Imagine the headlines

17,000 killed last year. Widespread kidnappings. Car bombs and IED's killing policemen. State officials killed by "insurgents". Militant rightists killing those associated with the insurgents. It's Bush's fault.

Nah, it's merely the normal headlines from Colombia...whose civil war has been going on since the 1950's, but rarely gets publicity.

As Strategy Page LINK2 points out:, the murder rate is one of the highest in the world (43 per 100,000 population.) Iraq's murder rate last year was 51, but got a lot more coverage in the media. That's because the carnage in Colombia has been going on for decades, and long since ceased to be "news." The murder rate in the United States last year was 4.8.

Yet what is helping win the war is like what is happening here in the Philippines: A combination of government pressure/success against leaders (including the druglords who help fund the insurgents), successful kills of insurgents that send the message that joining them is no longer a good job opportunity, offers of amnesty, and economic expansion that allows young men an alternative to joining the insurgents




So the message for all those rich yuppies who keep trying to rewrite Iraq into Viet Nam, could I instead suggest it might be more relevant to compare Iraq to Colombia or even the Philippines?

And if you go hiking in the rural Andes, have a cup of coffee at my oldest son's restaurant.

That handsome young man is my youngest who visited during the holidays.