so 450 pair-a-militaries is what 900 militaries ?
The paras fought when the military wouldn't. And, often, the army would use the paras as shock troops to pacify an area before the official military would dare to occupy it.
We've been working with them for several years now, and the regular army has become steadily more professional, more confident, and more effective. The FARC has been pushed back all along. The FARC commonly massacred Colombian soldiers during the fraudulent cease fire of the Pastrana administration, but there hasn't been a single massacre of Colombian soldiers since the cease-fire ended.
The war isn't over, the FARC now has Venezuela openly supporting them, and Vz territory as a safe haven. That will have to be dealt with before the war is done.