COLOMBIA'S WAR

Bush, Congress Should Consider Military Aid

The Bush administration and Congress should give serious consideration to
Colombian President Andres Pastrana's desperate plea that it allow him to
use U.S. military aid against his country's leftist rebels.

At present, U.S. law limits Colombia's use of U.S. military equipment and
training to anti-narcotics operations.

But the civil war in the South American country took a defining turn last
Wednesday when Mr. Pastrana seized the territory that he had ceded to the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in November 1998 as part of an
effort to engage it in peace talks.

Mr. Pastrana had no choice but to take back the land. The rebels had
demonstrated no inclination to engage in meaningful talks, and they were
using the area to plot more mayhem.

Since Mr. Pastrana sent the army in, the situation has grown more tense.
Last week, the rebels hijacked an airplane carrying a prominent Colombian
senator, whom they still have not released, and on Saturday they kidnapped
a presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt.

Given the administration's commitment to fighting "terrorism with a global
reach" and to defending democracy in the Americas, it is difficult to
ignore the Colombian's plea. The rebels' reach is certainly global in the
sense that they participate in narcotics trafficking that undermines the
United States and other American republics. They are certainly a dire and
urgent threat to one of the Americas' oldest democracies. And since last
week, Mr. Pastrana's government has classified them as a terrorist
organization rather than as an insurgent group that fights for social change.

The domestic political sensitivities are great. Congress would want to know
that the United States would not be moving onto a slippery slope that would
result in U.S. ground troops. And it would want to make any expanded aid
contingent on Colombia's willingness to do more to fight its rightist
paramilitaries. Mr. Pastrana probably would be willing to meet those
conditions.

As first steps, Congress should approve the administration's request that
it provide $98 million to train and equip Colombian troops to protect a key
oil pipeline. It should renew the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which it
allowed to lapse last year and which allows Colombia to export certain of
its goods tariff-free to the United States. And it should improve the
program that encourages producers of coca (the raw material for cocaine) to
grow alternative crops. Congressional auditors recently criticized the
program as deficient.

If the United States can send military aid halfway around the world to help
the Philippines put down an insurrection, it can do the same in its back yard.