Together, these battalions constitute the equivalent of a new, American-created brigade. The McCaffrey strategy of eradication by fumigation doesn't work. The most recent studies by the CIA estimate that even when plants receive a direct hit, only 25 percent of them die. Since 1994, the United States has spent billions to spray millions of gallons of poisonous chemicals, destroying the fragile ecosystem of jungle rainforests. But coca production has surged.
Fumigation pushes the growers somewhere else.
It also does a fine job recruiting for the guerrillas. Meanwhile, the human rights implications of this plan are truly sinister. By opting to create a second, parallel army, the administration has found a cynical mechanism to circumvent the law prohibiting American aid to foreign armies tainted by human rights violations. Yet an army, by definition, is a single, unified institution. The consequences for Colombia, if the proposed aid package passes Congress, will be tragic.