Global Notebook 3/03
Bush Wargame Reaches the Americas
IQUITOS — Jungle Expeditionary Forces have their deployment orders, and US Marine battalions have begun rotating in and out of south Colombia. Their mission: to eliminate officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and scatter the enemy to the remote corners of the Amazon. But the offensive also means that the US is fighting wars on three fronts: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia.
Officially, the operation is led by the local military, assigned to push the FARC — under intensive US surveillance for years — south toward the waiting Marines. A similar operation was called off at the last minute two years ago.