HISTORY HAUNTS DRUG-WAR PLAN

Holding up a map of Southeast Asia, the government of Panama last week sent
U.S. officials the diplomatic equivalent of "Hell, no, we won't go." Any
way you looked at the map, signposts pointed to a quagmire in the Southern
Hemisphere.

In nearby Colombia, President Clinton and a bipartisan entourage of 35 U.S.
officials were not amused by this rebuff. They had wanted to use the
Central American nation as a staging area to fight Marxist-backed
narcotics-trafficking in Colombia.

There they were in Cartagena, all set for lights, camera and action, when
Panama pulled the plug. Right behind Panama was Venezuela, whose president,
Hugo Chavez, said such intervention, albeit at Colombia's behest, "could
lead us to a Vietnamization of the whole Amazon region."

Not at all, said Clinton. "This is not Vietnam," he insisted, "nor is it
Yankee imperialism." Republicans and Democrats in his entourage agreed.

As the politicians once more scrutinize the definition of "is," here's what
to expect now that the Washingtonians are safely back in their brownstones
thousands of miles from Bogota.

Americans, through Plan Colombia and congressional approval of a $1.3
billion aid package, have just entered Colombia's 40-year-old civil war and
have done so with no exit in sight. (See Vietnam.)

That strategic oversight combines with the bizarre arrangement that
undermines whatever good intentions are behind the war on
narco-trafficking. Blood will be on Democratic and Republican hands long
after the Clinton administration expires.

Panamanians see what's coming. And Panama's president has a good memory.

Not only does the Colombian initiative evoke Vietnam, but a military
escalation in the region would, as Panamanians insist, represent
regressive, rather than progressive, policy. Nations bordering Colombia
want diplomacy and dialogue to end the civil war, not just the drug war.

In Colombia it's difficult to tell guerrillas from drug traffickers because
sometimes they inhabit the same body. Sometimes the drug lords use
civilians as shields. It's pure folly to trust the Colombian military,
recipient of 60 helicopters from Uncle Sam, to not target civilians given
its record thus far.

At the same time the Central American region moves toward further
democratization, this buildup in foreign aid and materiel--virtually
certain to be followed by more advisers and possibly deployments--tilts
things in the wrong direction. This is Vietnam and Nicaragua all rolled
into one.

In Ronald Reagan's presidency, when $1 million daily went to El Salvador
and Thomas Pickering was U.S. ambassador there, it was a Republican
administration and a Democratic Congress. Now there's a Democratic
president and a GOP Congress. And Pickering, promoted to undersecretary of
state, promotes U.S. policy supportive of Colombian President Andres
Pastrana's $7.5 billion plan.

In Reagan's day, U.S. funds went to fight leftist guerrillas in Nicaragua.
Under Clinton, money goes to fight Marxist-backed coca-growers in Colombia.
It took the diplomacy of the Contadora nations, not just military might, to
get peace in Central America. It may take such an alliance, not the
prescribed foreign military aid, to bring peace to Colombia.

But where there's drugs and money, there's the potential for wrong. In the
Iran-contra scandal of the Reagan administration, some Americans took part
in drugs-for-arms-for-hostages schemes. Here's what has happened already
with Colombia:

In July, a federal judge sentenced Col. James Hiett, former commander of
the U.S. military's anti-drug operation in Colombia, to five months in
prison for trying to launder $25,000 from his wife's heroin and cocaine
operation. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota was used as a point of transfer.

Also consider this: The U.S. aid package, including helicopters and
military "advisers," comes just as Republicans have blamed Clinton for
stretching military commitments too far. Yet, GOP support for Plan Colombia
stretches things further over time.

But, as House Speaker Dennis Hastert said, it's necessary. The Illinois
Republican said last week in Colombia, "For the sake of our children and
grandchildren, we can't afford to let this fail."

Here's how else Congress will spin this venture: The Colombian aid package
is a supplement to a military construction bill that would, conceivably,
improve conditions for U.S. troops domestically.

Supporters of Plan Colombia insist this won't be a U.S. military operation
but that story won't hold up for long. The Miami Herald last week reported
that U.S. Brig. Gen. Keith Martin of the Southern Command will oversee the
military aspects of the Colombian package.

This won't be a tidy operation by a long shot.