Burdened U.S. military cuts role in drug war

The LA Times has been following Congress' push to get the Pentagon more involved in counternarcotics--see the rundown from last month here.  Here's the latest from Josh Meyer:

Air and sea patrolling is slashed on southern smuggling routes
WASHINGTON, Jan 22, by Josh Meyer (LA Times): Stretched thin from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has sharply reduced its role in the war on drugs, leaving significant gaps in the nation's narcotics interdiction efforts...Internal records show that in the last four years the Pentagon has reduced by more than 62% its surveillance flight-hours over Caribbean and Pacific Ocean routes that are used to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and, increasingly, Colombian-produced heroin. At the same time, the Navy is deploying one-third fewer patrol boats in search of smugglers...The Department of Defense defended its policy shift in a budget document sent to Congress in October: "The DOD position is that detecting drug trafficking is a lower priority than supporting our service members on ongoing combat missions."...

Image: The US Coast Guard working...in Umm Qasr Iraq!? Photo by PA1 Tom Sperduto, USCG.