Pubdate: Mon, 11 Jun 2001
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2001 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Page: 3
Author: John Diamond, Washington Bureau

U.S. MISSES POINT ON COLOMBIA PROBLEM, REPORT SAYS

WASHINGTON -- The United States is confronting a deteriorating military 
situation in Colombia that could present the Bush administration with the 
choice of retreat or much deeper involvement, according to a study for the 
Air Force.

The report by the Rand Corp. released Friday criticizes the current focus 
on countering the booming narcotics trade that supplies much of the cocaine 
and heroin flowing into the U.S.

Instead, it says, President Bush should recognize that powerful leftist 
rebel groups have merged with the narco-traffickers and present an 
inseparable challenge to the government.

"U.S. efforts are focused on strengthening Colombian anti-narcotics 
capabilities while insisting that U.S. military assistance is not directed 
against the guerrillas themselves," the Rand study concludes. "U.S. policy, 
therefore, misses the point that the political and military control that 
the guerrillas exercise over an ever-larger part of Colombia's territory 
and population is at the heart of their challenge to the Bogota 
government's authority."

The democratically elected government of Colombian President Andres 
Pastrana has ceded a large swath of territory to a revolutionary group 
known as the FARC in southern Colombia, now also the locus of drug production.

Pastrana plans to yield a smaller chunk of territory in northern Colombia 
to another leftist rebel group, the ELN.

Colombia last year won U.S. support for "Plan Colombia," a 
multibillion-dollar effort to shore up civil and military institutions 
against traffickers and insurgents. Bush has a new approach, the "Andean 
Regional Initiative," steering more aid to Colombia's neighbors.

The Clinton and Bush administrations and Congress have been firmly opposed 
to even the suggestion that U.S. troops may fight in Colombia.

"None of us wants to get into a war. The word 'counterinsurgency' scares 
the hell out of everybody," Peter Rodman, Bush's nominee for a senior 
Pentagon policy job, told lawmakers at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Up to now, the U.S. has strictly limited the number of military personnel 
who can go to Colombia in advisory roles to a few hundred. The bulk of aid 
has been for aircraft, particularly helicopters, and intelligence-gathering 
equipment.

But the Rand report paints a bleak picture of the prospects for improvement 
in Colombia.

Pastrana's government is fighting with a force about the size of El 
Salvador's at the peak of that country's civil war in the 1980s, yet 
Colombia is a territory 15 times larger.

Guerrilla forces have gained strength in recent years, and U.S.-backed 
crop-eradication efforts aimed at reducing cocaine production have not 
prevented a spike in cocaine exports.

"If the Pastrana administration falters, either its counternarcotics or 
counterinsurgency approach, the United States would be confronted with an 
unpalatable choice," according to Rand. "It could escalate its commitment, 
to include perhaps an operational role for U.S. forces in Colombia, or 
scale it down, which could involve some significant costs, including a 
serious loss of credibility." 
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart