Pubdate: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066 Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/ SECOND THOUGHTS ON COLOMBIA Backed by foreign policy heavyweights on Capitol Hill, the Clinton administration, like fools rushing in, turned the fight against Colombian drug-trafficking into a multibillion-dollar international military crusade. Now some people are getting cold feet. Rep. Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has done an about-face. The New York Republican sent a letter to the White House last week withdrawing support from the decision by President Clinton and the GOP-controlled House and Senate to direct $1.3 billion in drug-fighting aid primarily to the military in Colombia. In the letter to White House drug policy coordinator Barry McCaffrey, Gilman said he now believes this "Plan Colombia" may put America on the path toward a "major mistake." He called for a "mid-course correction" and a shift of all the approved aid to the Colombian National Police. What on earth was Gilman thinking when he voted last summer to approve Plan Colombia, a $7.5 billion strategy concocted by U.S. and Colombian officials to bolster the Colombian armed forces in their fight against narcotics and to promote alternative crops and human rights? The plan aims to halve production over five years in Colombia--believed to be the source of most of the heroin and cocaine that comes to the U.S. This plan has been a "major mistake" from the start. It showers money on the Colombian military, but the Colombian military is a major part of the problem in that country. Paramilitaries operate with impunity under the nose of the Colombian armed forces. Critics wisely warn that adding more helicopters and military aid to the mix could well escalate the conflict with leftist guerrillas, who operate with drug traffickers, and drag the U.S. into another civil war. The Colombian army has shown itself to be manifestly ineffective so far in fighting drug traffic in the south. There were plenty of human rights organizations warning Clinton and Congress about the downside of Plan Colombia. Why the rush to militarize the conflict? So Gilman's abrupt reversal is welcome, but tragically late. Nor does it go far enough. He notes that the Colombian police have more experience fighting drugs, have instituted reforms in their ranks and have been far less guilty of human rights abuses than the military. But whether U.S. gold rains down on the military or police, this still has the feeling of a quagmire, one from which the U.S. may not be able to extricate itself. It's time to think not just about switching this money from one Colombian pocket to another. It's time to rethink the whole thing. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake