The crime and chaos that comes from trying to suppress drugs to save somebody (I don’t know who) from themselves is not worth the hundreds of billions and social and national instability.

Why are drugs illegal? To stop what? What is being made better by declaring certain forms of intoxication not allowable while at the same time alcohol and tobacco are given away to children. It just doesn’t make sense.

The only rational for illegal drugs is that it keeps the price up and make certain people richer. I think people should look closely at the money trail of those who run for office on an anti-drug platform. If you looked hard enough, you would find drug money….

First of all, violence has escalated because the government has done a better job on fighting narcotics production/trade.. such as there have been some of the largest drug busts in history including the largest one. so, narcos (drug bosses) now go to other methods to obtain money such as extorsion, kidnappings, etc.. the problem is that previous administrations closed their eyes against these problems so now its harder to solve them.. and americans, as the largest drug consuming nation in the whole world (by a WHOOLE LOT) you have a certain amount of responsiblity in this.. u make drug bosses earn hundreds of millions USD a year.

Second, what i found the most exaggerated was this “Kidnappings have become a routine part of Mexican daily life. Common crime is widespread.” i’m a mexican citizen that lives in mexico and in my lifetime i have never been robbed, extorsioned, etc (and know very few people that have been victims)also i only know one person that was almost kidnapped (he evaded the kidnappers) That statement makes Mexico look even worse than it already is regarding security.. and speaially in the eyes of people who lack knowledge on mexican lifestyle (and I mean Mexican as in people who live in Mexico, not as in Mexican Americans in California, etc.. it’s very different)

The same Mr MJ Akbar, an Indian Muslim, wrote over a decade ago ( before pre internet era) in a Deccan Chronicle editorial:
Quote-its not because muslims demanded but its because the hindus wanted that India remained secular-Unquote.
Its not that blacks demanded it but that whites wanted that Obama became US president.
Indian Muslims, overwhelmingly are peaceful, proud to be free, Indian and moreso secular. The Indian Muslims are the only hope for the muslim world along with the likes of Turkish. They most certainly don’t need your leadership. BTW Indian Army is the only army in the world that has for its soldiers a Hindu temple, a Mosque, Gurdwara and a church standing next to the other. Eg. Hyderabad contonement.
Pakistan blames US and Russia and other countries for its problems all 60 years. Iraq after 5 yrs of liberation from cruel Baath administration can not live in peace. Why- USA or something else. Introspection and lot of self criticism is needed to become a freestanding nation.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is the jihadi terrorist wing of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There is no question of Lashkar terrorists operating independently.

The strategy of Pakistan army / ISI against Indian and Afghan civilians stands on one solid single pillar- PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY. This time in Mumbai they messed up in the execution and have been caught red handed.

They had gotten away so many times. Indians have to really thank Ajmal Amir Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist caught alive and the brave police man belonging to lower cadre of Mumbai police who was responsible for the capture of Mr.Kasab and died in the process.

LET terrorist group was involved in attacks in New Delhi in October 2005, and in Bangalore in December 2005. Examples of recent major terror attacks conducted by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan include a coordinated series of bombings in market and temple areas of the tourist city of Jaipur, Rajasthan (May 2008), an attack on a government paramilitary facility in Uttar Pradesh (December 2007), coordinated bomb blasts at court facilities in three cities in Uttar Pradesh (November 2007), an explosives blast in a cinema hall in Punjab (November 2007), two explosions at a popular park and restaurant in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (August 2007), an explosion at the main mosque in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (May 2007), the detonation of explosive devices on a train northwest of Delhi (February 2007), simultaneous attacks on Mumbai commuter trains (July 2006), simultaneous attacks on a train station and places of worship in Varanasi (March 2006), and simultaneous attacks on several markets in New Delhi (October 2005).

Contrary to some popular rumors, false hopes among Pakistanis the issue will not go away anytime soon. This is not an India-Pakistan issue, but an international one. India is going to blow hot and cold with revelations and media releases, to keep it going; and the international community is going to go along with India.

Time has arrived to tackle global terrorism sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

You said:
“1) Drug users will always find a way to get high, regardless of what is criminalized.”
Humanity has sought altered states of consciousness for recreation and meditation for as far back as our history stretches. Just because our government, who boasts they are the guardians of freedom, creates unconstitutional laws that restrict some desired substances from the populace upon baseless grounds and in an inconsistent manner is not going to overcome evolution.

