An Unwinnable War In Colombia

To the editors:

It would be easy to find fault with the idea put forth by Ebon Y. Lee ’03 that even the search for peace is not always preferable to war (Column, “How the Weak Wage War,” Oct. 21), but there is at least some logic to this concept—sometimes peace is so elusive that war is the only viable option. This controversial idea holds little water when war is a potentially viable solution, but none at all if the conflict is not a winnable one. The government of Colombia is simply not in a military position to crush FARC, and even if it were, in so doing it would leave a power vacuum that AUC would gladly fill. As Lee points out, the government handed FARC a huge swath of land in the middle of Colombia, and FARC’s forces are by no means inconsiderable—they are stronger than Colombia’s. FARC’s members are volunteers being well-paid and equipped with high-tech weaponry, all financed by the lucrative drug trade. Colombia’s government relies on the largesse of US taxpayers and the 3.5 percent of its GDP Lee mentions to fund a conscript army with devastatingly low morale. Just what is Lee’s proposal for a resounding defeat of FARC on the battlefield (such as it is—endless stretches of rainforest, mainly) that has eluded the military elite of Colombia, the United States, and analysts the world over? Overwhelming military force? Where do the bodies to fill the body bags come from? Certainly not Colombia, which is already pressed to fill its army as it is. Certainly not the United States, which is always wary of wars in faraway places with tenuous connections to American interests, particularly in tropical jungles. Surely, he isn’t suggesting Europe will do the job, given his disdain for their peacenik agenda. Who then? Perhaps Lee should volunteer to found the Harvard American Division for the Liberation of Colombia and get the opportuntiy to see the military situation first-hand. As it is, his military analysis is a bit off.

James W. Honan-Hallock ’06

Oct. 21, 2002