Comments on SUBVERSION, SUPPORT FOR CORRUPT DICTATORS AND STATE TERRORISM.

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tiger

The US caused the Bosnian problem in the first place. Read this from Sara Flounders, International Action Centre:

Origins of the breakup—a U.S. law

A year before the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on Nov. 5, 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the 1991 Foreign Operations Appropriations Law 101-513. This bill was a signed death warrant. One provision in particular was so lethal that even a CIA report described three weeks later in the Nov. 27, 1990, New York Times predicted it would lead to a bloody civil war.

A section of Law 101-513 suddenly and without previous warning cut off all aid, trade, credits and loans from the U.S. to Yugoslavia within six months. It also ordered separate elections in each of the six republics that make up Yugoslavia, requiring State Department approval of election procedures and results before aid to the separate republics would be resumed. The legislation further required U.S. personnel in all international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to enforce this cut-off policy for all credits and loans.

There was one final provision. Only forces that the U.S. State Department defined as "democratic forces" would receive funding. This meant an influx of funds to small right-wing nationalist parties in a financially strangled region suddenly thrown into crisis by the overall funding cut-off.

The impact was, as expected, devastating.

It's not for high-handed America to intervene in sovereign states: this is a job for a strengthened UN.

posted by Limey on June 16, 2005 at 8:39 AM | link to this | reply

Wait

you're suggesting we should have stayed away from Bosnia, people were dying over there. I don't know about every country you mentioned, but many of them the US was over there to help, and should a government be left in power when it won't help it's people. A example of what happens when bad governments are left in power is Mexico. The Mexican government is corrupt, and and as a result many Mexicans are left in circumstances that are just incredibly sad. And the more ambitious ones come on over to the US to escape resulting in a massive problem with immigration.

posted by tigerprincess on June 13, 2005 at 9:05 PM | link to this | reply

Medusa

Thank you: the recipe has been well received here and, sooner or later, will be used. Glad to see it includes a little lime.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 5:10 PM | link to this | reply

Limey--You Are the Bomb...

and "that's a good thing," as Martha Stewart would say. Well, you mash up a couple of ripe avocadoes. Remember, you have to peel them first and take out the big seed, haha. Then you add some chopped onion, some freshly squeezed juice from a lime. Add salt, pepper, a little garlic, a dash or 2 of Tabasco sauce, and a bit of sour cream.. Mix  all together. You can dip tortilla chips in the dip. It is heaven on eath. There are much more complicated guacamole dips out there, too. How's that, my British intellectual?!

posted by MedusaNextDoor on June 13, 2005 at 4:52 PM | link to this | reply

Medusa

I've just been told guacomole dip is very popular here.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 4:50 PM | link to this | reply

Medusa

The British eat 35 million advocados every year. (I know, I looked it up). Many come from Spain, and those from the West Indies are popular. Personally, I don't think much to them. How do you make your guacomole dip? I'm not familiar with the name.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 4:46 PM | link to this | reply

Limey- You Have an Opinion on Everything...

I love guacamole dip, you know avocadoes. Do the British nosh on avocadoes. Of course, I'm just pulling on your knickers, so to speak. I find your thoughts quite brilliant, but as I said earlier, I don't relate to any of them.

posted by MedusaNextDoor on June 13, 2005 at 4:29 PM | link to this | reply

zen

As the world's leading developed country America has a special responsibility to set a good example.

Few are aware that it constantly falls short - hence this blog to put the record straight.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 4:09 PM | link to this | reply

Limey,

I understand this blog is about America, but America doesn't exist in a vacuum -- despite many Americans' and others' opinions. Your rationale sometimes is rather like a partner in a robbery who claims innocence because during the robbery he wasn't actually holding a gun but just gathering the money.

Since I've been told, though. I will not think of things in any other context in your blog beyond the context of your viewpoint. It's your blog, after all.

PS Please do not think that my remarks are in any way an attempt to exonerate the US from its actions. I just like to play the context game more than some.

posted by zenresistance on June 13, 2005 at 3:01 PM | link to this | reply

Burly

This is (see below)

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 2:35 PM | link to this | reply

Burly

This about America, whose own system isn't doing too well at the moment. Didn't you used to have a car industry?

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 2:34 PM | link to this | reply

Medusa

In a nutshell - extraordinary.

Here was an Oxford-trained scientist feigning love for a B-movie actor who - and God knows how - managed to become president of the US. (What that says about the American people, I wouldn't like to guess).

Thatcher, of course, was shameless in her pursuit of power and glory. And perhaps she also thought some of Reagan's Hollywood 'glamour' would rub off on her.

Mrs T. tends to be rather shallow, with a well known weakness for a handsome face.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 2:32 PM | link to this | reply

Limey

I think you're a marxist! It's a failed system, just as your British socialism is a failed endeavor. How long ago did you BRAG that the sun never sets on the British empire? How about that for foreign policy!!

posted by Burly on June 13, 2005 at 2:26 PM | link to this | reply

Mystic

Most interesting.

However, a British traveller tells me the Nicaraguans were always relieved to learn he wasn't American.

I'm afraid it has to be said - your country has a terrible reputation for meddling in the internal affairs of poor Latin-American countries.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 2:22 PM | link to this | reply

Zen

"Historical revisionism to suit a point of view isn't justification. It's manipulation. That includes omissions of convenience."

