COLOMBIA'S TURMOIL DEMANDS U.S. HELP

His first name is lost in the haze of my memory. But Major Mallory's death
in an airplane crash on a mountainside in Colombia about 35 years ago is
indelibly etched in my mind.

The year was about 1964. I was the young son of a U.S. Army intelligence
officer stationed at Fort Gulick, an army installation on the Atlantic side
of the Panama Canal Zone. Major Mallory, who had worn a green beret, also
had lived and worked there - most likely at the School of the Americas.

That controversial institution was the premier counterinsurgency training
site in the Western Hemisphere. Among those who studied at the School of
the Americas was Panama's Manuel Noriega, the future strongman who would
become a front man for drug traffickers.

But my recent flashback about Major Mallory didn't arise out of the blue.
It was inevitable, given the news several days ago that five American
service personnel on active duty had perished in an airplane crash on a
mountainside in Colombia.

Nor were my thoughts limited to reminiscences. Upon due reflection, it
struck me that U.S. policy in Latin America is going back to the future.
The victims had been on an anti-narcotics mission. But today that fight is
being made more difficult because some of the armed factions that had been
operating in the 1960s still are under arms and cooperating with the drug
traffickers.

How should the United States respond to insurgent movements that depend on
narcotrafficking for financing and have come to see money and power as an
end in itself? Are the stability and democracy of Colombia in the United
States' vital interests? Colombia already is receiving $289 billion from
Washington, making it the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel
and Egypt.

But what if prosecuting the drug war leads to fighting rebels in the field
or helping Colombian troops fight rebels? It is undeniable that some
Colombian army units have poor records in the area of human rights. Can
Washington keep things on a tight leash?

The Clinton administration denies that it wants to help fight a
counterinsurgency. Everything should be done to respect the line between
drugs and politics. But if the rebels are receiving protection money from
the drug lords, how exactly can the drug war be separated from the war
against the rebels? That is the dilemma du jour.

The need to address such questions is especially urgent because the peace
initiative undertaken by Colombian President Andres Pastrana earlier this
year is in shambles. His virtual cession of a portion of Colombia the size
of Switzerland to a major rebel group has come to naught. The rebels are
coming up with flimsy excuses to stay away from peace talks.

It is time for Americans to take the blinders off: The admixture of drug
production and armed rebellion is yielding a giant Molotov cocktail with
the potential to blow the lid off South America. That leaves Congress with
no defensible option but to give the administration the additional $500
billion in aid it is requesting for anti-narcotics operations in Colombia.

The attempted takeover of Colombia by Marxist rebels, and their collusion
with drug traffickers, already are yielding negative consequences in terms
of the country's worst economic crisis in 70 years and spiraling
immigration to the United States. Instability easily could spread next-door
to Venezuela, a major source of oil to the United States. In Caracas,
President Hugo Chavez is warning against any U.S. intervention in South
America, but consider his own actions.

An ex-coup leader, he recently held an election to solidify his support in
the Venezuelan legislature, expand his powers and challenge his nation's
Supreme Court. It turns out this super-nationalist is well on his way to
becoming a full-fledged military dictator.

It used to be fashionable in Latin America to bash Uncle Sam. From Ciudad
Juarez to Panama City, I remember seeing "Down with Yankee imperialism" and
"Yankee, go home" scrawled on a thousand walls and fences. But in Colombia
the other day, a poll found that 66 percent of respondents favor accepting
U.S. aid to prosecute the drug war.

In the aftermath of socialism's great failure, it is time once again to
stand up to the anachronistic, self-serving guerrillas of the left and the
dictator wannabes of the right.

Romanticizing extremism belongs to the past.