David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, I have been following events in Colombia since 1957, and I would like to think that the money that we are…”

“Mr. Chairman, I have been following events in Colombia since 1957, and I would like to think that the money that we are spending there is well spent and will reach a useful conclusion. I wish I could say that, but after watching that government and that society, especially the economic elite of that society for a long time, I have reluctantly concluded that they simply do not have the will to do what is necessary to win their own battles. I think we have drifted little by little into a long-term sustained financial and political involvement with little expectation of real success. Oh, I know, people say we have reduced this production here and reduced production there. Baloney. It is like a balloon. It just pops up somewhere else. I remember when one of the members of the Reagan administration's antidrug team came to me privately and told me in despairing terms what a tremendous waste he thought the money was that we were spending in our antidrug campaign in Latin America. And when he told me how little we actually intercepted at our borders, I was blown away, and that has not changed that much.…”