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pounded Europe’s cities into rubble in the dark days of World War II: all it took here was a few street-corner drug-dealers and their clients.

In The War Zone What “rogue state” would not dream of disrupting the U.S. economy to the tune of $50 billion a year? By some estimates, that is what the trade in drugs has been costing the United States. In one respect, the term “war on drugs” is misleading, in the sense that it does not go far enough. For typical wars have always had the effect of mobilizing, even inspiring, the American people. No human foe has ever succeeded in demoralizing whole communities in the way that drugs have, miring so many thousands in indifference and defeatism.

The victims of drug abuse are all-too-common in inner cities and rural America alike. The victims include not only the addicts but their friends and families as well as society at large.

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THE WAR ON DRUGS