Hang on - I've yet to explain in detail what America was supposed to have done in those countries. Therefore your statement is a little premature.

However, let's take one example from William Blum's America: Rogue State.

1964 - 1973
American-backed Overthrow of the Democratic Government of Chile

Estimated civilian deaths: over 5000 people from the subsequent Pinochet terror campaign; at least 1000 people missing and presumed dead.

[Marxist President] Salvador Allende was the worst possible scenario for a Washington imperialist, [who] could imagine only one thing worse than a Marxist in power – an elected Marxist in power, who honored the constitution, and became increasingly popular. This shook the very foundation stones on which the anti-Communist tower was built: the doctrine, painstakingly cultivated for decades, that "communists" can take power only through force and deception, that they can retain that power only through terrorizing and brainwashing the population.
After sabotaging Allende's electoral endeavor in 1964, and failing to do so in 1970, despite their best efforts, the CIA and the rest of the American foreign policy machine left no stone unturned in their attempt to destabilize the Allende government over the next three years, paying particular attention to building up military hostility. Finally, in September 1973, the military overthrew the government, Allende dying in the process.
They closed the country to the outside world for a week, while the tanks rolled and the soldiers broke down doors; the stadiums rang with the sounds of execution and the bodies piled up along the streets and floated in the river; the torture centers opened for business; the subversive books were thrown into bonfires; soldiers slit the trouser legs of women, shouting that "In Chile women wear dresses!"; the poor returned to their natural state; and the men of the world in Washington and in the halls of international finance opened up their check-books. In the end, more than 3,000 had been executed, thousands more tortured or disappeared.

In the bloody coup of September 11, 1973, Henry Kissinger and the CIA helped General Augusto Pinochet overthrow the democratically-elected leftist government of President Salvador Allende. The Fascist puppet-regime of Augusto Pinochet then embarked on a 17-year terror campaign against the people of Chile, which included mass arrests and executions, death squads, torture and disappearances. Many of the victims were fingered as "radicals" by lists provided by the CIA.
Santiago's national stadium was used as a mass execution site. Robert Saldias, the first army officer to come forward publicly without concealing his identity, said prisoners entering the stadium were identified by yellow, black, and red discs. "Whoever received a red disc had no chance," Saldias said.
Many of the professional torturers and assassins in the Chilean military (and in every other Fascist country of Central and South America) were trained at the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia.
Under Pinochet, Chile also participated in "Operation Condor," a joint collaboration between the U.S.-backed dictatorships of Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil to hunt down and murder exiled opponents of those regimes. Successful hits included the 1976 car-bomb explosion in Washington D.C., which killed Allende's exiled foreign minister Orlando Letelier, and his aide, American Ronnie Moffitt.

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people."
– Henry Kissinger in 1970 (referring to Chilean voters).

Are you really aware of the appalling things your country has done on your behalf? Somehow I don't think so.

PS In fact, I agree with you about the EU not being a country.

PPS I'm afraid I have to say it again: this blog is about America, not other countries.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 2:13 PM | link to this | reply

B urly

Crap and horse shit! I think they amunt to pretty much the same thing.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 1:47 PM | link to this | reply

Burly

Thanks for making your views known in your usual uncompromising fashio. (Yes, I mean it - I really do like your direct style).

About William Blum
William Blum left the State Department in 1967, abandoning his aspiration of becoming a Foreign Service Officer, because of his opposition to what the United States was doing in Vietnam.

He then became one of the founders and editors of the Washington Free Pr
ess, the first "alternative" newspaper in the capital.

posted by Limey on June 13, 2005 at 1:45 PM | link to this | reply

Limey---I still love your writing,

even though I might not buy into any of it. P.S., what did you think of Margaret Thatcher and Pres. Reagan's strong bond?

posted by MedusaNextDoor on June 13, 2005 at 11:43 AM | link to this | reply

Limes - so true!

While in central America during the height of the Iran-Contra scandal, I discovered that Nicarguans were experiencing a beef shortage even though there were hundreds of cattle-producing ventures throughout the country. All were controlled by US companies, however, and all the beef in the country was slated for export to the US.

But the real miracle was throughout the region, the people somehow were able to separate the actions of the US government from the people of the US. I think it was because their puppet government didn't represent them, they didn't think our government represented US.

posted by fwmystic on June 13, 2005 at 10:08 AM | link to this | reply

The European Union

isn't a country, and several of its member states were complicit and indeed even operative in the ongoing skullduggery.

Many of your views are perfectly understandable, Limey. Really. But quite a heaping of your rationale for your hatred/contempt of Americans really has feeble legs. Historical revisionism to suit a point of view isn't justification. It's manipulation. That includes omissions of convenience.

I'm with you totally on the American public's ignorance of foreign affairs and their own government's foreign policy. It borders on the lunatic.

posted by zenresistance on June 13, 2005 at 9:59 AM | link to this | reply

Limey again

The more I read this crap, the more I realize its just horseshit!!!

posted by Burly on June 13, 2005 at 9:48 AM | link to this | reply

Limey

Who the hell is William Blum? Whoever he is, I disagree with him strongly!

posted by Burly on June 13, 2005 at 9:45 AM | link to this | reply