OIL MONEY MOTIVATES FUTILE COLOMBIAN AID

Two recent Star-Bulletin articles -- "U.S. will help Colombia protect oil
from guerrillas" (Feb. 6) and "Colombia aid ... to provide military
intelligence against Marxist rebels and to rush spare parts" (Feb. 23) --
confirm my suspicion as to the true nature of the multibillion-dollar "Plan
Colombia" bill passed in 2000. It was touted to keep cocaine away from our
shores despite wide criticism of the prolongation of discredited
supply-side strategy in the war on drugs. Long experience in the upper
Amazon had clearly demonstrated its destructive futility. Furthermore,
potential was seen for Vietnam- style involvement in a jungle-guerrilla
conflict of some 40 years duration that was then approaching some sort of
resolution.

It is clear that the original and continuing plan was to aid and encourage
the Colombian military and paramilitaries to suppress the indigenous
rebellion and its increasing conflict with U.S. petroleum exploitation.
More fundamental is the U.S. imperative to foil any possible success by
(recertified) Marxist rebels in democratic land reform in Latin America.

We may be told next that our involvement in Colombia is part of the war on
terror. Islamic fanatics have provided our reconstituted "Cold Warriors" an
excuse for continued interference in the political evolution of other
societies.

Andrew Jones