The least of these

I don't think this angle has been touched on at all or at the very least, not enough.

I am sure that us here at DU can universally agree that the "war of drugs" campaign started in the 80s was an absolute bust, completely ineffective and a unequivocal money pit.

Yet, here we are again.

I cannot imagine the death, pain, suffering and money we have sowed in the waters off the coast of South America at this point but I imagine it's a lot.
We have spent tens of millions of dollars to murder innocent people and I can't stop thinking about how this is the most American and Republican thing we could possibly do.

Americans are legendary around the world for shooting first, using wanton violence with no regard to the costs involved, and asking questions later.

That is exactly what we are doing here

We are likely spending millions of dollars a week on these operations and if you are not stopping to think about more effective ways we could have used that money and effort to actually address the root causes of drug addiction and the proliferation of drugs in poor communities, then maybe we should be thinking that way.
We have likely spent more on these operations to murder innocent people off the coast of South America over the last several weeks then we have spent on domestic drug treatment programs in multiple years combined.

The only conclusion is that it's not about stemming the tide of drugs into the US as much as it is a show of force and to simulate that the government is doing something about the proliferation of drugs in the US. Nothing more complicated than that.

In case the last 60 years has not made it clear enough: shooting your way out of a drug problem is about as effective use of resources as building a house out of mashed potatoes.

You will never stem the flow of drugs unless and until you address the root causes of drug addiction in the US.
The known driving factors of people resorting to abusive and chronic drug use is poverty, lack of opportunity, hopelessness and mental health issues. If you do not address these issues, at a community level, you will always be on the losing side of your "war on drugs".

Let me be clear, if you are a Democrat running for public office and this isn't your position then you should have to answer as to why it's not your opinion. We have serious problems and the time of lobbyists and half ass, centrist solutions is over. We need people in office that actually want to solve problems.