DOES ANYONE ELSE SMELL THAT?

by
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Five U.S. Army troops returning from an anti-terrorist/anti-drug assignment in Colombia were busted on Tuesday for bringing back 35 pounds of cocaine.

Colombia has asked for their extradition to stand trial for smuggling, under the bi-lateral extradition treaty we have with them. In the ten years since
the Colombian government re-instituted an extradition treaty with us, 200 Colombians have been extradited to the United States under this treaty for
drug-related crimes.

The American ambassador told the Colombian government that our soldiers were immune to prosecution under the terms of this treaty.

I'm sure the Army will "prosecute its own" here. Let's see: killing an Iraqi and committing a war crime gets the usual trooper who does it (according to the latest "court-martial") a sentence of "time served" and a discharge from the Army. So what will smuggling 35 pounds of cocaine without killing anyone
be worth? Aweekend in the stockade? Partying with the guards?

To paraphrase a well-known line from the movies, "I love the smell of right wing hypocrisy in the morning. It smells like....Bullshit."