WASTED?

Colombian Aid Seems Unlikely To Win The Drug War

As President Clinton proudly poured more American money down the
rathole that is the drug war last week -- this time, $1.3 billion to
Colombia to train and outfit a new antidrug brigade -- neither the
major presidential candidates nor the congressional leadership seem to
be questioning this costly folly. Indeed, House Speaker Dennis
Hastert, R-Ill., even accompanied Mr. Clinton on the coca-field trip.

Allow us to ask a few questions:

Does it make sense to hand billions over to a government that has lost
control of half of its territory to Marxist rebel groups and whose
military has close ties to right-wing paramilitary forces prone to
slaughtering peasants?

Does anybody believe that the 60 helicopters included in the package
will be exclusively used for antidrug efforts?

Where's the cost benefit in putting still more money into the
situation, when Colombian coca production and the four-decade-old
guerrilla war have dramatically expanded as American aid has increased
in the past few years?

If the supply is curtailed in Colombia, won't other nations step
forward to serve Americans' drug habit? Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and
Venezuela are the neighbors most likely to see refugees and coca
plants spill across their borders with Colombia in the wake of a
U.S.-funded crackdown on the growing, processing and shipping of coca
and cocaine. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent shivers through
many observers when he spoke of the likelihood that the U.S. money
would lead to "the Vietnamization of the entire Amazon region." But
plantings also have been spotted in Africa.

The assumption has been that America's drug problem is best addressed
at its points of supply and demand. Whether the drug war is being
properly fought at home by the cops, courts and drug counselors is
fodder for another editorial (certainly, the statistics showing that
cocaine use has decreased by 70 percent in the past 15 years are
encouraging).

But what George W. Bush, Al Gore and more of their fellow Americans
ought to be questioning this week is whether the latest Colombian aid
package amounts to throwing good money after bad.