DATE=2/14/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=U-S AID FOR COLOMBIA
NUMBER=6-11681
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: President Clinton is arguing for a one-billion-
six-hundred-million dollar total aid package for
Colombia to help that troubled Latin American nation
battle drug traffickers and a pair of major guerilla
groups.
Supporters say the aid would help strengthen the
Colombian army with the goal of reducing the
production of illicit drugs that find their way into
the United States.
Opponents shudder at the prospect of deepening
involvement in Colombia's more than 30-year-long civil
war, likening it to the painful U-S involvement in
Vietnam that ended in disaster. And in the daily
press, there is plenty of thought on the subject, as
we hear from _______ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: Colombia already gets substantial aid from this
country, and there is a small cadre of military
advisers there helping the army cope with the
insurgency. President Clinton's proposal would send
many more helicopters to Bogota, and additional U-S
military personnel to retrain the anti-narcotic squads
of the Colombian Army.
Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine,
most of which ends up in the United States, in one
form or another. A large amount of heroin entering
the United States also either comes from Colombia, or
travels through it on its way to America.
Just as members of Congress in both parties are either
in favor or against the additional aid, both opinions
can also be found in the daily press. We begin our
sampling in Texas, where the Houston Chronicle
supports the emergency aid package.
VOICE: Congress should support President Clinton's
request for a one-point-six billion dollar aid
package for Colombia, to be used in fighting the
drug lords and also in taming the rebel forces
there. ... Colombia is ... a nation torn apart
by narco-terrorism, communist guerrillas and
right-wing death squads. But Colombian
President Andres Pastrana has good reason to
believe that the communist guerrillas have grown
tired of the long war they have been fighting
... and now may be willing to lay down their
arms and become part of Colombia's democracy as
a political party. President Pastrana so far
has avoided any taint of corruption and has
earned the confidence of President Clinton. ...
Nevertheless, in approving the emergency aid,
Congress should make it clear that U-S forces
must avoid getting dragged into a civil war in
Colombia.
TEXT: That was the opinion of the Houston Chronicle.
Taking the opposite view and recalling the ghost of
the unsuccessful campaign in Vietnam, is The St.
Petersburg [Florida] Times, which argues against the
aid. It titles the editorial: "It's not our war."
VOICE: Anyone wondering where the next black hole for
our military resources will open up should look
south. The Clinton administration's anti-drug
aid plan for Colombia has the potential for
absorbing a large chunk of our military budget
and, if we're not careful, sucking the United
States into a guerrilla war that parallels
Vietnam. Even some of our military leaders are
expressing concerns about what we may be getting
into. ... There are alternatives to what the
Clinton administration is proposing. Officials
at the D-E-A [Drug Enforcement Administration]
suggest that training Colombia's special anti-
drug police teams, as opposed to its military,
would be more effective and less costly. Other
U-S officials say pressing Colombia to make
internal changes, including reforming the
judiciary, could make a difference. Of course,
the real answer to combating the flow of
Colombian cocaine is for the United States to
refocus its drug war on prevention and
treatment.
TEXT: On New York's Long Island, Newsday also feels
the idea of more aid is - in its words -- a "losing
proposition."
VOICE: Not only is it unlikely to prove effective in
interdicting drugs, but it may embroil the
United States in a vicious civil war where it's
hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.
And it would turn tiny Colombia into the third
biggest recipient of U-S military aid, just
behind Israel and Egypt.
TEXT: Although the Washington Post has severe
reservations, and worries that Colombia could become,
in its words, "an Andean Vietnam," the paper supports
the aid as the lesser of two evils.
VOICE: We agree that the anti-drug rationale is a
distinction without a difference - - but we
support aid for Colombia nevertheless. Indeed,
we wonder why preventing an unpopular and
thuggish army with a long record of kidnapping
and assassination ... should necessarily be a
more suspect objective than breaking up one of
the drug cartels' protection forces. As always,
such an effort must be weighed not only against
the undeniable costs of plunging in but also
against the potential costs of doing nothing.
... The best reason for the aid, however, is
that it will help in the search for a negotiated
settlement to the war, which is the strategic
objective of both President Pastrana and
President Clinton.
TEXT: In Southern California, The [Santa Anna] Orange
County Register recalls the earlier days of the Cold
War in Central and South America, and calls the idea
of more aid to Colombia now, the "U-S's dopey policy."
VOICE: Although today's U-S support is given in the
name of the Drug War rather than the Cold War,
many of the dynamics are strikingly similar to
earlier days. Leftists are taking hostages,
running drugs, assassinating opponents and
engaging in altogether brutal tactics. And,
also like the old days, the government is
accused of violating human rights and allowing
right-wing paramilitaries to carry on a dirty
war against the insurgents. ...Still, the end of
the Cold War shouldn't lull Americans to sleep
as our nation becomes more deeply enmeshed in
Colombian hostilities. As Ivan Eland, a foreign
policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute
in Washington, told us, U-S efforts in Colombia
can lead us too deeply into the conflict.
`There's always a danger of it becoming another
Vietnam.'
TEXT: The California paper concludes by suggesting
more effort be made to wean Americans off drugs, as
the most effective way of reducing the problems in the
jungles of Colombia.
On that note, we conclude this sampling of comment on
the current proposal to boost U-S aid to Colombia to
help combat illegal narcotics production linked to a
guerrilla insurgency.
NEB/ANG/gm
14-Feb-2000 15:33 PM EDT (14-Feb-2000 2033 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
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