U.S. Southern Command Officials See Drug War As Top Priority

INTERNATIONAL April 1993

With the U.S. military fully engaged in the war on drugs, high ranking Air Force, Navy, and Army commanders from the U.S. Southern Command are stressing an even greater role for the military in the post-Communist era (Lt. Col. Robert Harmon, Lt. Col. Ramon Malave, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Miller, and Capt. William Nadolski, "Counterdrug Assistance: The Number One Priority," Military Review, March 1993, p. 26).

Air Force officers Robert Harmon and William Nadolski, Navy officer Charles Miller, and Army officer Ramon Malave, all of whom hold important positions in the U.S. Southern Command's anti-drug operations, jointly authored an overview of military involvement and goals for the magazine Military Review. The officers are uniformly enthusiastic about such military involvement, stressing the successes of the last three years and down-playing limitations and failures.

They conclude: "It is a long-term effort, with prospects of many delays and potentially serious reverses. However, if the leaders of the United States and our host nations remain united and resource our shared counterdrug objectives effectively, we will win. It is a 'One-Team, One-Fight proposition'."