Word: civilizations
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...sent members of the National Guard and Army soldiers on raids to search and capture marijuana plots on federal lands. Camouflaged and armed, arriving in helicopters reportedly used in the invasion of Panama, these troops have aroused the ire of surrounding communities. And justifiably so. The action threatens the civil rights of American citizens, both now and in the future...
When your backyard becomes a war zone, you might grow angry, throw tantrums or call your Congressperson. Or you might even, like the Drug Policy Foundation and the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project, file multi-million dollar lawsuits against William Bennett and his czarist policies. Whatever the gains of troop employment (insignificant by many accounts), the government cannot afford to create this unnecessary hostility towards its assault on drugs...
...beyond these practical considerations lies the threat of government abuse of power. Even if we consider the Green Sweep incident an aberration, even if we ignore the rising clamor from targeted zones in other states such as Oregon, Missouri and Kentucky, we can hardly discount the potential for civil liberties violations...
This new drug enforcement policy won't turn the United States into a police state overnight. But every little extension of the military sphere must be taken with extreme caution. We must ask ourselves whether the advantages of military action justify the undermining of civil authority in a given problem area...
...what began with Franklin D. Roosevelt's massive coalition of the poor, minorities and urban residents eventually gave the less advantaged in this country an institutionalized voice. A Democratic voice that--despite its faults--led to tremendous advances in civil rights, social services and environmental protection...