Sadly, this is the logical culmination of events that began under Bush, although you wouldn't quite know it from Monday's CBS report, which broke the "surprise announcement."
In 2007, the BBC reported that U.S.-backed Afghan-Colombia contacts were initiated in 2005.
In August 2006, World Markets Analysis reported that 'Colombia Begins Anti-Drugs Co-operation with Afghanistan.' (No link available). Later that year, the Department of Defense placed a call-out for "contractors that can quickly develop and implement critical counternarcotic technologies and training in places like Afghanistan and Colombia," as well as "strategic public relations support to senior government officials in Afghanistan and Colombia." ('Counternarcotic Technologies Sought for Afghanistan, Colombia,' Inside the Army, Nov. 13, 2006). Although known as the world's largest producer of cocaine (a distinction that has been little affected by Plan Colombia Colombia) they also know poppies and the heroin trade. ('Despite Colombian government claim, opium crops persist,' Associated Press, January 29, 2007)
In May 2007, Inside the Pentagon reported that, with State Department funding, two Colombian police instructors spent " two months teaching Afghans how to combat illicit drug trafficking using many of the same tactics the South American country has employed in battles with cocaine cartels." Part of a two-way deal, one Afghan anti-drug soldier was enrolled in "the intensive 18-week Colombian Jungla…
