More And More, a Real War

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Like the lowly garbage barge that no nation would accept, the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy last week was sailing off Pensacola, Fla., 1,500 miles short of its original destination: the coast of Colombia, where it was assigned to detect drug-running planes and boats. News leaks that the Kennedy and an accompanying task force were heading for South America triggered an outcry from Latins already upset about the U.S. invasion of Panama. After George Bush telephoned Colombian President Virgilio Barco to apologize for the "misunderstanding," the Kennedy's picket duty was aborted.

The controversy over the Kennedy highlights Washington's enthusiasm for enlisting the military in the escalating war against drugs, as well as concerns that the Administration is using a sledgehammer to swat at mosquitoes. But U.S. officials insist that the Kennedy's mission was only to plot patterns of suspicious air and ship traffic off Colombia. That information would help position a network of mobile land radars, supplied by the U.S. but eventually operated by Colombians. Then the Kennedy task force would leave.

The Bush Administration still hopes to get the aircraft carrier under way before the President travels to Cartagena, Colombia, next month for a drug- policy meeting with Barco, whom Washington admires for his gutsy fight against the drug lords. The mistaken reports of a broad U.S. blockade of Colombia sparked a resignation threat from Barco's Foreign Minister. Said a Pentagon officer about Barco's embarrassment: "We almost shot a friendly."

The deployment of a carrier task force is just one of several proposals to expand the military's antidrug role that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney is expected to approve when the controversy subsides. Among the others:

-- Mobile ground radar stations would be sent to Bolivia and Peru as well as Colombia. Governments in all three countries insist that only local forces, not Americans, would operate this equipment. In the same Andean nations, Special Operations Forces would increase their training of local antidrug teams in jungle combat, night operations, map reading and intelligence. The three countries are expected to get a contingent of 200 troopers and Green Berets to augment the small groups already in place. Bush last summer approved a National Security directive permitting such American trainers to accompany foreign teams on drug raids.

-- Air Force AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) planes would patrol drug routes along the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) near Colorado Springs, would use its ground and air radar stations -- designed for early warning against a Soviet missile attack -- to relay intelligence on any drug movements to law-enforcement agencies.

-- U.S. ground forces may be ordered to stage exercises on the U.S. side of the Mexican border to intimidate traffickers -- without, Washington hopes, antagonizing the Mexican government. Some of these units could expand the present military help being given to the U.S. Border Patrol, Customs agents and local police watching for smugglers. The Pentagon's $70 million budget for antidrug programs involving National Guard units in all the 50 states may be increased.