The United States last month approved a $1.3 billion aid package to Colombia. The military and social assistance is intended to help that country's government fight leftist guerrillas who have become key players in the drug trade. President Bill Clinton pledged last week during a one-day visit to Colombia that the U.S. would not become involved in a Vietnam-style conflict, and that the aid did not signal a return to "Yankee imperialism." It need not, but the assistance, while well-intended, does risk drawing the U.S. into a bloody conflict.

Quite simply, the situation in Colombia is bad. According to the country's National Association of Financial Institutions, there was no economic growth last year for the first time in 70 years. Unemployment tops 20 percent. Remedies are hard to come by, since the legislature stubbornly opposes every initiative by President Andres Pastrana. National opinion polls show that the president enjoys support from less than 30 percent of the population. A legislative stalemate does nothing to boost his popularity.

Poverty has bred lawlessness. Colombia is the most crime-ridden nation in the world. According to government statistics, there is a murder every 20 minutes, a kidnapping every three and a half hours (seven a day or 3,000 each year), and six children are killed by violence every day. Mr. Clinton stopped in the city of Cartagena because his security teams considered Bogota, the capital, too dangerous to visit.