Quote Leo Day:

[skywaterblue]

Leo McGarry: Do you think that increasing the body count is going to act as a deterrent?

President Josiah Bartlet: You're damn right I do.

Leo McGarry: Well then, you're just as stupid as these people who think that capital punishment will act as a deterrent to drug kingpins. As if drug kingpins didn't live their day to day lives under the possibility of execution, and their executions are a lot less dainty than ours, and tend to take place without the bother and expense of due process. So, my friend, if you want to start using American military strength as the arm of the Lord, you can do that. We're the only superpower left. You can conquer the world, like Charlemagne. But you better be prepared to kill everyone. And you had better start with me because I will raise up an army against you and I will beat you.

Comments

[ancientsavvy.livejournal.com]

I have always loved that scene! Oh Leo! :-(

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Leo!

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Increasing a body count may or may not act as a "deterrent," but it most definitely acts as a preventative. No one who is killed ever gets to fight again. And no army has an infinite recruiting pool.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

It's working fairly well with terrorism, only because we seem to be geographically containing them. The war on drugs will never work, however, so long as cocaine is expensive and countries where coca grows are impoverished.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

There's more of an incentive to become a drug dealer (make money fast!) than to become a terrorist (fight hopelessly, then die!).

The War on Drugs is stupid. It is also winnable, but the price would be most of our freedoms. We're better off giving it up.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Money will always be more motivating for most people than ideology. True.

The War on Drugs IS stupid, especially our war on marijuana. I know Obama won't do it, but he should legalize it just for the tax revenue.

[fashionbeast.livejournal.com]

The war on drugs isn't winnable for the sheer facts that people want drugs.
William Burroughs pointed this out, and he would know. The drug problem is like a pyramid. At the top, you have the Drug Lords, at the bottom, the Addicts. In between, you have the entire industry from harvesting and processing, to trafficking, to dealing.
The fatal fallacy of the Drug War was the idea that the key to toppling the pyramid was to aim for the top. So long as the base exists, it will always provide for the peak to regrow.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

*sniffle*

Oh, Leo...

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Leo. :)

[rosmar.livejournal.com]

Love that scene. Love that episode. Love that man. RIP. :(

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

It's a good one.

[soaked-in-stars.livejournal.com]

I love this one. ♥

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Me too. :)