ABSTRACT
The United Staes (US) government can make war on the scale of World War II and the Gulf War with a great deal of efficiency and potency; it cannot wage war at the lower end of the conflict scale with the same degree of skill. One front is, obviously, the international system, where the US government plays out its efforts at low-intensity conflict (LIC), and where officials must work within the limits of US power and influence. The difficulty the US government has in handling LIC is bad news because LIC has become the norm in international conflict. With the addition of drug interdiction to the definition of LIC, the number of low-intensity wars waged by the United States has risen even higher. There is a multitude of reasons why the US political system finds LIC indigestible. The involvement of the military in drug interdiction is likely to accelerate the armed forces' discomfort with LIC.
