There’s too much drug blood on America’s hands to lecture Duterte
Some 3,000 people have died in Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody campaign since he took power in the Philippines in June. Now he wants to extend it by six months because he needs time to “kill them all”. But point out the moral pitfalls of his murderous drive and you’ve had it, in colourful expletives, as Barack Obama and the European Union found out. That’s too bad because given the climate of fear in the Philippines and the president’s popularity, any meaningful pushback could only come from abroad.
But one can’t help wishing it hadn’t come from the United States. Because no other country has caused more death and destruction in the name of fighting drugs. Ever since Richard Nixon announced the “war on drugs” in 1971, America has used it as a licence for low-intensity warfare in its neighbourhood to prevent drugs from crossing its borders. The damage, as evident in the trail of failed states the policy left behind, is comparable only to its other great crusade – the “war on terror”.
Some 3,000 people have died in Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody campaign since he took power in the Philippines in June. Now he wants to extend it by six months because he needs time to “kill them all”. But point out the moral pitfalls of his murderous drive and you’ve had it, in colourful expletives, as Barack Obama and the European Union found out. That’s too bad because given the climate of fear in the Philippines and the president’s popularity, any meaningful pushback could only come from abroad.
But one can’t help wishing it hadn’t come from the United States. Because no other country has caused more death and destruction in the name of fighting drugs. Ever since Richard Nixon announced the “war on drugs” in 1971, America has used it as a licence for low-intensity warfare in its neighbourhood to prevent drugs from crossing its borders. The damage, as evident in the trail of failed states the policy left behind, is comparable only to its other great crusade – the “war on terror”.