MILITARY

Csmonitor: US's 'private army' grows

In Colombia and around the world, civilians are doing work formerly done by the military.

Flying over the vast jungle here, a joint Colombian-American crew trolls for suspicious aircraft that could be smuggling tons of cocaine onto American soil. When their radar locks onto a suspect plane, the crew attempts to make radio contact. If there is no response, they may fire warning shots in an attempt to get the suspect plane to land. Only as a last resort may the multinational crew seek permission from the ground to shoot the plane down.