Colombia's Progress

CONTINUE FIGHTING AMERICA'S DRUG SUPPLIERS

The $2 billion U.S. investment in battling narcotics and terrorism in
Colombia is beginning to pay off. We're finally seeing positive
results from a broad strategy that targets drug cultivation as well as
insurgent narco-groups. But as was evident at a Senate panel last
week, the entrenched narcotics industry that supplies America's drug
addicts isn't going to disappear without a fight.

That's why the United States needs to continue to provide aid to the
strong government of President Alvaro Uribe, which is committed to
securing Colombia and defeating the narco-terrorists. To pull out now
risks losing hard-won progress against the organized-crime networks
that would destabilize Colombia for profit and give free rein to the
world's largest cocaine suppliers.

The stakes are high. Colombia's three largest illegal militias became
criminal Mafias long ago. These insurgents found that they could
finance their violence by partnering with the narcos -- and all of
them profited from the resulting chaos.

In the last three years, the United States has poured nearly $2
billion into a massive counter-narcotics effort dubbed Plan Colombia.
The aid provided mostly military equipment and training, but also
support for the country's democracy. Then last year, recognizing that
the illegal armies were part of the drug problem, Congress rightly
removed strings and allowed U.S. aid to be used against the three
primary insurgent groups -- all of which are considered terrorist
groups by the U.S. government.

Signs of progress were noted by those testifying before the Senate
International Narcotics Control Caucus last week. Gen. James Hill,
head of the U.S. Southern Command, said that eradicating coca and
poppy plantings, the base for cocaine and heroin, had cut into the
cash flow of the FARC, Colombia's largest illegal army.

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos also testified that the
Uribe administration is committed to eradicating the drugs. The
10-month-old Uribe government has taken great strides to control
violence and make Colombians feel safer.

Yet sustained progress won't be cheap or easy. A U.S. Government
Accounting Office study concluded that Colombia lacks the money and
trained personnel to fully take over the drug-eradication program as
planned in 2006, and that these programs may cost $230 million a year
to sustain. We know, too, that as drug crops have been eradicated in
Colombia, plantings have increased in neighboring Peru and Bolivia.

The United States may need to review its counter-drug strategy. We may
need incentives and aid to control the spillover effects from
Colombia's drug industry and strengthen vulnerable democracies. But in
no case should we withdraw from the fight and open the floodgates for
cocaine cowboys and the crack cocaine that devastated U.S. inner-city
communities. Those who think that South American narcotics don't pose
as much of a threat to America as al Qaeda are mistaken.