Here's where we put the "stu" into stupendous, folks! My once-a-week NYT supplement that the Toronto Star provides to give us rubes a taste of big-time journalism informs me that "US expands war on drugs to Africa". This is apparently because Latin American cartels are increasingly using Africa to ship South American cocaine to Europe.
Hmm... let me get my mind around this... South America, Latin American cartels, Europe... am I missing something? How and where does this become an American policing concern?
Aha! There we are! Five paragraphs in; "We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues," says Jeffrey Breeden, DEA chief for Europe and Africa.
Note the seamless melding of the war on terror with the war on drugs! What's next, cocaine sniffing towellers? Hey, I was kidding, but the New York Times isn't - a few paragraphs later, sure enough we've got Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb shipping tons of cocaine into Europe to RAISE MONEY FOR TERRORIST ATTACKS OH MY GOD!!! The Times informs me that has actually happened and been dealt with by the courts in New York.
I must have missed that story so I googled it as hard as I could; Al Qaeda/cocaine/New York. All I could come up with is some poor schmuck named Oumar Issa who wasn't Al Qaeda and wasn't a drug trafficker but was set up by the DEA in an elaborate sting. That case is now the "proof" of a connection between Al Qaeda and drug trafficking!
Here's where we put the "stu" into stupid!
The really good news is that it allows Americans to train "elite" police units in a variety of African countries. That's what we want -cosy relationships with elite police units who will be trained and equipped by the US, and of course beholden to the US. It's transplanting the Honduran model to Africa.
From what I've heard cocaine is still plentiful in schoolyards and nightclubs everywhere, but those elite police units can come in handy when the locals get carried away with crazy ideas about democracy and such.
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