build the Egyptian Army.  The end result in Egypt was a professional military that refused orders to crush the protests and now is helping to check their new President and his power grabs.  Spend the time and money to build various armies down there into something like that seems to have value.

Send in the Drones!

Obama 2016.

AirForceVet: I hated doing drug interdiction work personally while on active duty.

I'll second that.

/retired uscg.

How about spending that money at home, treating and preventing drug addiction?

Nevermind, playing world cop and blowing stuff up is so much better for our ego.

TwowheelinTim: AirForceVet: I hated doing drug interdiction work personally while on active duty.

I'll second that.

/retired uscg.

Two in one day, I'm going to farking die!

Cache: War is profitable for the one percent.

End of discussion.

It also helps keep the rabble in line.

100+ years ago Alcohol, cocaine and Pot were legal and everyone was doing ok. We stomped on it becasue of a few idiots and here we are today. You take something away and it makes it special and a have to have item. Enough people see its not a good idea to over do and you will not have the problem. those that have the problem need to be taken care of medically not with the courts.

Im a Conservative and I can see all this fighting  is BS. Grandstanding on an issue that has no freaking end .There is always someone willing to take the place of the last guy that fell. There is and always will be a market for this stuff.

Old_Chief_Scott: My last cruise on active duty was patrolling the Mexican west coast.

Were you in the CG or USN?

Old_Chief_Scott: My last cruise on active duty was patrolling the Mexican west coast. What a joke. We tracked a  "mother ship" for days yet when we messaged for permission to board them, in the time it took to get a response the "mother ship" suddenly decided to move in to Mexican territorial waters where we could not now board them without the consent of the Mexican government. So sure enough, we hang around (finally showing ourselves since it was obvious that they now knew we were there) and watch the Mexican Navy gunboat conduct a search and report finding nothing.

Well, maybe a stray wad of cash, right?

Sounds like we need to start importing Somali pirates to the Mexican Coast.

Sigh, FTA:  Last year $830 million, almost $9 out of every $10 of U.S. law enforcement and military aid spent in the region, went toward countering narcotics, up 30 percent in the past decade.

"Countering narcotics" pays pretty well.

Old_Chief_Scott: My last cruise on active duty was patrolling the Mexican west coast. What a joke. We tracked a  "mother ship" for days yet when we messaged for permission to board them, in the time it took to get a response the "mother ship" suddenly decided to move in to Mexican territorial waters where we could not now board them without the consent of the Mexican government. So sure enough, we hang around (finally showing ourselves since it was obvious that they now knew we were there) and watch the Mexican Navy gunboat conduct a search and report finding nothing.

Well, maybe a stray wad of cash, right?

No doubt.  I really hate it when I'm out of my jurisdiction and I see someone who might be doing something that is illegal within my own jurisdiction.  And then when I ask them if I can come take a look to see if they are doing something that isn't illegal where we are, but is illegal in my jurisdiction, they immediately move to a jurisdiction where I'm not allowed to follow and harass them.  I mean, seriously, it's like they think they have rights or that I have limitations on my power or something.  They're clearly crazy.  Or terrorists.  Or crazy terrorists.

This kind of makes sense to me. I know it seems like make-work for the putative "Military-Industrial Complex," but killing criminals while undermining their business via legalization seems like a good idea. Just because marijuana and cocaine are legal isn't going to make the small, standing armies of various trafficking organizations suddenly start clocking 9-5 in an office or retail outlet anytime soon. These guys deal drugs because the illegality of said drugs gives them revenue, rather than doing it because they want to provide drugs to the needy masses. They're in it for the money, and would just find some other black market opportunity.

On duty as we speak

These idiots should all be forced to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

lugubrious drollery

ALL the die-hard libs who blindly support Obama are just as foolish as all the die-hard conservatives who blindly supported GW Bush.

david_gaithersburg: Just what the fark did you libs think the government was going to do with all of the extra tax money you've been chomping at the bit to give them.  You voted for this shiat, own it, or wake up and join your local Tea Party.

Nicely done. This could have been 10/10, but the "join your local Tea Party"  was a little excessive; it kinda set you back a few points. I'll give you 6/10.

Still, you should get some bites (besides mine of course).