Waco Texas and Stephen Harper

Waco Texas and Stephen Harper

Aren’t we all glad that we don’t live in Waco, Texas?  The headlines screamed yesterday’s morning news (May 18^th) in most news outlets that members of five different rival motorcycle gangs gathered in Waco Texas Sunday afternoon at a restaurant called Twin Peaks.  The result of the meeting left 9 gang members dead and 18 wounded.  165 or so of the bikers, left standing after the shooting was over, were arrested.  At this point there don’t seem to be any reports of police or non-combatants being injured.

 Why do I use the term “non-combatants” to describe the citizens who were just going about their daily business when the shootings erupted in Waco, Texas?  Isn’t “non-combatant” a term for a non- fighter participant in a war?  Yes, it is.  And that’s what we are in.  A war.  And a much bigger war than the loss of one Canadian soldier in Iraq; tragic as that was.  We’re talking about thousands of Canadian lives lost in the War on Drugs every year counting both users and sellers plus thousand more lives destroyed by crazy prison sentences for drug use or selling.  I say crazy because street drug addiction should be a medical matter.

 The War on Drugs is actually “A War on the People” of the country hosting the US War on Drugs.  The War on Drugs is a rot in the body of civil and criminal law.  In my opinion what we have seen so far of shootings over drug turf in Canada has been relatively speaking, small potatoes.  Thousands of Mexicans are trying to flee their country now because the drug war is destroying their economy and their lives.  Ditto thousands, millions of others trying to get out of their countries and desperate to escape war lords that are almost all involved with the illegal drug trade.  In parts of Mexico now the drug lords have taken over the running of entire towns and villages because the original civil infrastructure has been destroyed by gang wars.

 So far there has been no reportings of beheadings or mass graves connected with gang wars in the US or Canada, the likes of which the Mexican cartels seem to Indulge in.  But we in Canada are not immune from this same civil rot of society.   The combination of guns, drugs, corrupt politicians and banks who will gladly launder anybody’s dirty money do business here, too, but usually quietly, like good Canadians.   Prime Minister Harper destroyed the national gun register, of course, which would have been a valuable tool to combat the influx of guns into Canada, and is now trying to pass a bill that would prevent Quebec from having the records of their own provincial registry returned to them. There were previous assurances from the Harper government that this would be done.  Not only has this not been done, but it seems the RCMP has destroyed the records.  Harper’s response?  Well, he says he will just pass a bill that will make it okay for the RCMP to have destroyed Quebec’s gun records and this bill will be retroactive.   The man is a magician.  He can wave his magic wands and major laws that were previously operable in our society just cease to exist.

The longer the War on Drugs drag on means the richer the US munitions corporations get (the US is the largest maker of guns in the world) and the higher the piles of dead bodies will grow.    Paid off government officials and government hopefuls in the US vie for the American Rifle Association endorsement and money. The ARA pour huge amounts of money into the coffers of US politicians in order to fight off any kind of gun control in the US.  And of course the drug cartels love The War on Drugs and launder their obscene amounts of money in perfectly respectable North American and European banks.  So it comes back full circle to guns, drugs, corrupt politicians and banks. The War on Drugs is the biggest deadly and corrupt war going and will only get worse in the future until politicians act.  And they won’t until the people do.  And what do our own politicians have to say about The War on Drugs?  Should we ask them?