It's not a good sign for the revolution when your legendary guerrilla leader dies in the jungle -- of old age.

Nor does it portend imminent success when -- after four decades of armed struggle -- you've lost half of your fighting force, your chief source of money is from producing illegal drugs, and Hugo Chavez, your richest ideological soul mate, says it's time to lay down your arms.

All of the above ills and many more, we are not sad to say, are afflicting FARC, the Spanish acronym for what is known in English as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Once arguably the most potentially dangerous Marxist-Leninist insurgency in the Americas, FARC has always claimed to represent the rural poor against the wealthy ruling class of Colombia and the political and economic "oppression" of the United States.

But its weapons of choice -- extortion, kidnapping and your run-of-the-mill acts of terror -- have not only failed to topple a series of bad and not-so-bad governments of Colombia, they've backfired.

Today, FARC is being whipped by the Colombia military. Its vile political ideas are as dead as Stalin. And in July it suffered global ridicule when it was tricked by a daring jungle rescue mission that freed 15 valuable hostages, including Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

It's no wonder Colombia's masses now reject FARC. The terrorist group -- that's what FARC is under its leftist camouflage -- is unlikely to disband or become completely irrelevant.

And, much to the chagrin of leftists even among our midst, its weakened condition is due in no small part to sensible and resolute U.S. foreign policies in the region.

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