Rand Beers

It's been so long since Beers jumped ship to join the Kerry campaign that I'd forgotten--until Counterpunch published this profile. While it won't change my Anybody But Bush position, it serves as a useful reminder that "Anybody"--if elected--will need to be carefully watched and/or heavily criticized. Not being Bush isn't good enough.

Short version of the Counterpunch profile: Beers defends the cruel practice of aerial fumigation in Colombia, which devastates farmland, whether used for coca cultivation or not. This practice hurts poor farmers the most--not only are their crops and land ruined, they are subject to health problems related to exposure to chemicals. Cocaine production is generally not affected by this spraying--as anyone living in an urban area here in the US can attest to.

Beers even, bizarrely, tried to link revolutionary movements in this hemisphere to the Middle East terrorism, although he later recanted. However, as some have noted, identification with Al Qaeda among South Americans is in fact growing--I guess they adopt the stance, to paraphrase James Brady, that "the enemy of the enemy is my friend."

By the way: has anyone heard anything about Brady's mission lately?