In the wake of the shooting down of a missionary plane by Peruvian and U.S. drug enforcement teams, Republicans are complaining that not enough is being done to understand the good side of the shooting, and are calling for restoring the anti-drug air interdiction program.

“I strongly support the Peruvians in their anti-narcotics efforts,” said Republican John Mica of Florida. “Drug couriers and drug kingpins look just like normal people. If we are to successfully fight the drug war, we must take down people that look normal. That means that there will be some innocent casualties. We must fight on; these were martyrs for the drug war, and we will create more martyrs before we win!”

He added that shooting down the plane may have been a good thing for the infant who was killed. “We are never going to win this war by allowing civil rights and being nice to people. If that means missionaries and children die, that’s a small price to pay to win the drug war. It could have been a lot worse. What if those people had landed in Peru and become addicted to crack cocaine? Then where would they be? Shooting them down was a compassionate act compared to that. The Peruvian military should be commended for saving the child from a fate worse than death.”

Another official said anonymously that the couple flying the plane were clearly attempting not to look like drug smugglers. “They were flying straight, level, and at a reasonably high altitude instead of staying low and skirting the border,” said a state department official. “This is classic drug smuggler behavior: they were trying not to look like a drug smuggler.”

Representative Mark Souder, Republican from Indiana, agreed, and complained to State Department anti-drug official John Crow that “not enough has been done to show that this was a valid shoot-down. We’re conservative Republicans who have carried the ball here for the drug war, but you’re making it very difficult for us. Can’t you at least plant some cocaine on them afterwards to make it look like they really were drug-runners?” Crow replied that while that might be “an easy thing to do in the United States when stopping motorists or pedestrians,” it can be more difficult “when shooting planes down into the Amazon jungle. Sometimes we don’t get to the wreckage first.”