GREEN BERETS TRAINING COLOMBIA SOLDIERS

SARAVENA, Colombia - Colombian troops battling leftist rebels are getting
inspiration from U.S. Army Green Berets - and from U.S. Gen. George S.
Patton.

On an edge of a military base amid vast expanses of scrubland in an eastern
region dominated by rebels, a sign carries the famed World War II general's
words exhorting soldiers to not sacrifice their lives for their country, but
to "make the other poor bastard die for his."

U.S. Army special forces, wearing wraparound sunglasses and armed with
assault rifles and grenade launchers, roll past in Humvees on their way to
train Colombian soldiers to set up ambushes and other offensive tactics.

As Washington's policy to Colombia shifts from fighting drugs to helping
combat rebels, the Pentagon has put dozens of Green Berets in the hottest
war zone in Colombia: Arauca state, where assassinations, car bombings,
kidnappings and other attacks occur regularly.

On Thursday night, for example, rebels fought Colombian policemen, wounding
three of them, in the center of Saravena, a town adjoining the base along
the Venezuelan border.

The American soldiers are ready to defend themselves - and expected to if
attacked. When a dozen journalists visited the Saravena base Friday, the
Americans took up defensive positions, scanning the surrounding dry savanna
for any threat.

Arauca has long been a stronghold for the rebel groups, who have been
fighting Colombia's army and paramilitary for four decades. About 3,500
people - mainly civilians - die in the conflict each year.

Rebels sometimes exchange their uniforms for civilian clothes and mix with
the local population. Asked if he had seen any Colombian rebels, one Green
Beret captain responded: "Practically every day."

The 70 American soldiers arrived in Arauca in late January to train
Colombian soldiers to protect an oil pipeline, carrying crude owned by Los
Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum, from rebel bomb attacks.

The Americans - who live in the Saravena base and other military
installations in Arauca - are barred from participating in missions with
Colombian troops.

But some are chomping at the bit.

"When the time for action comes, we have to say: 'Go. You're on your own,'"
grumbled a veteran Green Beret sergeant. "That's not the way I like to do
it."

The Colombian and U.S. governments insist they don't want American soldiers
fighting in Colombia. Underscoring the sensitivity, U.S. Black Hawk
helicopters that were to shuttle the Green Berets between training bases in
Arauca have been grounded.

"What happens if during one of the flights they get fired upon, they return
fire, and someone makes the claim that civilians got killed? That would be a
huge problem," said a U.S. military official. Colombian and U.S. officials
are reportedly trying to work out a compromise - possibly allowing Colombian
soldiers to join the helicopter crews - that would allow the Black Hawks to
be used.

Some of the elite U.S. troops, most of whom were too young to have known the
Vietnam War, reject any parallels between that conflict and the growing
American military involvement in Colombia.

One U.S. Army special forces captain, who like most of the other American
soldiers could not be named for security reasons, described his parents as
"ex-hippies" and said his father was a conscientious objector who refused to
fight in Vietnam. This war, the soldier insisted, is different.

"Vietnam was a war not so much of a communist insurgency but a war of
national liberation, but here that's not the case," the captain said. "I
really don't think the guerrillas here have popular support."

The captain noted that Colombia supplies oil to the United States and that
rebel attacks on the country's petroleum industry - an effort to extort
money - "does have a big effect on oil prices at home."

"We definitely have a strategic interest and a moral obligation," he said.

Critics of U.S. aid to this South American country say the United States
should not be allied with a military that has a checkered human rights
record. And they warn that Washington is on a slippery slope that can lead
to further involvement.

U.S. officials point out that the Colombian Army's 18th brigade, which is
receiving training in Arauca, has been vetted for human rights abuses - as
have three army counternarcotics battalions that U.S. soldiers trained in
the past three years.

Colombian Army Maj. Frank Castrillon said he appreciates the U.S. effort.

"This support is really important," he said. "Our troops are learning
tactics from an army that has participated in many wars."