CONFUSION IN COLOMBIA

Colombian officials seem as confused as many Americans lately about why
U.S. helicopters, $1.3 billion and hundreds of U.S. troops have been
committed to the South American nation.

U.S. officials have been adamant that their interest is in stopping the
trade in illegal drugs, which, incidentally, has been enriching the leftist
rebels who have been fighting Colombian democracy for 40 years. America's
intervention might help Colombian troops gain the upper hand in the civil
war, the officials concede, but it's drugs, not ideology, that justify the
heavy commitment of U.S. resources.

They must have been gagging on their coffee this month, however, because
Colombian President Andres Pastrana veered from the party line. "For the
moment no proof or evidence exists that FARC [the main rebel group] is a
drug cartel," he said. No? Then why is so much U.S. money and manpower
being devoted to squashing the guerrillas?

Colombian officials were quick to react. They charged the commander of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) with drug trafficking. The
indictment is at best symbolic, because if Colombia had the power to arrest
guerrilla commanders, the civil war would have ended long ago. Still, it
was crucial from a P.R. standpoint after Pastrana's statement, because the
idea that defeating the guerrillas would dry up the drug supply is the
"official" U.S. justification for intervention.

The irony in this scramble to resurrect the drug-war rationale is that few
believe it will work. The United States has spent billions in the past
decade fighting drugs at their South American source, yet cocaine and
heroin are as plentiful on U.S. streets as ever. Until America finds a way
to curb its appetite for illegal drugs, the cartels will find a way to feed it.

The Bush administration, which is sending a few hundred more troops to
Ecuador this fall to help with Plan Colombia, should be honest with
Americans. The growing power of the Western Hemisphere's last major leftist
insurgency clearly bothers U.S. officials, and its defeat might well
justify the commitment of American G.I.s. If so, they should state their
case openly instead of continuing an incremental military buildup on the
pretext of fighting an unwinnable drug war.