Bush Wants More Personnel in Colombia

The Bush administration wants Congress to let it send more military and civilian personnel to Colombia to help it “deal a decisive blow against narco-terrorists,” Gen. James T. Hill, chief of the Southern Command, said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

The administration wanted to raise the cap on U.S. personnel in Colombia to 800 military and 600 civilian contractors from the current 400 limit on each, Hill said. He said U.S. involvement in combat would still be banned. Some lawmakers were skeptical, saying Colombia had not done enough to fight its own conflict.