Ending the Military's Counternarcotics Mission

The US "War on Drugs" was introduced to the US public. The US military had worked with other countries combating illicit narcotics production and trafficking before that time. President Bush's February 1989 primetime speech, however, marked a shift that would lead to billions of taxpayer dollars being spent by the Department of Defense in its counternarcotics mission, named a national priority by then-President Bush and every US President since then. This book will question the results of the US military's counternarcotics effort and propose that in today's constrained fiscal environment, perhaps the military should begin to withdraw from that mission and instead refocus its efforts on its key mission areas, i.e., more tangible threats to our nation's security.