Iraq, Afghan wars open gaps in U.S. drug defenses

The Iraq and Afghan wars have cannibalized the U.S. effort to defend the borders against drug imports, the L.A. Times wrote Jan. 22. Source.

The Pentagon has reduced by more than 62% its surveillance flight-hours over Caribbean and Pacific Ocean routes that are used to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and, increasingly, Colombian-produced heroin. At the same time, the Navy is deploying one-third fewer patrol boats in search of smugglers. Many other similar efforts have been cut back.

The L.A. Times deserves commendation for its stories digging into the Bush Administration's mounting official indifference, at best, to the growing floods of illegal drugs pouring into the U.S. from many quarters, not the least from Afghanistan, where U.S. forces installed and are protecting the druglords that now produce 90 per cent of the world's heroin.