Read Online My Country Is Called Earth by Lawrence John Brown - Free Book Online
Authors: Lawrence John Brown
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after that government had confiscated the land of the United Fruit Company. In 1964 the U.S. gave its blessing to the Brazilian military before the military staged a coup that overthrew the popular liberal government. In 1965, after democratic forces in the Dominican Republic had removed a government set up by the army, President Johnson sent American troops to that nation to reinstall the dictatorship. In 1973 the Nixon administration gave its support to the military junta in Chile that ousted the socialist government of President Allende.
During the 1980s the United States spent more than six billion dollars financing ruthless military regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala. Right wing death squads operating under the protection of the military tortured, mutilated, and killed tens of thousands of civilians in these two nations. Finally in 1992 the U.S. told the military rulers to end the war in El Salvador. Almost immediately, the military agreed to a cease-fire and to share power with the leftist forces. If we had denied support to the military from the beginning, tens of thousands of people would not have died, and the environmental degradation of much of the countryside would not have occurred. It will take a long time for El Salvador to recover from this American adventure. The suffering of the Guatemalan people is not yet over.
Aware of the American people’s confusion of independent, nationalist, and socialist governments with Communism, dictators in the Third World learned to play and win a game with the U.S. To win, to gain American support, all they had to do was to declare they were anti-Communists and imprison, torture, and murder anyone who opposed them. In Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Zaire, Iran under the Shah, Iraq, Israel, and many other nations, the United States gave diplomatic recognition and sent money and military equipment to governments that imprisoned, tortured, and killed people struggling for some of the same rights our patriots won for us over two hundred years ago.
I hope I have made it clear that the real motivation behind America’s interventions in the Third World has not been to support democracy or human rights, or because of any genuine Soviet or Chinese military threat. In most cases, the incentive has been the promotion of capitalism. As further proof, consider the following two horror stories from the post-Cold War era. (A note: Since the end of the Cold War, the most common justification for or against foreign actions has been “national interest,” as in “It was in our national interest to go to war with Panama and Iraq,” and “It would not be in our national interest to help the people in Bosnia and Haiti.” “National interest” is political doublespeak for “whatever increases the profits of American businessmen, corporations, and investors.”)
On a December night in 1989, 20,000 American troops invaded the nation of Panama. The stated goal of this invasion was to capture General Manuel Noriega, a military dictator who had been on the CIA payroll since the 1970s. When Noriega refused to do as he was told, the Bush administration “discovered” that he was trafficking in narcotics. This fact was well-known to the CIA when he was useful to them.
The war went far beyond any effort to capture General Noriega. New laser weapons were tested on the civilian population. Massive firepower was directed on poor neighborhoods. Hundreds of homes were deliberately burned to the ground. Individuals stopped at military roadblocks were executed on the spot. Eyewitnesses said that American soldiers shot everything that moved; they reported that a U.S. tank destroyed a bus, killing twenty-six people. They also said that American soldiers fired on an ambulance, and bayoneted the wounded
During the 1980s the United States spent more than six billion dollars financing ruthless military regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala. Right wing death squads operating under the protection of the military tortured, mutilated, and killed tens of thousands of civilians in these two nations. Finally in 1992 the U.S. told the military rulers to end the war in El Salvador. Almost immediately, the military agreed to a cease-fire and to share power with the leftist forces. If we had denied support to the military from the beginning, tens of thousands of people would not have died, and the environmental degradation of much of the countryside would not have occurred. It will take a long time for El Salvador to recover from this American adventure. The suffering of the Guatemalan people is not yet over.
Aware of the American people’s confusion of independent, nationalist, and socialist governments with Communism, dictators in the Third World learned to play and win a game with the U.S. To win, to gain American support, all they had to do was to declare they were anti-Communists and imprison, torture, and murder anyone who opposed them. In Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Zaire, Iran under the Shah, Iraq, Israel, and many other nations, the United States gave diplomatic recognition and sent money and military equipment to governments that imprisoned, tortured, and killed people struggling for some of the same rights our patriots won for us over two hundred years ago.
I hope I have made it clear that the real motivation behind America’s interventions in the Third World has not been to support democracy or human rights, or because of any genuine Soviet or Chinese military threat. In most cases, the incentive has been the promotion of capitalism. As further proof, consider the following two horror stories from the post-Cold War era. (A note: Since the end of the Cold War, the most common justification for or against foreign actions has been “national interest,” as in “It was in our national interest to go to war with Panama and Iraq,” and “It would not be in our national interest to help the people in Bosnia and Haiti.” “National interest” is political doublespeak for “whatever increases the profits of American businessmen, corporations, and investors.”)
On a December night in 1989, 20,000 American troops invaded the nation of Panama. The stated goal of this invasion was to capture General Manuel Noriega, a military dictator who had been on the CIA payroll since the 1970s. When Noriega refused to do as he was told, the Bush administration “discovered” that he was trafficking in narcotics. This fact was well-known to the CIA when he was useful to them.
The war went far beyond any effort to capture General Noriega. New laser weapons were tested on the civilian population. Massive firepower was directed on poor neighborhoods. Hundreds of homes were deliberately burned to the ground. Individuals stopped at military roadblocks were executed on the spot. Eyewitnesses said that American soldiers shot everything that moved; they reported that a U.S. tank destroyed a bus, killing twenty-six people. They also said that American soldiers fired on an ambulance, and bayoneted the wounded
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