RE:The Cold War

[BILL MITCHELL <ECWFM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>Herb's argument is:
>>	That was not my argument. I PRAISED the US for entering into a
>>fight against totalitarianism of both right and left. I argued that
>>the Soviet Union blocked disarmament, and when it fell, disarmament
>>began to happen.
>>I
>>argued that the US fought the good fight against two forms of
>>totalitarianism, and I am proud to be an American because of that. I
>
>[deletions]
>
>> However, I still
>>don't understand why the US has made such a strong about-face on
>>supporting democratic regimes. This change began under Carter
>>(Nicaragua), and continued under Reagan (the Phillipines, Pakistan),
>>and under Bush (El Salvador) and Clinton (Haiti).
>
Now in Herb's eyes anyway, no-one ever seems to answer his argument despite
saying a lot of things which seem to be refuting his argument. Maybe it is
b/c his argument is incredibly selective and hence inconsistent.

Which good fight are we talking about here?

1) oil in the south indian ocean - therefore support a tyrannical and
militaristic indonesian regime who tramples the east timorese, takes over
their democracy, pushes fretilin (the peoples' movement) into exile, and
murders innocent people (women, men and children) at Dili (after the cold
war ended BTW), along with a number of other things despotic.

is this emotional Herb?

even if it is, it hardly shows the USA to be fighting the consistent good
fight. Read John Pilger's latest book on USA involvement in the take-over of
East Timor (title escapes me, sorry). It is also a sorry story in terms of
OZ govt involvement who were still crawling to the USA.

2) spy stations in OZ - pine gap. I have told this story before. CIA dirty
tricks to overturn a Labour G in 1975 who had started to question the fact
that Pine Gap was not accountable to the OZ people.

3) oil in the middle east - support a tyrannical, racist, sexist dynasty of
sheiks in Kuwait against the so-called bully boy (sadam) as part of a
liberation of small nations rhetoric. glorious USA liberating the world from
invasions. Then why not send the missiles into East timor. Oh, the oil there
was in the control of the invaders not the invadees.

4) granada

5) chile - not aligned to the east bloc - elected socialist govt,
attempting to redistribute some wealth largely held by USA capitalist
interests. CIA plot fails, so they blatantly shoot him down. hardly the good
fight.

6) vietnam - my lai - women and children massacred by Lt. Calley and his
marines. Pres. Thieu the corrupt puppet govt in Saigon hardly the exemplar
of democracy. strategic interest more likely the motive.

The list can go further but the point is made.

So Herb the good fight seems to be highly selective. Your argument
therefore (especially when you introduce jingoism - proud to be american etc
sort of stuff) is basically that of a patriot who has read to many yankee
comic books and ignored the real politic.

kind regards
bill

**************************************************************************
 William F. Mitchell            Telephone: +61-49-215027      .-_|\
 Department of Economics                   +61-49-705133     /     \
 The University of Newcastle    Fax:       +61-49-216919     \.--._/*<--
 Callaghan   NSW  2308                                            v
 Australia                      Email : ecwfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************************************