Hightower Lowdown

When a U.S. Army RC-7 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Colombia in July, killing five U.S. soldiers and two Colombians, it was the first clue many Americans had that our military has waded into the muck down there. Well, the U.S. is involved in Colombia in a big way, and it's about time to shine a spotlight on this potential debacle.

For years the U.S. has sent boatloads of money to the military and police in Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, to help them fight the so-called war on drugs. This year alone, the U.S. is sending $280 million in cash and weapons to Colombia, making it the third largest recipient of American aid.

But the line between the war on drugs and Colombia's decades-long civil war with leftist guerillas is getting harder to see. U.S. and Colombian officials have been in a panic recently over the increasing strength of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest insurgent army. Why was that downed U.S. jet buzzing around FARC-held territory? It was likely monitoring FARC movements and supplying the information to the Colombian army.

U.S. drug "czar" Gen. Barry McCaffery wants to expand military aid to a whopping $1 billion annually as soon as next year. FARC pays and outfits its army through taxes on drug cultivation and shipments in areas under its control, so McCaffery says there is no longer a dividing line between U.S. backing of counternarcotics and counterinsurgency. The U.S. is helping to fight "narco-guerillas," he tells us.

Here we go again, dumping dough in the laps of a military with a lousy human rights record and ties to illegal right-wing paramilitaries. Didn't we learn any lessons from Guatemala?

Colombia needs help, but it should be help in restarting peace talks with FARC and investing in development, not drug eradication.