REMEMBER VIETNAM?

Clinton escalates drug war in Colombia

There was a rueful saying about this nation's bitter adventure in Southeast
Asia three decades back.

Bowdlerized a bit for readers of a family newspaper, the sentiment was:
"When you're up to your crotch in crocodiles, it's hard to remember you came
to drain the swamp."

President Clinton was in Cartagena, Colombia, this week on a swamp-draining
mission. He handed over a $1.3 billion package of military and social
assistance backing President Andres Pastrana's promise to mount a $7.5
billion program to fight the drug trade, stimulate the economy and reform
the judicial system. Pastrana will spend $4 billion of his country's own
money and get the rest from neighbors and the United Nations.

Cue the crocs.

At least so says one of Pastrana's neighbors, Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez. In Brazil for a South American summit in Brasilia starting
Wednesday, Chavez characterized the Clinton-Pastrana deal as an effort to
combat drug traffickers and leftists guerrillas. He said it could engulf
much of South America in a Vietnam-like war.

"It would be very dangerous if the operation leads to a military escalation
of the conflict," Chavez said. "It could lead us to a Vietnamization of the
whole Amazon region."

Clinton's rejoinder: "This assistance is for fighting drugs, not making war.
The civil conflict and the drug trade go hand-in-hand in cultivating misery
for the people of Colombia."

The war is already made. The fighting between factions has killed 35,000
people in 10 years. In the past year alone, the various groups have
kidnapped 2,500 people to hold for ransom or to be killed as political
statements.

Pastrana's escalation against the drug gangs and political factions won't be
contained by his 1,400-mile border with Venezuela or his 900-mile border
with Brazil. Peru, Ecuador and Panama likely will get their share of spill
from the action as well.

We paid for most of the 36-year strife already by continued consumption of
cocaine and the other drugs produced in Colombia and shipped to markets in
the United States. All previous efforts to stem the production have been as
fruitless as the increasingly draconian efforts to stifle demand. Pumping
money directly into the country will buy more deadly force before it will
instill sanity.

Clinton famously objected to the war in Vietnam. Now he is handing out
buckets to another gang of swamp-drainers.