Narcos

[Bengalzona]

I remember when all of this was going down back in the late 80's and early 90's. I was in college and followed it pretty close. On the advice of my ROTC advisors, I took a course in Latin American History and a little bit of Spanish. I was set up to attend Jungle Warfare School in Panama, but I let that fall through.

We were pretty sure we would be in combat in Columbia before long. We did go to Panama, next door to Columbia, in '89 and that was a cakewalk. But we only took one city there and the natives were friendly to us. Plus, we had a very narrow and defined goal (get Noriega) and got out quick. Columbia would have been whole other ball of wax. More along the lines of the worst of Vietnam and Afghanistan combined. With some exceptions, Columbians have never liked us very much.

Eventually, Desert Storm rolled and Latin American was put on the back burner. Then there was Somalia, and the Bosnian Crisis, the Oklahoma City bombing, Ruby Ridge, the Rwandan genocide, the Branch Davidians, not to mention the collapse of the Soviet Union, etc. Public attention wasn't on the drug lords in backwater America anymore. Which made it prime turf for the CIA to come in and do their 'thing'. And their 'thing' is all about ugly dealings with bad people.