Colombia To Aid U.S. In Taliban Fight

CBS Exclusive: Battle-tested Colombian Commandoes Headed to Afghanistan after Defeating Terrorists in their own Country

(CBS)  U.S. forces are about to get some much-needed help as they fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan in an exclusive report. The Colombian commandos are U.S. trained and battle-tested from having defeated terrorists in their own country.

Ten years ago, they didn't even exist. Today, elite Colombian Special Operations troops are preparing to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.

For Colombia, it's a way to give something back to the U.S., and the American Green Berets who've spent the last decade training them.

General Freddy Padilla de Leon, Colombia's top military man, chose an interview with Logan to make the surprise announcement his men would join the fight in Afghanistan.

"Very soon ... Maybe in August or September. This will be our first opportunity in our history," Padilla said.

Colombia's recent history is written in blood. An insurgency waged by leftist guerillas known as the FARC. And funded with drug money brought Colombia to its knees.

Colombia today is a different world. The economy is thriving and order has been restored.

U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield told Logan that kidnappings and terrorist attacks are down dramatically.

So what changed? Over $6 billion in U.S. aid, a committed Colombian government and a small team of Green Berets from 7th Group Special Forces.

"We don't have secrets - we are a very open book," General Padilla said of the relationship between Colombia and U.S. Special Forces.

The relationship took years to build with the Green Berets working to turn Colombia's best soldiers into an organized special operations force.

They helped train a police Special Operations unit known as the "Jungle Commandos." The Commandos hit targets deep in the jungle, destroying drug labs and taking out the top drug lords.

With the help of America's best warriors, the Colombian Special Forces have become some of the finest soldiers in the world. And they've used their skills to devastating effect against their enemy in the jungle, breaking the back of a 45-year-old insurgency.

Colombia's military has cut the area where the F.A.R.C. Can operate from almost half the country ten years ago down to just five percent today.

They've had less success in the drug war. Cocaine production was down 28 percent last year, according to the U.N.

But Colombia remains the world's top cocaine producer. Its rivers are a super highway for drug and arms trafficking - and the next target in the Special Operations war.

Colombia's army enjoys soaring popularity among the people. Still critics point out the military has been implicated in the killing and disappearance of civilians.

Colonel Greg Wilson knows from experience how advanced Colombia's top units now are. He was the senior U.S. Special Operations commander there when three U.S. hostages were rescued by the Colombian Special Operations Forces last summer.

"I would rank it as one of the top special operations in modern day history," Wilson said.

Ambassador Brownfield says Colombia is the best investment of U.S. taxpayer money this century.

"It has been the most successful nation building exercise that the U.S.A. has associated itself with perhaps over the last 25-30 years," Brownfield said.

The U.S. is looking to Colombia as it struggles to make headway in Afghanistan.

As one top U.S. official said: "The more Afghanistan can look like Colombia, the better."

[JaimeGutierrezV]

Never ever EVER believe what you see on TV. Please read about Colombia and its relationships with the US. I'm not expecting you trust Colombian scholars, please read what US scholars have to say about this.

Article "Media Myths on Colombia"
http://www.colombiasupport.net/news/editorials/2009/10/media-myths-on-colombia.html

More info on Colombian-US relationship ...
http://www.colombiasupport.net/background.html

[Noval53]

Great story. I'm glad Colombia is prospering. A strong military can defend the peace. The drug culture of America is largely responsible for funding death and destruction around the globe; just as much as any military. So the next time you buy "stuff" remember where the money goes.

[healthychickenalmanac]

Death Squads from Columbia being sent to Afganistan huh. I suppose they are all unemployed now that Blackwater is in disfavor. Who is paying for them to go?

[CapitanJusticia]

Not deathsquads, dimwit...the military is going. Seeing how the gringos can't find that seven foot arab in that Afghan desert, they need all the help they can get!

[longtree-2009]

wonder how many troops columbia plans on sending? the columbian troops may have defeated, to some extent, farc but think columbia is still a drug producing country just like afghanistan. doubt columbia will even send a regiment or division of troops.

[hermitdave]

OK stupids you win. 9/11/01 was planned in a cave, not in a Pentagon office. The guy who planned the Oklahoma Federal building bombing was a moron who forgot to put his rear license plate on his get away car. There was no way the ATF could have arrested David Koresh at the Circle K, they had to burn people to death with tanks. A nut shot JFK and then another nut shot the nut that shot JFK.

[hungry1968-16]

by dmcar2000 July 28, 2009 12:31 AM EDT
I guess Obama's war is not going to well when you need Columbia to help you. Columbia????

