From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.desert-storm,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Gulf "War"&Chomsky -- final response (part 3.epilogue)
Date: 13 Aug 92 05:49:21 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


Finally, a few odds and ends -- issues remaining to be addressed and
some comments and observations.

The political culture is such that many find it difficult to
understand the objections to Washington's support of wholesale
slaughter of mere Iraqi and Iranina sub-people, especially when the
regimes [incidentally armed by a group of nations which include
Washington, when the nature of the regimes was all too clear] were
hostile to "our" interests. The confusion of the interests of the
foreign policy elites and "our" or the "national" interest is a
familiar one already reviews. What is remarkable however is the notion
that had these regimes been alligned in ways which had been truly
against the interests of the American public, then support for
wholesale slaughter would have been fine and dandy. The principled
position is, again, so foreign to the Tweedledum/Tweedledee duality
rammed down American mental throats on a daily basis that it is terra
incognita, totally alien, unthinkable.

Secondly, as by-products of the political culture and the lapdog Free
Press are patterns of thought which preclude the ability to go beyond
whether the U.S.-backed Butcher the Shah or the U.S.-supported Butcher
Khomeni is "better" and to make the connection, for example, between
Washington's long-standing position against Democracy in Iran [and
everywhere else democracy runs against the corporate elite interests
of Washington -- everywhere that is, with exceptions allowable where
democracy is "checked" by various factors; as with democracy, so we
see more clearly today the support for the environement *when* this
does not interfere with the profits of the few, the interests of the
many be damned], with "our SOB in Iran" the Shah for instance, might
have anything to do with the ascention of the Ayatolla and that
support for a demilitarized region; a decent standard of living or
at least hope for such in the future; and the support for a multi-part
open political system in Iran, far less convenient to the "base"
interests upon which Washington's policies have always been based when
push comes to shove than an "Iron-fisted" dictatorship (provided it is
reasonably well-behaved (meaing nothing about human rights or
democracy or not invading countries Washington doesn't mind being
invaded like but "well-behaved" in the standard Orwellian sense
meaning not too disruptive of Washington's imperialistic/hegemonic and
corporate/business interests)) -- that such a policy would have made
the emergence of an Ayatollah far less likely -- indeed, next to
impossible had such sane policies been acted upon in coordination with
other nations. Naturally, elites had better make sure that the "only
options" are the support for the "lesser of two evils" and no
democratic debate -- or even comprehension by the public that
alternatives may even exist -- takes place about Washington's policy
of supporting the slaugher of Iranian or Iraqis or countless other
creatures when it suits its interests.

The refusal to see the principles of the Well-Behaved Vicious Thug
versus the Misbehaving Vicious Thug as one of the key elements of
foreign policy is a familiar one, and one which results in much
confusing as rather consistent policies by Washington over the years
become a confusing case-by-case juble of mistakes, special
circumstances, and stange instances of Washington's policies going
contrary to the [stated] "goals" is has for the region/country in
question.

Finally it is unfortunate that the remarks accurately observing that
Saddam's base movites are irrelevant to the discussion at hand by
citizens of the United States whose (limited) influence lies with Bush
and not Saddam -- was in sarcasm -- perhaps Chomsky's comments in
reply to a Nicaraguan will help clarify this issue (to be posted
within a week or so). And the massive ignorance displayed regarding
the Salvadoran death-squad regime, the Salvadoeran rebels, Nicaragua,
and the rest, is all too familiar. To those accustomed to the "news"
coming from the PR system and not by investigation of human rights
reports and other more direct sources of information (the majority of
the U.S. public by far) is it "not what they don't know so much as
what they know that just ain't so" that is the problem, and for the
same institutional reasons already reviewed. A "reading list" of
documented/footnoted and automatic-archiver available files seems the
best once can do excepting occasions when there is sufficient energy
to personally correct the disinformation item by item.

##################################################################

*
* =========
* Nicaragua
* =========
*
  CONTRA   TERROR    Contras' origins; make-up; practices - documented
  FSLN     H-RIGHTS  Documented HRs comparison w/Somoza,Guat,ES,others
  FSLN     MISKITOS  Sandinista treatment of Miskitos;Charges & Realit
  FSLN     NICAJEWS  Debunks charges of Sandinista 'Anti-Semitism'
*
  OXFAM84  NICARAG   Oxfam America's 1984 report on Nicaragua, in full
  FSLN     ACHIEVE   Documented: achievements of the Nica. revolution
*
  NICA-84  ELECTION  Documented: Fair under Sandinistas; US subversion
  FAIRNESS NICA-USA  Flwup:`Is Nicaragua More Democratic than the US?'
  NICRAGUA ELECTION  Study in US subversion of '90 Nicaraguan election
  DEMOCRAT DECLINE   Noam Chomsky,excellent,on the 1990 Nica. election
*
* ===========
* El Salvador
* ===========
  AI_REPT  ELSALV    Amnesty:So-called `death-squads' are run by army!
  JOYA     BACKGRND  Salvadoran `Death Squad' deserter: US involved
  JOYA     MARTINEZ  Followup, incl. US efforts to deport Martinez
  DEATHSQD ES_US     ES Death Squads: a pattern of US complicity
  BEHIND   DEATHSQD  Behind The Death Squads in ES (frm _Progressive_)
  GRNBERET TORTURE   Two accounts of US 'aid' to El Salvador (1980/82)
*
  WITNESS  2WAR      Story of Quaker doctor in El Salvador
  FMLN     BACKGRND  origins, authenticity, support; FMLN/Army abuses
*
  BRENDA   HUBBARD   police terrorize COMADRES(mthrs of pol prisoners)
  COINTPRO CISPES    The FBI's campaign to repress CISPES
  HRCOMM   ELSALV    A. Cockburn on the Salv. Hum. Rights Commission

*
* =============
* Latin America
* =============
*
  LAT-AMER HMNRTS90  A comparison of HR reports ; surprizing results
  AFSC     GUATMALA  _Understanding Guatamala_, an AFSC pamphlet
  AI_REPT  GUATMALA  Amnesty's 1989 comprehensive (~70pp) HRs report
  NUN_TORT GUATMALA  US nun alleges US involvement in Guat. Death Sqd
  HRWATCH  COLOMBIA  HR Watch: "drug war" = repression in Colombia
  JEWS-AND C-AMERIC  "Jews&C.A.: The Need To Act" by New Jewish Agenda

##################################################################

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