'PLAN COLOMBIA' LEADS THE U.S. INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS

A $1.3-Billion Aid Package Will Do Little In The War On Drugs Without A
Drop In Demand.

There is a famous passage in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," written
in 1899, in which Marlow, the protagonist, comes upon "a man-of-war
anchored off the coast" of North Africa, firing into the jungle. He
describes the scene: "There wasn't even a shed there, and [the man-of-war]
was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on
thereabouts.... In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she
was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent."

Conrad shows the absurdity of elaborate military technology when faced with
a dispersed, populous and poorly identified enemy.

"There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding," he concludes. Last
month, U.S. and Colombian officials celebrated the opening of a new base
for the surveillance of drug trafficking in Colombia.

The Associated Press described the celebration: "U.S. and Colombian
officials ... were treated to a loud demonstration of the kind of firepower
Washington is providing under a $1.3-billion aid package.

"Patrol boats bristling with machine guns and grenade launchers zipped in
formations along the muddy Orteguaza River, blasting away at the jungle on
the opposite bank.

"Helicopters and warplanes shredded the jungle with bombs, rockets and
machine guns."

A Catholic priest was brought in to bless the radar station.

Apparently no one pointed out the event's literary predecessor or remarked
on its absurdity.

The $13-million surveillance facility was built with U.S. funds as part of
"Plan Colombia," a sweeping U.S.-sponsored program is intended to wipe out
Colombia's production of coca and heroin poppy.

As with Conrad's man-of-war, the pomp and bombast of this display of modern
firepower revealed only a basic futility.

Advanced military technology can decimate a jungle, but what can it do to
achieve Plan Colombia's stated goal of ending the supply of drugs.

More than 200,000 acres of drug crops have been destroyed by aerial
application of herbicides so far this year, yet coca and heroin poppy
production has increased. The targets of Plan Colombia are fields of drug
crops.

Just like the unseen targets of the man-of-war in "Heart of Darkness,"
these crops make for a dispersed, populous and poorly identified "enemy."

Every time a field is destroyed by herbicides dropped from U.S. planes
flown by U.S. pilots, another field is planted somewhere else.

Why. Because supply responds to demand.

The war on drugs hit Peru and Bolivia before it arrived in Colombia.

U.S. narcotics officials regularly boast of the successes of these
campaigns, but the numbers tell a different story.

Coca production in Peru dropped by 203,000 acres between 1990 and 2000 as a
result of aggressive eradication efforts and militarization. During the
same 10-year period, coca production in Colombia rose 204,000 acres.

If and when eradication and militarization lead to a decrease in drug
production in Colombia, drug crops surely will begin to be produced
somewhere else.

The effects of this policy are tragic.

Legal crops grown near targeted drug crops are destroyed by the
herbicide-spraying missions, leaving thousands of Colombians without income
or nourishment.

Fish die, and livestock become sick from herbicide exposure.

Children develop rashes and eye infections.

Amazon forest is destroyed as farmers move to increasingly remote areas in
an attempt to evade the sprayings.

Military funding--which makes up more than 70% of Plan Colombia--supports
an armed force that is notorious for its cooperation with right-wing
paramilitaries, which kidnap and kill hundreds of civilians each year.

Still, U.S. and Colombian officials act triumphant.

"We are winning this war," exclaimed Brig. Gen. Mario Montoya, commander of
Colombia's southern forces, at the surveillance base dedication.

His optimism rings hollow: Until we in the United States are willing to
acknowledge where the source of the drug problem actually lies--here at
home, in a culture that produces extraordinary levels of drug abuse--how
can we hope to do anything but show off our muscle, ceremonially obliterate
some jungle now and then and endanger the lives of impoverished farmers
whom we mistake for "the enemy".

There is indeed "a touch of insanity in the proceeding."