Does our commander in chief have a clue?






So when Lithuania sent 30 troops, it was considered "international support", but when Colombia decides to help us out, it's a sham?

How old are you?

[ebraucher]

I am writing in response to the Colombian surprise declaration that they will join the US in the fight in Afghanistan. The media is covering it as a great achievement in US international aid. On CBS.com, they are saying that Colombia has defeated its terrorists. I am a Masters student at the University of Denver. I recently returned from doing three months of research with women who have been displaced by the armed conflict. The displacement in Colombia is not covered in the media to the extent that it has been covered in Sudan or Afghanistan, though the numbers are comparable (upwards of 3-5 million). Although the kidnapping and violence is decreasing in Colombia, displacement is increasing. I have subscribed to CSM for a few years now and I am writing in hope that when you cover this interesting story, you do not leave out this important detail. US funding has gone also to do aerial fumigation that has displaced people, and to train and arm the Colombian military, who has in turn trained and armed the paramilitary. The paramilitary and FARC continue to violently displace thousands every year.

[dronemonk]

"CBS Exclusive: Battle-tested Colombian Commandoes Headed to Afghanistan after Defeating Terrorists in their own Country" Oh, the propaganda. Our Republic has died a whimpering death. And all we have to show for it is this broken and bloated empire and the shills (CBS news...I'm looking at you) who kowtow to it.

If the US wasn't in Afghanistan or Iraq. It would be in Africa or Burma - making the world a better place. What else would you be doing if you have the largest, most powerful military in the world? Because rape, executions (stonings, disembowelment, burning alive), civil rights(females)/torture/pedophelia just aren't right. Who's going to do something about it?

However, somethings that I didn't like about the article.

- How many Columbian troops are being deployed?
- How many Spanish/Farsi interpreters are there in Columbia?
- How closely will they be working with the Americans?

[youarehere]

its colOmbia... with an O. at least you could check your spelling, don't you think?

[curiously1]

I have been saying for a while now, the only way to beat ruthlessness is with ruthlessness and who better in that than our southern friends !

[curiously1]

Oh lord, this is getting scary now !

[mejordelahistoria]

I don't know.... in Colombia (thank god they didn't write Columbia like these morons always do) there is a force of ex military that are wanted for war crimes that stem from killing villagers and eating them as part of their special forces exercises to drug trafficking to make some extra bucks. They are supposed to be demobilized but in reality they are involved in ethnic cleansing, meaning they are killing anyone involved in petty crime plus anyone that denounces the killers. Colombia is not exactly the safest place on earth.

[bajajohn1]

Where are the Afghans getting their weapons and ammo?

[pensacola8-2009]

Iran is the principle supplier of weapons for the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were also the supplier for the Iraqi insurgents and supplied many of their own citizens to oppose us.

[pensacola8-2009]

I am going to take this opportunity to extend my support and thanks to the Colombian soldiers who have come to help us finish our challenges in Afghanistan. That is very welcomed news and I feel all citizens of the USA should extend respect to Colombian nationals here in this country when ever they are seen.

Hats off to our friends in Colombia!!! They don't have the same restraints that the JAGS place on our troops. This is a dream come true for those who want to finish this war in the face of complications and quagmires that confront the US military.

We will see this war finish in about 6-7 months. More countries might be coming to our aid, especially since they know that Obama, Biden & Clinton are the most trustworthy people the USA political machine have cranked out since 2000.

[worldcitizen1]

About 6-7 months??? The US has been there for about 8 years, and acording to the US military the worst is yet to come. What miracle are you counting on, divine intervention or colombiam mercenaries? This is just another ignorant war with nothing to gain for the US but more dead and wounded! Will the Colombians win theis war without all the "restraints" put on the US military? Yea, thats why we havent won, too many "rules of war". Sounds like a dream allright!

[mejordelahistoria]

This is very true

[pensacola8-2009]

Rules of engagement do become political when we a superpower is inside another country prying out enemy combatants in civilian areas.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

by Berkeley_Skirt_Lifter July 27, 2009 8:39 PM EDT


a serious security threat that challenges us in an existential way. <whoa...you said existWhat?>
------------
Ummm, eggs is tent shill

[vietnamwar]

Anyone care to explain why America bombed the country of Afghanistan in the first place.

MORON REMEMBER 9/11 ?????

[wyodutch]

And how many Afghanis were supposedly aboard those planes?

None... Nada.. Zip.

[worldcitizen1]

We couldn't invade Saudi Arabia, where the "terrorists" where from and received their funding, that would disturb the oil flow & profits, right? How many Taliban where on the planes on 9/11?

