Drug War Honesty, At Last

At last, what all drug warriors really think–human life and human rights be damned, we've got a job to do–is openly expressed by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. An excerpt from the story, from a South African news site news24.com:

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday defended his government's high-casualty war on drugs and said it "doesn't matter" if the UN sends representatives to investigate extrajudicial killings.

Speaking to reporters at Government House, Thaksin said the Thai public needs to adjust its point of view and accept a large number of violent deaths as the price for waging a successful war on drugs.

"If we don't do something, the drug problem will explode in our faces," he said.

Responding to reports that a United Nations human rights investigator might come to Thailand, Thaksin replied, "It doesn't matter if the UN comes or not" because his government would continue on its present course.

More than 1 100 alleged drug dealers and users have been murdered since Thaksin launched a three-month blitz against illegal drugs on February 1.

On February 26, when the death toll hit 1 140, including women and children, the government announced it would no longer release statistics on the killings.

Comments

[Dakota Loomis]

Speaking of honesty, wouldn’t it help to mention that the government has claimed a total of 22 deaths, while they attribute the remaining deaths to drug dealers killing other drug dealers. This post made it seem like the government had killed over a thousand people. While the drug wars may have intensified the infighting amongst dealers, portraying this as state sponsored murder is disingenuous at best.

[Warren]

The drug warriors have always been proud of the casualties inflicted on the “enemy”. Even when the undeniably innocent get caught in they’re crosshairs, they blame the drug traffickers for making it necessary to kill so many people with so little evidence of wrongdoing that the occasional bystander gets taken out.

[joe]

Speaking of honesty, wouldn?t it help to mention the police killed 22 persons in self-defense; that and, a young boy was killed, ?When the mother attempted to flee in the car, and police opened fire, killing Jakapan?, Chief of Police Sant said.

[John]

How often do you hear about Budweiser distributors killing Coors distributors? (Insert joke here about how Bud & Coors distributors should be killed as revenge against the crappy products they sell.)

Are Ernest & Julio Gallo putting out contracts on the Turning Leaf people?

If drugs were legal, Thai drug dealers could just take their disputes to court. And whoever can give the judge the biggest bribe would win. Kind of like in the US, only we pay our bribes in the form of Legal Fees. Whoever has the most expensive lawyer almost always wins. (Hi, OJ! Hi, first Menendez brothers trial.)

[Emily]

So, they’re killing these people to prevent them from harming themselves through drug use…? Well, I guess it works.

[The Mountain Goat]

Emily, I don’t think drug use is as harmful as drug enforcement.