US Backing for Colombia Drug War Criticized

Resilient rebels. Rebounding drug crops. Rogue American soldiers, snared in plots to smuggle cocaine and funnel stolen ammunition to paramilitary death squads. The bad news has been piling up fast, almost five years after the United States began spending $3 billion under its Plan Colombia aid program to wipe out cocaine and heroin production and crush a long-running leftist insurgency. The setbacks show U.S. efforts to help restore peace and the rule of law to this Andean nation still face huge challenges. But Washington's top diplomat here is unfazed, saying the mission to grind down the rebels and deprive them of their finances from drug-trafficking will continue.