It would not do much good to drive coca cultivation from Peru into neighboring Ecuador or chase cocaine labs from Colombia to Brazil.
Paradoxically, the destruction of dozens of cocaine labs by U.S. and Peruvian forces has only encouraged the coca processors to be more efficient.
It also approved Bolivia, where cocaine trafficking surged again after the conclusion of an American military operation to help authorities shut down cocaine labs.
But its conclusion - spend more money on dismantling cocaine labs and military aid to foreign governments - makes no sense.
Attempts to find cocaine labs operating in the jungle in Colombia and Bolivia have repeatedly failed when helicopters were used.
"He doesn't make trips to the cocaine labs, the way Escobar does," said a United States official familiar with drug matters.
Like the cocaine labs of Colombia, Myanmar's heroin refineries are temporary facilities buried deep in the jungle.
Even if the cocaine labs and the FARC were to disappear tomorrow, this chasm would not.
The agents said they believed a second cocaine lab, similar in size to the one seized yesterday, is already operating somewhere in Brooklyn.
The police are willing, even eager, to raid cocaine labs, and they have excellent information on where to look.