America's other big problem

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 11, 2003

Now that Saddam Hussein is gone, what's America's biggest foreign-policy challenge?

American troops are now deployed in Colombia, searching for US citizens who are being held by rebel guerrillas there. The leftist guerrillas-- who are defined by the US State Department as terrorist organizations-- claim that the Americans are "prisoners of war."

The government of Colombia has been battling with guerrillas for 39 years. The government is not winning that battle; terrorist activity is on the rise. To complicate matters, the rebels are reportedly finding safe havens in neighboring Venezuela and Brazil-- countries now run by volatile leftist heads of state. The Colombian rebels/terrorists bankroll their operations by kidnapping (with American victims preferred) and exporting cocaine (primarily to the US).

Yes, Syria is an unattractive regime. But doesn't the US have problems closer to home?