INACTION WON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM

Certainly, there are aspects of the current situation in Colombia and other
Andean nations that are confusing, but that is not sufficient reason to
abandon those nations to drug traffickers and terrorist organizations.

Colombia is, without a doubt, the source of large quantities of drugs -
illegal drugs - entering this country.

That terrorist organizations have identified drug trafficking as a source
of income for their activities throughout the world also seems beyond any
reasonable doubt.

Increased involvement in the region by U.S. military and police agencies
does not suggest, in any way, that funding for prevention and
rehabilitation programs at home should be cut. But it seems rather
fruitless to continue those programs on the homefront while doing nothing
to inhibit the flow of illegal substances into this country.

To do one without the other is throwing good money after bad.

Those opposed to intervention have been quick to cite Vietnam as an example
of failed U.S. policy.

To use the Vietnam bugaboo as an excuse for military inaction is a
rapidly-aging argument - and a disingenuous one. If every setback in
American History was an excuse for national lethargy, the American military
would have been inactive since the British burned down Washington in the
War of 1812 or George Custer faced the warriors of the Sioux Nation on the
banks of the Little Big Horn River in 1876.

In the 2001 book "Global Terrorism, The Complete Reference Guide" written
by California-Berkeley Professor Harry Henderson, he writes that FARC - The
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - was founded as the military wing
of the extreme left political groups and funded by Cuba and the former
Soviet Union. "FARC has also cooperated with drug interests, offering
protection in exchange for money to purchase weapons and supplies."

It seems FARC's political ideology does not preclude the importing of
products that have caused untold misery for millions of Americans and their
families - or its transformation from a political-military organization
into "military muscle" for the drug cartels, an increasingly tenuous
political function.

The resurgent Maoist group Shining Path is the most likely suspect behind
the recent bombing in Peru. According to STRATFOR, an independent
consulting firm, Shining Path and another leftist group, the Tupac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement, were together responsible for an estimated 30,000
deaths and $25 billion in financial losses in Peru between 1980 and the
mid-1990s, after which Shining Path was almost completely wiped out.
However, the group has been forging a comeback during the past two years.

"It is building its revival on the back of the drug trade, adopting a
growth model used successfully by Colombia's largest guerrilla group,
(FARC). . . . In fact Peruvian, Colombian and U.S. officials believe
Shining Path has established links with Colombian drug traffickers trying
to increase coca and poppy cultivation in Peru and that Shining Path and
the FARC have developed links with each other as well."

Military intervention is always serious business. American military
intervention into the Andean nations has become necessary for a number of
reasons - to stem the flow of drugs, to eliminate it as a money-tree for
terrorism and to end the violence that has become a way of life for many
people in the region.

If the violence continues, this nation will face a tidal wave of
immigration, legal and illegal, heading north to escape regional violence -
something we are neither logistically or financially prepared to handle.

From the "human rights aspect," an American presence is usually a good thing.

Surely, there are some examples to the contrary, many more that show
American might has generally been used for the right reasons. In the case
of Colombia, an increased American military presence might even discourage
the actions of the extreme right-wing militias to intimidate trade unions.

We should be careful not to allow the American military to be used as a
tool to enforce agendas that are not compatible with our sense of decency,
justice and human rights.

A beefed-up American presence has generally included increased scrutiny by
our government, watchdog groups and the media - ensuring American might is
a force for right - just as it should be.