Aid to Colombia Misguided Policy

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Published on Saturday, June 24, 2000 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Aid to Colombia Misguided Policy

Editorial

A few million here, a few million there; a Blackhawk helicopter here, a Huey chopper there. That's all the remains for the U.S. House and Senate to negotiate in the latest misguided strategy against illicit drugs.

Rarely does this Congress agree so readily with the president on anything and miss the mark so widely.

The unusual consensus is that the United States must wildly inflate its foreign aid commitment to Colombia to help it combat domestic narcotics producers. The outcome is likely be harmful in two respects.

America is at risk of being sucked into yet another country's civil war. This time it's a 40-year-old conflict, with guerrillas providing paid protection to drug traffickers, guerrillas fighting the government and paramilitary forces dueling with guerrillas. The only ones who deserve sympathy are Colombian citizens caught in the middle.

The $1 billion to $2 billion that will flow to Colombia over two years won't be available to the 3 million drug abusers begging for treatment in America. In fact, $2 billion is the sum total proposed in the 2001 budget for all prevention and treatment through the U.S. Centers for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

Two senators are to be commended for trying, vainly, to whittle down the massive appropriation this week.

"There has been no consideration of the consequences, cost and length of involvement," Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said in proposing to slash all but $200 million. "This bill says, let's get into war and justify it later."

Equally unsuccessful was an amendment by Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., to divert a modest $225 million from the Colombian package to domestic drug abuse programs.

The United States must remain engaged with the world's largest cocaine producer -- production increased by 20 percent there last year -- but an amount as large as $2 billion is bound to buy us trouble on foreign soil and won't help Americans already suffering from addiction.

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