On the Right - High On Drug-Warring.(Brief Article)(Column)

NEW YORK, JANUARY 26

T he new president has a great deal on his mind, added to which is the burden, imposed by past legislation and executive order, to conclude the civil war in Colombia. That isn't the stated reason for our intervention in that part of the world. We're all over the place in order to stop the production and export of drugs, notably cocaine. There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of President Pastrana's desire to bear down on the drug trade, but what the government of Colombia is actually worried about is a civil war. Bogota wants to cut off the cash supply enjoyed by the rebels who, at the moment, dominate an area in the south of Colombia approximately the size of Switzerland.

So now we hear about our newest FOL. That is a Forward Operating Location. We were using Panama up until 18 months ago, but when Panama finally asserted its sovereignty, it got twitchy about the continuation of U.S. search planes operating out of its territory. So? We moved the operation to Ecuador, and built an air base in Manta. From there our super US E-3 AWACS surveillance planes fly over Colombia and spot drug activity. Our pilots don't just drop bombs on the drug lords' enterprises. We radio the information to Colombian police and military detachments, and their role is to swoop down and abort the export of cocaine to-primarily-U.S. consumers. How long has this been going on?

About as long as memory holds out, in the matter of drug wars. What is most refreshing in recent news on the matter is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's observation that we have got a demand problem on our hands, not a supply problem. The government of Ecuador is a little shaky, the incumbent president having inherited the deal permitting the U.S. FOL in Colombia. Ecuador has an unstated ...