Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990 TAG: 9006210414
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/8 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"This is not an American invasion," William Bennett said in remarks prepared for delivery today at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"It is not an escalating military intervention," Bennett said. "Our policy is that there will be no U.S. military personnel involved in operations."
The drug war must be fought at the source as well as on U.S. streets, he said.
"If these efforts are caricatured as another Vietnam, an American invasion or involvement in a foreign war, then we risk crippling a series of strengthened relationships that our president and the presidents of the Andean region have recently forged," Bennett said.
He acknowledged that some Americans may die fighting the drug war overseas.
"This is a dangerous enemy and we cannot expect to fight this battle unscathed," Bennett said. "We have already lost Americans in fighting this battle in foreign countries. If we are not prepared to face these risks in the future, then we should not undertake to assist our allies."
Newspaper editorial writers, columnists and others have likened the administration's Andean strategy to early U.S. promises that grew into the Vietnam War, but few such comments have been heard on Capitol Hill.
In a recent column in The New York Times, Tom Wicker wrote, "Americans can sing, `It seems to me I've heard that song before.' "
The libertarian Cato Institute issued an analysis that concluded:
"Given the probable consequences of enlisting the military in the war on drugs, and especially of deploying U.S. troops in the source nations of Latin America, it is more likely to be the moral - and operational - equivalent of America's disastrous Vietnam intervention."
President Bush met in February with the presidents of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, and the four agreed that their countries would work together against drug traffickers. Since then, Colombia and Peru have elected new presidents.
In Colombia, where the government has waged a bloody war against drug traffickers since last August when traffickers were blamed for killing a leading presidential hopeful, the people recently elected the only candidate who strongly opposed the drug trade, Cesar Gaviria.
Peruvian President-elect Alberto Fujimori said during his campaign that he would reject any "foreign intervention" in the war against drugs, an apparent reference to U.S. plans to have military advisers train Peruvian soldiers in anti-drug jungle warfare.
Fujimori, who must contend with a decade-long war with leftist Shining Path guerrillas as well as cocaine traffickers, said he favors economic support to military force to eradicate coca plantations.
Bennett said he hopes to complete a formal agreement soon with Peru so the United States can start providing military equipment and training to Peruvian police and military, but not economic assistance, for now.
Economic aid and trade are "an integral part of our plan," Bennett said. But he added, "No plan for crop substitution and economic development, no matter how generous, can survive when the farmer-peasants themselves live under the gun of domestic terror."
The United States is giving about $230 million to the three Andean countries this year, all of it for law enforcement against drug trafficking. The administration has proposed sending $430 million next year and plans to spend more in 1992, with economic aid representing about half the aid in the next two years.
For now, Bennett said, military assistance is needed in all three countries "to achieve a level of security that law enforcement personnel alone cannot provide."
The Andean presidents "despise drugs every bit as much as we do," he said. "And they are asking for our help to fight a common enemy: cocaine. We have begun a partnership with them.
"The moment they tell us they don't want our help, we will step aside and let them fight this battle on their own."
by CNB