COLOMBIAN QUAGMIRE

To the Editor:

Re Madeleine K. Albright's Aug. 10 Op-Ed article arguing that Colombia
requires greater assistance from the United States: The track record of
United States intervention in Latin America is abysmal.

By increasing our participation in the Colombian war, we will only squander
the gains made in the past decade of inter-American relations as well as
fuel the fires of nationalism in these countries.

Sending troops and military supplies to fight an impossible war and
throwing money into a bottomless hole are ineffectual.

Instead, the United States must fight the inaptly named drug war within its
own borders. Drug prevention and education are more effective than trying
to treat the symptoms of the drug problem: well-financed narco-guerrillas
and violence in all branches of the trafficking chain.

JETT THOMASON Irving, Tex., Aug. 11, 1999