Bangladesh, Oct. 6 -- Washington calls it a war on narco-terrorism. In Colombias La Guajira, it increasingly looks like a war without an endgame.

First comes the high-pitched whine of drones overhead. Then comes the explosion.

Days later, the sea delivers the evidence: a battered jerrycan, fragments of a speedboat, drugs-and sometimes human remains.

For residents of Colombias remote La Guajira peninsula, this has become an increasingly familiar rhythm. The United States says it is hunting “narco-terrorists” and dismantling maritime drug networks. But on the ground, the cocaine boats keep moving, traffickers keep recruiting, and families keep waiting for bodies that may never return.

That contradiction should force Washingt...