[kelisw]

We couldn't invade Saudi Arabia, where the "terrorists" where from and received their funding, that would disturb the oil flow & profits, right? How many Taliban where on the planes on 9/11?

as much as it pains me to say this I can't argue with that. Saudi Arabia Wahhabism is behind almost all the Islamic Extremism in the world *** who the hell is going to address that with all their stakes in AMERICA AND OIL. That is why we should drill here and drill now! We are the only country with natural resources that refuses to use them! All this would end if we would give them the finger and use our own massive amounts of oil and energy

[hermitdave]

Anyone care to explain why America bombed the country of Afghanistan in the first place. The only lame excuse I ever read from the Cheney crime family was they refused to give us a former CIA dude named Osama Bin Laden. Are there than many stupid people who think that was the best solution to the problem. The fact Obama is playing along is very scary.

[CPelzar]

Obama is not playing along rather escalating

[billpl-2009]

The Cheney crime family???

you actually think that Cheney and gang are capable of such an elaborate plan?

jeez...this guy can't even go duck hunting without blowing his buddies face off

and you're calling him as some kind of James Bond Super Villian

[pensacola8-2009]

The History Channel presented the Afghanistan resistance of the Soviet occupation in a video for sale. The feature film, Charlie Wilson's War, is also a good reference for the history of the Afghan Mujadin Rebels. Video coverage of Osama Bin Laden is in the History Channel's video created before the 2001 attack.

Obama's decision to end the war was really his commitment to finish it with a decisive victory that is within our grasp. The exodus of the Taliban into Pakistan is clear evidence that their days are numbered if we keep up on the pressure. The more help we get, the faster this nightmare will end.

Obama knows if this war isn't finished before the 2010 election, he will see his support erode away quickly.

[wyodutch]

SIX BILLION DOLLARS!!!! The American taxpayer hands over SIX BILLION DOLLARS to Colombia and we act like they're our best buds cause they are sending a lousy 100 troops to Afghanistan??

My God... that works out to SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS PER TROOP!!!!

The reality is that the war in Afghanistan is increasingly aimless and lacking in coherent strategy. The notion that a strong Afghan state can be quickly forged is contradicted by the nature of the competition for power inside Afghanistan: between Kabul and the regions; between the Pashtu-speaking south and the rest of Afghanistan; and between weak state institutions and powerful social affiliations.

To "win" a war in Afghanistan requires that we know what winning might look like. Not the idealised picture imagined in distant western capitals, but an end state that would leave Afghanistan best equipped to deal itself with its own myriad internal challenges. This means a final burying of the rhetoric of "war on terror" and the idea that what happens in Afghanistan presents a serious security threat that challenges us in an existential way.

[azure13]

There will be no "win" or "victory". There will never be a surrender or a white flag. We will just leave at some point, same as Iraq. After having wasted many American lives and many many billions.

We are stuck there. We can't leave because the rest of the world will condemn us for having gone in, then left the place in shambles. Even though it wasn't anything worth a damn before we went there. Many more lives and billions to be wasted...

[melchg07]

That $6 billion also bought the stabalitzation of a country.

Heck we pump roughly $5 billion or more into Isreal which only encites anger in the middle east.

A coherent strategy? Heck we've just finally started getting enough troops there and finally started focusing our military on Afghanistan.

Also not to win in Afghanistan there needed to be some progress in getting the Pakistani government to do something about the threat in their own country. Which they have.

Also with Iran having its own citizens clamoring for democracy surely make it a bit harder for recruiting purposes. Its a bit harder for hardliners to bash the promotion of democracy in the middle east when the most influential nation in the middle east is now fighting to ensure democracy exists in theirs.

[mary-miami]

Colombia has been a friend of the U.S. for a very long time. It makes sense that both countries would be allies and back each other up.

[santafeseno]

Laura Logan's story on Colombia is so one-sided as to be very bad journalism. She mentions only the "leftist" terrorists, the FARC, and fails to mention the even-worse "rightist" terrorists, the paramilitaries. And if Afghanistan were to look like Colombia, it would have 4 million--4 million!!--of its citizen internally displaced by the violence. Heaven forbid that Afghanistan would ever look like Colombia, and the UN Commission on Human Rights agrees!!

[muCHAVEStia]

Yeah she also failed to mention who won the last soccer national tournament! Her story is about the commandos, their combat experience, their future Afghanistan involvement and how much Colombia has changed in ten years thanks in part to the US aid. Also I think both FARC and ELN are equally as bad as the paramilitaries, there is not a better side, they both murder and are terrorist.

[kelisw]

the "UN Commission on Human Rights" lol