Columbia's FARC movement has claimed that the three surviving members of a flight crew from a downed aircraft are POW's and will be held for exchange. The FARC guerrillas have demanded the release of members of their movement being held by the Columbian government. Since these three are ostensibly "contractors" in the drug war, how much responsibility does the US government bear for getting them out and how much does the company who is the contractor bear?

Well, we've been indoctrinated over the last 35 years that this is a "War" on drugs, but as with the "War" on Terrorism, it seems that the government takes a pretty laissez-faire approach to it's prosecution unless they can bust a bunch of Bong Dealers, you know, go for the easy mark, get big publicity, and the hell with the ones who can fight or flee.

Somewhere all three of these "contractors" have families, and the families want answers, not just are their loved ones OK, but how did this happen. I'm thinking that if I'm a contract pilot or crewmember in South America right now, and I see the US government dropping this, it'll be time to get on the big silver bird northbound. The UCMJ and the Code of Conduct do not apply to "contractors", so the last words in Espanol they'd hear from me would be "Hasta La Vista, Baby".