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Columbia: The Other War

16:29 / 13.03.02

Christian Science Monitor Homepage

Oil Inflames Columbia's Civil War

Bush Seeks $98 Million to help Bogota battle guerilla pipeline saboteurs.

By Mark Hodgson/Special to The Christian Science Monitor

ARAUCA, COLUMBIA- From the air, the Cano Limon pipeline is invisible. The 480-mile tube is buried 6 feet below ground, but its route through the rolling Columbian prairie is marked by a swathe of black oil slicks and burned ground, the result of repeated bomb attacks by leftist rebels.

The pipeline, which links the oil field near the border with Venezuela to a port on Columbia's Caribbean coast, has been punctured so many times in the last 16 years that locals call it "the flute". Some 2.9 million barrels of crude oil have leaked into the soil and rivers-about 11 times the amount spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

Now the US governement is seeking Congressional approval for $98 million to provide equipment and training for a new Columbian Army brigade to guard the oil duct. If approved, it would mark a major shift is US policy, allowing for direct support for counterinsurgency operations against guerilla saboteurs.

Oil is Columbia's biggest foreign-currency earner, and US officials say the aid is essential for the Columbian government,a key ally in the US war on drugs. But critics say it is still unclear whose interests are being served.

Last year, 170 bomb attacks disabled the pipeline for most of the year. It cost Occidental Petroleum, which runs the field, $75 million in profits-and cost the government $430 million in oil revenue.

"We're talking about something which is fundamental for the economy of the country. Of course there is a US interest, but [with the attacks] it is Columbia which is losing out", says an Occidental spokesman.

As the country spirals deeper into civil war, some fear that the aid package signals that the Bush government is more concerned with protecting the interests of American companies than in helping to end a 38-year conflcit.

"Its a way of saying that US interests trump everything else. There are real and legitimate reasons to protect the pipeline, but given all that Columbia needs, is this really a priority?" says Robin Kirk, a Columbia analyst at Human Rights Watch.

(Go to link for rest of article)

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid...

19:35 / 13.03.02

How exactly can you guard 480 miles of pipe? Even if you get scmancy helicopters and US training, the size of the army needed....

...unless they just start dropping all of that excess Agent Orange they have laying around on the surrounding wilderness...

Leave it to them to step up involvement when friendly oil is at stake.. even on the same day the Senate defeats a motion that would reduce oil dependency...

20:04 / 13.03.02

For some tie now, the US has been spraying coca (is that right, the plant that turns into cocaine?) crops in Marxist-controlled areas of Columbia with toxic pesticides. I reckon that's a pretty good start, without too much in the way of a conventional army, since people are economically dependent on those crops.

15:01 / 14.03.02

Some other links for those interested:

Colombian Viet Salvador dossier on Disinfo.com

Narconews homepage

The oil companies, the defence industry, the War on (Some) Drugs and now the War on (Some) Terrorism...Anyone sensing a PATTERN here?

gentleman loser

20:36 / 14.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Barry Auckland:
...unless they just start dropping all of that excess Agent Orange they have laying around on the surrounding wilderness...

Nah. They'll just spray Roundup[TM] instead. Isn't it nice that the Drug War is good for scumbag corporations like Monsanto?

[ 14-03-2002: Message edited by: gentleman loser ]

00:13 / 15.03.02

i posted on this board a year, year and a half ago that the us would create a war with Columbia soon. that whole "army of one" recruitment campaign was meant to ramp up the military for oil-based conflict in colombia while the pr department created an information campaign to make us all think it's a good idea.

now that we're all looking the other way, they don't even have to bother.

13:41 / 15.03.02

i agree with all the frustration and anger here, about the US's "terrorism" campaign in the world (we are supposed to be afraid, very afraid . . . we are being terrorized by my government). but in the midst of all that the poetic brilliance of the people, nicknaming the pipleine "the flute." Damn. Just when I become completely misanthropic, something like that strikes me as so sweet and clever. ..

I watched tv last night for the first time in months (i've a stupid softness for ncaa men's basketball, when the kansas jayhawks are playing that i'd rather not get into right now), and am appalled at the new shows coming out now, like "fighter pilot" ("they live hard, they play hard, they die hard") and Dave Lettermen having our boys in desert camoflage reading the top ten list last night . . . arggh. I can't resist quoting John Wideman again (see the dr. chaos/chicago subway thread), who calls the Afghanistan war both a phony war and a real war--
quote:A phony war that the press, in shameless collusion with the military, exploits daily as newsy entertainment, a self-promoting concoction of fiction, fact, propoganda, and melodrama designed to keep the public tuned in, uninformed, distracted, convinced a real war is taking place . . .
alas.

[ 15-03-2002: Message edited by: alas ]

15:03 / 16.03.02

Given the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan and the War on (Some) Terrorism in general, we're led to believe that it could go on indefinitely, that is, no one will know when we've "won", or if we've "won" for that matter. Its all a wee bit too reminiscent of "Starship Troopers" or "Forever War" for my liking...

Isn't this becomming a definitive example of a fascist-style state, with war and the threat of war/terror (now color-coded for your convenience) constantly in the public's consciousness via the framing techniques of both media and govt.? Of course, one could argue that we've been in this state since the Cold War began in the late 40's...though this current situation may be the "New" Cold War. After all, Korea and Vietnam were regional conflcits "within" the overall framework of the Cold War, as was Afghanistan during the 80's. Our new Cold War simply entailing a host of little wars, low-level insurgencies like the Philippines or Yemen where we act as "advisors", and the occasional larger one like Afghanistan and (probably) Iraq. And on top of that, the overall "terrorist threat" presented/framed to keep everyone suitably paranoid and jingoistic. That way, when we send say, 20,000 or 50,000 or whatever number of troops to Colombia, no one will (ideally) question it.

Thing is, people are questioning "the War". At least Tom Daschle (sp.?) has some cojones in that regard, even if he does have presidential ambitions. And already in some more thoughtful corners of the mass media, there is mention of "lack of exit strategy" and "mission creep".

I really wish PBS would re-run its excellent Vietnam documentary, I think many would draw parallels between that situation and the current one, especially with regards to Colombia. On that note, does anyone know of any good documentaries on the situation in Colombia?

17:39 / 23.02.03

Update: US considers intervention in Colombia

The United States is considering direct military intervention in Colombia for the first time following the murder of an American and the kidnapping of three others, all suspected CIA agents.

The US embassy in Colombia has recommended Washington make a 'major response' to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels responsible, and American officials have confirmed that military action is being considered to recover the men from the dense jungles of the southern province of Caqueta.

Is it just me, or is this a VERY bad idea? Not just morally bad, but 'let's start another war in a jungle, it worked the last time didn't it?' bad idea?

And I thought it was expected that CIA agents get captured and killed. Isn't that allowed, really?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:01 / 23.02.03

Y'know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm starting to kind of miss the cold war. Things were so much simpler then...