PERSPECTIVE ON THE WAR ON DRUGS : Jail or Kill All the Young Black Men and You Still Won’t Win : Drug cartels are billion-dollar enterprises. That kind of money isn’t floating around the ghettos.

If the drug-war mongers--federal czar William Bennett, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates and others--arrest all the young black men in America, put us in jail for life or kill us, they still won’t win their war.

If they really want to win this war (and I also want us to), why don’t they attack the real enemy and quit attacking me and my brothers?

Official reports continually describe the drug cartels as billion-dollar enterprises. I regularly see police officials basking in the media spotlight of their big, bigger and biggest drug bust while explaining that the street sales of illegal drugs “will not be significantly affected.”

All that money. Cash! Is that kind of money floating around Compton, South-Central Los Angeles or any other devastated ghetto in America? I’ve seen my brothers wearing some thick gold chains, but please!

Where is the money?

Just as the drug-war mongers keep pretending that they don’t know where the crack houses are but every kid on the block knows, everyone in America knows where the money is so why don’t they with all of their sophisticated crime-busting gadgets, increased budgets and manpower figure it out?

I respect law-enforcement officers who put their lives on the line to protect and to serve. I don’t want them killed playing at war. So I can’t comprehend why our front-line troops continue to support and take part in this ineffective war. (I’m sure every official report has us statistically winning the war. However, I have eyes, two pairs of glasses and a set of extended-wear contact lenses . . . )

Has everything we learned in Vietnam been shipped to the Arabian desert? Remember the daily body counts of how many Viet Cong were killed? They didn’t die, they multiplied!

Is the war on drugs our new Vietnam? Does it really matter how many brothers are doing how many years for selling crack cocaine.

Am I the enemy? Are brothers in South-Central running multimillion-dollar import/export businesses? Do brothers have that kind of money? Are billion-dollar international businesses really headquartered in Compton?

Why don’t the drug-war mongers get serious by identifying the real enemy and attacking them with the same zeal used to attack every black male and group of black males (that is, gangs or what they take to be gangs)?

Who is the real enemy? Common sense (which visits me occasionally) tells me that it’s the people with the money. The ones with the millions and billions. Not the brother wearing gold chains and $100 gym shoes, regardless of the pack of rock cocaine he sells. And certainly not every black male driving a new car or an old car with “faulty turn signals.”

I admit it, I don’t know who the real enemy is, but I do know where to look.

Start at the banks. The ones with the cash vaults and wire-transfer machines. That’s where the enemy will be found.

So, please let’s win this war; please, please let my brothers live without being subjected to unreasonable searches and seizures; and please free James Brown.