GUNS AT THE READY

Colombia's FARC A Threat Still Worth Fighting

Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, America's biggest declared threat
was not the one posed by al-Qaeda but rather by Latin America's
oldest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The war on terrorism has distracted this nation from the war on
drugs, which continues to absorb billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in
Colombia. Considering the ongoing carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan, it
almost seems quaint to return our attention to that ragtag gang of
Marxist leftovers roaming Colombia's countryside.

Lest we forget, the FARC embodies every outrage and atrocity that
Americans condemn in far-away places like Darfur or Sierra Leone. It
supports a nationwide kidnapping mafia that ransoms infants, the
elderly, nuns, legislators and human-rights activists. Three American
contractors are among the group's current hostages, along with Ingrid
Betancourt, a Colombian senator kidnapped in 2002.

The FARC forces kids as young as 12 into combat, long before they can
understand what it means to end another human's life.

It is a major beneficiary of Colombia's multibillion-dollar drug
trade, belying every value Karl Marx espoused. Despite massive drug
proceeds and protection money being funneled to FARC's leadership,
there is little evidence that any has helped the rural poor whom the
guerrillas claim to defend.

Violence is second only to drugs as the FARC's biggest export. It was
years ahead of al-Qaeda in discovering the killing power of propane
gas and plastic explosives. It has arranged guns-for-cocaine deals
with international arms traders via Venezuela, whose sympathetic
Socialist government has presented minimal roadblocks.

Last month, the FARC abducted 11 provincial lawmakers, hoping to
pressure President Alvaro Uribe into negotiating a prisoner exchange.
When they were killed, the guerrillas said in a prepared statement,
"We failed in our mission to care for them and bring them to a
hostage exchange."

This is only the most recent example of the rebels' weak excuses and
twisted ideology, which have driven Colombians overwhelmingly to
support Mr. Uribe's iron-fisted response.

We don't always agree with the way U.S. taxpayer dollars have been
spent in Colombia, but the FARC's anachronistic "revolutionary
struggle" convinces us that this is one fight worth winning.