Pubdate: Sat, 04 May 2002 Source: Rutland Herald (VT) Copyright: 2002 Rutland Herald Contact: http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/892 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John) YET ANOTHER WAR When Attorney General John Ashcroft announced last week that the war on drugs in Colombia must now be seen as a war on terrorism, he was promoting a dangerously expansive vision of America's mission abroad. The 40-year insurgency has been a disaster for the people of Colombia. Leftist groups control large sections of the country, and the Colombian government has been unable to bring the conflict to an end. Part of the problem is that the Colombian military has a poor record with regard to human rights, and the military's links to right-wing paramilitary groups have made the Colombian government complicit in wide-ranging atrocities. The war on drugs has brought the United States into the middle of the conflict. The United States has provided significant aid to the Colombian military in order to bolster its war against drugs. At the same time, Sen. Patrick Leahy has been among those who have insisted that American aid be conditioned on improved behavior by the Colombian military. The United States has a sorry history in Latin America of supporting murderous military campaigns, including the depredations of right-wing death squads, in order to oppose the advance of communism. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, past U.S. administrations have winked at or made excuses for hideous human rights violations. The enemy is Colombia is not communism, though the left-wing insurgency that has persisted in the mountainous regions there might resemble the kind of leftist movements the United States at one time felt compelled to oppose. Until now, the enemy has been the drug cartels. In recent years, however, the war on drugs has grown more complex as the leftists themselves draw profits from the drug trade. Certainly, both sides in Colombia employ the methods of terrorism. Civilians are targeted. Bombs are planted. Assassinations and kidnappings occur. But President Bush launched America's war on terrorism as a way to combat terrorist organizations of "global reach." That phrase was a significant qualifier, a way to forestall American involvement in every nasty fight around the globe. Ashcroft's extension of the war on terrorism to Colombia appears to be a political tactic designed to overcome reservations by Leahy and others about proposals to increase aid to Colombia. But Leahy is not convinced that the Colombian military and its paramilitary allies have abandoned their own terrorist activities, and he is reluctant to write a blank check until he is convinced that human rights will be respected in Colombia. By making the Colombian fight a new battlefield on the war on terrorism, Ashcroft seeks to make his bid for increased money hard to resist. The danger is that America will abet the kind of right-wing terrorism that only makes matters worse. Assisting Colombia in the war on drugs is important, particularly since it is American hunger for drugs that creates the drug problem in the first place. Involving the United States in an open-ended military adventure in the mountains of Colombia is another matter altogether and is not automatically justified by bringing the campaign under the banner of the war on terrorism. Leahy's skepticism about Ashcroft's effort to expand involvement in Colombia is well justified, and his attention to the question of human rights more relevant than ever. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager