But Colombia - with a history of bloody conflict pitting a small population of rich against a huge population of poor - was mired in a decades-old civil war.

It had to be just another skirmish in the decades-old war between the army and the leftist guerrillas.

The surge has also coincided with an intensification of Colombia's decades-old war against leftist guerrillas, with each fueling the other.

Tension across the 100-mile strait separating the two sides of a decades-old civil war has recently ebbed considerably.

The computer also reveals what is apparently the Enterprises mission: According to the orders, the Enterprise is part of a fleet of vessels fighting a decades-old war with the Lysians.

Sudan's decades-old civil war was much about religion - the north is mostly Muslim, the south animist and Christian.

The rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia also agreed to government demands that negotiations begin immediately to reach a cease-fire in the decades-old war.

Mr. Holbrooke said that high priority would be given to Angola, where intense fighting in a decades-old civil war has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Taken together, the findings provide important guideposts for the next skirmishes in the decades-old war on cancer.

As was the case in Vietnam, the huge military aid package for Colombia will involve us in a convoluted, decades-old civil war in a distant country.