You said:
“2) Terrorists will always find a way to fund their operations, regardless of which consumer habits are mitigated.”
Gangs/Terrorists are currently funded through four main sources: Drugs, Arms, Oil and Antiquities. As long as these markets can generate vast amounts of profits, those profits will be used to support interests that are counter to the US. We can have an impact on the drug black markets, the major funding source to these entities. As we did once before with alcohol prohibition, we can strip this funding away from these entities by legalizing these substances. By freeing the law enforcement agents from drug enforcement, they can be used to enforce the Arms import and export laws and Antiquities laws to put a dent in these illegal operations. Oil profits need to be kept to a reasonable level to stop countries like Saudi Arabia from funding terror. Oil need to drop to between $25 and $30 per barrel. This will radically cut into the money going to the terrorists. The US needs to convert its transportation industry and get it off of oil based fuels. This could be done if instead if bailing out industries unresponsive to the needs of the people or this nation, we would use this money to build the infrastructure to support a non-oil transportation industry.

Of course there are other means of funding but none as lucrative as the ones I mention above. Implementing this strategy would take Billions out of the hands of terrorists. Without this wealth their power is dramatically curtailed.

In Afghanistan, wars have been imposed on that nation by the past and present super powers. Iran and Iraq fought a ten-year war that was kept fuelled by the world powers. The Middle East is in a state of perpetual war because the Palestine problem is deliberately left unresolved and Israel continues to occupy Palestinian lands and the Golan Heights. Sri Lanka has been fighting the Tamil Tigers for years and it is not a secret that the Tamil Tigers have thrived on all kinds of support from India, including military. While India supports terrorism in Sri Lanka and Pakistan it complains about it in Indian-held Kashmir. India has its own assorted crop of homegrown terrorists and insurgents and needs to look inwards and resolve its internal issues rather than meddle in the affairs of all its neighbours.

North Korea’s isolation makes it a potential hotspot. Chechnya has seen intense fighting. A war to get Taiwan reunited with mainland China has been averted only due to the collective wisdom and farsightedness of the Chinese leadership.

The European continent, in recent years, saw genocide of Muslims in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina. Africa is the lost continent where food is scarce but weapons are in abundance. Spilling of human blood in Africa is meaningless to the world, which has largely remained indifferent to the horrendous genocides of the recent past in Africa.

In 2001, due to 9/11, a new kind of war was imposed upon the world. Called the War on Terror by an angry USA it now has no combat boundaries. In 2001, the world was given an ultimatum “you are either with us or against us.” What followed is too well known. The Afghan and the Iraq wars are still raging even after seven years of 9/11 and after the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of human beings in those two ill-fated countries. Every man killed as part of “collateral damage” gives birth to thousands of angry people and while a majority of these angry people may not even resort to peaceful protests a small percentage takes to fighting back and thus the vicious war circle is perpetuated.

The war on terror has now spilled over into Pakistan and many thousands of military men and civilians in Pakistan have been killed. Half-a-million grief-stricken Pakhtuns from within Pakistan’s northwest are now refugees in their own country due to the intense fighting in FATA. Pakistan’s sovereignty has already been torn apart and its remaining intact is becoming increasingly questionable. The Pakhtuns, for no fault of theirs, are paying the biggest price in the war on terror when they have never had anything to do with terror anywhere in the world.

Can such a conflict ridden world ever be terror free? The answer is a big NO. My contention is that the world can never be peaceful and terror-free unless the world community decides to bring to an end all unresolved disputes and armed conflicts raging around the world. Peace is instinctive to all human beings while war is not. Peace will beget peace while wars in the future will always snowball into wider conflicts in which terrorism and insurgencies, with no defined geographical boundaries and battlefields, will be the major ingredients.

Humanity now wants to see a magnanimous and neutral role played by the developed world to end conflicts worldwide. More support by the developed world to under-developed countries in terms of transfer of technology for the sake of development rather than loans meant to purchase weapons and military technology will have a salutary effect on making the world a peaceful place. Foreign policies of the developed world must not differentiate between nations on the basis of their religion or demography if we are to move towards a harmonious and terror-free world. The imposition of unrepresentative governments on the countries of the Third World will always give rise to discontentment degenerating into terrorism or insurgency and, therefore, must not be resorted to by world powers.

In the modern age the only way towards a terror-free world is through statesmanship of the world’s powerful leaders leading to a just dispensation of international justice between nations, races and religions. I stress on this because the bulky and highly visible military might of any superpower in the future will never be able to fight the agility and the indefatigable war stamina of the terrorists, militants and freedom fighters of the future.

The bottom line, therefore, is that terrorism can only be relegated to the history books if international justice takes over from international military power and adjudicates fair solutions to the ongoing conflicts in the world, thus enabling widespread prosperity which will bring about a world that is content and abhors violence.