From: [C reuters] at [clari.net] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.usa.top,clari.usa.gov,clari.usa
Subject: Clinton Vows Support for New Drug Policy Chief
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 11:40:25 PST
Slugword: POLITICS-DRUGS
Threadword: politics

                                         
         WASHINGTON (Reuter) - President Clinton Wednesday vowed to  
give retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey the tools he needs to fight 
the war on drugs but the new anti-drugs policy chief said the 
United States cannot ``arrest our way'' out of the problem. 
         Clinton, who gutted the Office of National Drug Control  
Policy when he took office three years ago, reversed that 
decision and ordered its 21-person staff expanded to 150. 
         With Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiating  
at the ceremony, in which she praised McCaffrey as a ``clear 
thinking man of action,'' the 1964 West Point graduate took 
command of the drug policy office. 
         ``I'm going to be a coordinator, an energizer, a manager, a  
watchdog,'' McCaffrey told reporters. ``I'm going to be focused 
and serious about this.'' 
         But he cautioned that ``we will not arrest our way out of  
the drug challenge ... law enforcement officials of America are 
hopefully going to have our complete support but there has got 
to be more than that. 
         ``This problem isn't going to be solved by the federal  
government. The people who are going to pull this together are 
school teachers, are religious leaders, are families, are 
coaches, police officers, that's who's going to do it,'' 
McCaffrey said. 
         Clinton thanked him for ``accepting this call to lead our  
nation's battle against drugs'' and promised to support the 
combat veteran in his new mission. 
         ``Drugs are as much a threat to our security as any outside  
enemy is today,'' Clinton said. ``They are a leading cause of 
crime and violence.'' 
         ``I want you to have the tools you need,'' Clinton told  
McCaffrey, complaining that in each of the last three years the 
Republican-controlled Congress has reduced his funding requests 
for anti-narcotics efforts. 
         ``America must never send its troops into battle without  
adequate resources to get the job done,'' said Clinton, who 
directed McCaffrey to draft a plan that would shift $250 million 
from Defense Department funding to the war on drugs. 
         ``Our national security, the well-being of our children are  
at stake,'' Clinton said. ``We can create a safer, more 
drug-free society. We can do this if we work together.'' 
         Senate Majority leader Bob Dole, who has surged back into  
the lead in the Republican race to challenge Clinton in the 
November election, said he hoped that ``after three years of 
'just saying nothing,' President Clinton may finally be 
enlisting in the war on drugs.'' 
         ``The sad fact is ... that the war on drugs will be a  
tougher fight to win because of three years of misguided 
policies of the Clinton administration,'' Dole said. 
         Clinton has been criticized for not giving drug enforcement  
efforts a high priority. When he took office three years ago he 
slashed the drug policy office from from 146 full-time employees 
to just 21. 
         But in the midst of a re-election campaign in which drugs  
and crime are expected to have a high profile, Clinton has 
agreed to increase the size of the anti-drug office to 150. 
         ``I told the president that the one thing I was sure I could  
bring to the table in this whole effort was optimism,'' 
McCaffrey said. ``I think one of the challenges that we all face 
as Americans ... is to understand that we can deal with this 
problem.'' 
         McCaffrey, 53, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate last  
week and was sworn in privately Friday at his office. 
         He resigned his commission as a four-star general before  
taking the drug policy post. During his 36 years in the Army he 
was decorated for valor in combat in Vietnam and led the 24th 
Infantry Divison during the Gulf War. 
         Before taking the drug post he was chief of the U.S.  
Southern Command based in Panama, which directed all U.S. troops 
in Latin America. He succeeds Lee Brown, who stepped down to 
take a teaching post at Rice University. 
--       
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