INTO THE COLOMBIAN JUNGLE

CONGRESSIONAL passage of a $1.3 billion aid package for Colombia, foc
using on plans to eradicate drug production in rebel-dominated areas
of that country, offers little hope of either cutting cocaine and
heroin flows or enhancing the U.S. image in Latin America.

The more likely results are increased bloodshed in a 36-year civil
conflict, thousands of civilians displaced and sickened by aerial
fumigation of illicit coca crops, and widespread denunciation of an
American role with echoes of Vietnam.

The Clinton administration's concern for the Bogota regime of
President Andres Pastrana is understandable. Democracy in the unstable
region needs help.

But the emphasis on military helicopters to ferry specially trained
Colombian soldiers and police on anti-drug missions in remote areas is
not the kind of nation-building a future generation will look back on
gratefully. And the U.S. experience with past efforts to attack
narcotics trafficking at the foreign source - because of the failure
to control it in our own streets and schools - is anything but
encouraging.

No matter how our $1.3 billion is spent in the Colombian outback, the
bad stuff will be available from our street-corner pusher. Wanna bet?