Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A slight advantage of poverty (was Re: Random thoughts on Big Brother, adv

["Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky" <Gorojovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

En relación a [PEN-L:1684] Re: Re: Re: Re: A slight advantage o,
el 10 Sep 00, a las 21:53, Brad DeLong dijo:

> >  > the US government (which
> >  > also allied with the Argentine junta until the latter came into
> >  > conflict with the UK, a more important ally).
>
> The Argentinian Junta never was *my* ally. But during the
> Malvinas/Falklands War, it was Nestor's.

Hah. My dear child, there is a saying in Argentina. "When you are
going, I am coming back". I expected you to fall in my trap. You are
wonderfully predictable.

The Argentinian Junta has never been an _ally_ of the imperialists,
Brad. They were your dutiful employees, the ones who cleared the way
for you and your ilk to transform Argentina into an economic gulag.

They were not my allies, either. They were supported by the Communist
Party during the late 70s (CPer's were wary that the trade agreements
between the USSR and Argentina could come down, so they argued that
"there could be something worse than Videla").  They received support
also of the Argentinian Democratic Socialists, who were presented
with a couple of embassies, and who share most of Brad DeLong's ideas
(I guess that if I knew them all I would change the phrase:  "share
all of Brad DeLong's ideas").

I did my duty as an Argentinian and a revolutionary socialist in the
Third World, in supporting the war (not the regime, the war, but this
distinction is above Brad's understanding). All the criminals were
exposed as such by the war, and the obvious conclusion that an army
trained to murder its own people could not win an antiimperialist war
began to become obvious. This is why, once the military sepoys
managed to lose the war, immediately afterwards a swarm of domestic
and foreign Brad DeLongs began to scream against "militarism" in
Argentina. Because if the debate would have gone further, then the
Argentinan military would have become a strong antiimperialist force
(or at least the risk that this may happen would have taken place).

Take the Astiz case. Astiz was (and is) the representation of what
there is of more tremendous and repugnant in an imperialist army. His
task wasn't even the lugubrious job of the torturer, his was a more
sinister task: he was the guy who made friends with you and then sent
you to the torture chamber. Well, this excellent criminal proved his
anti-patriotic (just as DeLong's) feelings by surrendering a
strategic position in the South Georgias (in fact, San Pedro islands)
without shooting a single shot. High treason. The "civilist", anti-
Malvinas clique that still rules the Army (because of our local Brad
DeLongs, by the way) covered Astiz up, and the issue was never
debated in depth. This is exactly what the US embassy wanted.

These are the things the war exposed. Patriotic officers, who had
more or less avoided to blood stain their hands during the Years of
Lead (nobody could get absolutely aside, there was an intentional
enforcement from the pro-American 'internationalists" that every man
should have a share), proved to be great fighters in the South (the
death toll on officers was higher, proportionally, than that on
soldiers). Argentinian Air Force officers began to understand, for
the first time in their history, the meaning of imperialist
occupation, when they proposed once and again that they could send
the troop carriers to the deep and were rejected by the rotten High
Command (these pilots, by the way, were people who surveilled the
convoys from aboard old, refurbished Boeing 707s, people who later on
would fly at 3 or 5 meters above the waves, and who thanks to the war
discovered themselves putting their wits to the service of the
country: this had an impact on the consciousness of the military
youth that it took a long decade to uproot... by the good offices,
among others, of the Brad DeLongs of foreign policy from the USA).

So that, let us put this clear: the Junta was never an ally of
Brad's. They were working for him. You are never an ally of your
employees, although every good manager will try to convince the
employees that "we are all on the same boat, don't you see?". And
they were never my allies, since I had the revengeful idea, together
with millions of my fellow countrymen, to push them to confront their
own patrons. I understand Brad's rage. Imperialists are always
furious when they find an army across their way.

Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
gorojovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx