COCAINE WAR CANNOT BE WON FROM THE AIR

Different landscape, different objectives, same tactics -- the airborne
chemical warfare waged on coca farms could have much in common with the
attempt to turn the tide of Southeast Asian jungle warfare with the
defoliant Agent Orange.

Air power alone can't eradicate cocaine production any more than it could
rip the canopy off an entire jungle to expose the enemy beneath. The war
has to be fought on the ground, too.

U.S. policy acknowledges that lesson, offering Colombian farmers -- they're
not enemies, just people trying to reap a living from the soil -- an
alternative to herbicidal bombardment.

Farmers are uprooting coca plants in exchange for government-promised
electricity service, roads and seeds for new crops. U.S. agricultural and
marketing expertise should make sure the seeds of a new economy germinate
and flourish. If not, the lucrative coca bushes will reclaim legitimate
farms as surely as the jungle covered up any trace of American resolve in
Southeast Asia.