One way to fight a "war"

There is a lot of arguing over ways to fight various wars. Some will advocate for going all out. "Total war is the only answer", they say. Others will go the other way and say war solves nothing. Then there are the wars that aren't really wars at all. The war on drugs is one of those. Here the arguments are often similar but in this war, there are some people who say the way to fight the war is to declare all drugs as being legal and this will remove the incentive for the so called drug lords and their minions to be involved because prices will drop. Some would call this not winning the war but capitulating to the enemy. The other side won't have soldiers killing people anymore because they don't need to. They will have won.

We've been fighting this war a number of different ways: keep new users from getting started on drugs, help current users to stop using drugs, intercept the drugs as they come into the country, find and arrest the people who distribute the drugs and in some cases destroy the plants that are used to make the drugs in the first place. It is this final way of fighting the war that was addressed in an interesting story I heard on National Public Radio's Morning Edition this morning. Here is a link to the place where you can hear the story yourself.

What they are finding is that one small area of Columbia which used to be one of the highest coca producing areas of the country is now seeing production plummet. The reason is that the government is helping to develop the area. They are building schools and roads. They are helping the farmers find alternative produce to plant. Because there is less coca production, the armed rebel groups are staying away and leaving the people alone to take care of their businesses and their families. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this really works? Wouldn't it be wonderful if other places can use these methods?

The idea of destroying the coca plants and trying to get farmers to plant other crops has been tried before but now Columbia is showing that this doesn't go far enough. You have to invest more in the towns and people than just handing them some bags of seeds and tell them to go at it. They need roads to deliver their crops. Their children need education to have a hope for a better life. Isn't this what we should just be doing all the time anyway? it seems like we get so easily side-tracked by fighting various wars that we forget what we're supposed to be doing in the first place.