CLINTON PLAN TO HELP COLOMBIA DRAWS FIRE

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration's $1.3 billion plan to help
Colombia fight drug trafficking and leftist insurgents is facing skepticism
from military and law-enforcement officials concerned the United States
could be dragged into a long and costly struggle that may have little
impact on the drug trade.

The aid plan, which is to be presented in detail to Congress tomorrow, is
intended to help stanch the booming production of cocaine and heroin in
Colombia, strengthen the government and help it take control of a large
part of its southern territory dominated by the rebels.

But privately, some senior defense officials are unenthusiastic about the
U.S. military's growing role in the anti-drug effort and worried about
being dragged deeper into the war that has ravaged Colombia for about 40
years.

Many drug enforcement and Coast Guard officials are concerned, officials
said. While the aid package may help Colombia's beleaguered army fight the
guerrillas, they said, it does not reflect a coherent strategy to fight drugs.

Virtually none of these complaints has been aired publicly. But officials
said the arguments have been heard repeatedly in the debate over the aid
plan, reshaping some of its elements but more often overridden by
administration officials determined to establish a new U.S. commitment to
Colombia's stability.

"Their attitude is, 'We don't really want to do this,' " one senior
administration official said of generals in the Pentagon. Referring to the
Colombian insurgency, he said: "The last thing they need is another level
of engagement that has the 'I' word in it. That always has stress for the
military - it has ever since Vietnam."

The White House drug policy chief, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, dismissed
skeptics of the plan, noting some of the criticism came from agencies that
failed to win funding increases for their programs as part of the Colombia
aid package.

"Everybody tried to get aboard this mule," McCaffrey said, referring to the
administration's request for $955 million on top of the $330 million
budgeted for Colombia aid this year. But he said, "There wasn't a huge
fight among agencies over this package."

Senior administration officials said they are confident that the aid, about
two-thirds of which would go to Colombian security forces, will be approved.

Republicans in Congress have been an important part of the impetus for
greater American aid, warning that the Clinton White House risked "losing"
Colombia to the insurgents. A few congressional liberals have criticized
the aid program, but they are unlikely to slow its passage except by
attaching some conditions meant to promote greater respect for human rights
by the Colombian military.

The package is a first step in what many U.S. officials acknowledge
probably will be a years-long effort to strengthen Colombian institutions
and help the government reach a pact with three leftist guerrilla groups
and large right-wing paramilitary forces that operate around the country.

Both Colombian and U.S. officials continue to say the United States will
not engage the guerrillas directly. Nor, they said, will they aid the fight
against the guerrillas - except those who hire out to the traffickers to
protect drug fields, drug laboratories or clandestine airstrips.

At the same time, though, U.S. officials are softening their claims that
U.S. aid will not be used for counterinsurgency.

In a program summary released last month, the White House listed the
primary component of the aid plan as, "Helping the Colombian government
push into the coca-growing regions of southern Colombia, which are now
dominated by insurgent guerrillas."

Gen. Fred F. Woerner, a former commander of U.S. military forces in Latin
America, said the statement represented a significant clarification of U.S.
goals - notwithstanding the administration's assurances to the contrary.

"How do you push into an area dominated by these guys without having
anything to do with them?" he asked, referring to the rebels. "Anyone who
believes that these counternarcotics battalions will not be involved in
counterinsurgency is naive."