From the onset, critics of the plan feared there would be "mission creep," that the U.S. anti-narcotics battle would inevitably become a counter-insurgency war against the well-armed 35,000 leftist guerrillas who control more than a third of Colombia territory.

Those fears have now materialized. If Congress approves the White House request, more U.S. helicopters, arms, intelligence agents and military advisers will be directly engaged in what has been the interminable Colombian civil war. Given Congress' acquiescence on all things bellicose since 9/11, the Bushies have high hopes. "The administration is looking for a blank check, almost a Gulf of Tonkin resolution, allowing it to do whatever it wants in Colombia without any conditions or oversight," says Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy, a D.C.-based think tank. "This is well beyond what Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) enjoyed in El Salvador (news - web sites), where Congress limited the number of advisors and required at least the fiction of human rights improvements."

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