Reply #5: Yup, a very good analysis!

[Peace Patriot]

I especially like the underlined parts of the conclusion:

"...the overthrow of democratic government in Honduras has a significance that goes far beyond its own borders. If the takeover is allowed to stand, not only will it embolden coup-minded military officers in neighbouring countries such as Guatemala, act as a warning to weaker progressive governments and strengthen oligarchies across the continent. It would also send an unmistakable signal that the radical social and political process that has been unleashed in Latin America – the most hopeful development in global politics in the past two decades – can be halted and reversed. Relying on Obama clearly isn't an option: only Latin Americans can defend their own democracy."

I have no doubt at all that this coup was "made in the USA"--and we do have some names (John McCain is one) but we don't have them all, as yet--and one of the purposes is, as the writer says, to "turn back the tide"--to try to destroy the vast leftist democracy movement that has swept South America and half of Central America. The other purpose--I am more and more convinced--is to secure this particular war asset, Honduras, for Oil War II-South America.

But I am not as pessimistic as this writer, in marking the Honduran coup as a set-back. It is certainly a "set-back" to the leftist and labor union activists who have been murdered-- a final "set-back"--and it is inflicting suffering on those beaten and jailed (over a thousand political prisoners), but as an anti-democratic, pro-global corporate predator strategy, it has the smell of desperation. And it seems to have awakened the Honduran people as a political force, rather than intimidating and oppressing them further. They have been very brave. This audacious coup has roused them up. And they are not without friends. They are part of widespread democracy movement in South and Central America, and they have friends and allies throughout the world, who see this coup as outrageous and are doing everything they can to defeat it.

Whatever the immediate outcome of the present situation--whether Zelaya is returned to office or not, whether there is a fraudulent election or not, whether there is more repression or not--this is not going to change: The Honduran people have seen the naked truth about their Oligarchy and the perils of U.S. domination and military presence, and they will not go quiet again. Also, I think that our evildoers are wishfully thinking that Honduras will be a "domino" for toppling this historic, massive, amazing leftist democracy movement by which good governments, truly representative of their people, have been elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. The future is theirs. Change is "in the air." Its time had come. And these new leaders have not been idyl, and show every sign that they know what they need to do to insure the success of this movement. They need to pull together. They need to bury old differences, and heal the wounds from previous "divide and conquer" tactics by the U.S.--and form a Latin American "common market" to exert their collective strength as a region. South America has already done this--they formalized UNASUR last summer.

And this brings me to one flaw I see in this article: The writer says that the Bushwhacks were preoccupied with the Middle East, and this provided a window of opportunity for democracy to arise in Latin America. But, in truth, far from neglecting Latin America, the Bushwhacks were very actively interfering--pouring multi-millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into rightwing groups all over Latin America (coup plotters, assassination plotters, destabilizers, secessionists and criminals of every kind), pouring BILLIONS of dollars into further militarizing and nazifying Colombia, and trying to do the same thing to Mexico and also to Peru. They actively supported the violent rightwing coup against Chavez in Venezuela, in 2002, even as they were ginning up for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq to steal their oil. They persisted with assassination plots run through Colombia, funding the recall election in Venezuela in 2004, fomenting a crippling oil professionals' strike, and waging an intense psyops/disinformation campaign against Chavez, trying to paint him as "dictator" which is still running. And, as late as this last September, they were funding/organizing a white separatist civil war in Bolivia.

They've also been running all sorts of Rumsfeld "Office of Special Plans"-type plots out of Colombia, and out of Miami, against the presidents of Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador (and those are just the ones we know about). And early last year, they dropped ten 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" on Ecuador, killing 25 people in their sleep, including the leftist guerrillas' chief peace negotiator, Raul Reyes, who, according to numerous reliable reports, was about to release hostage Ingrid Betancourt to Swiss, Spanish and French envoys, who were in the country for that purpose. They wanted to prevent any peace accord in Colombia's 40+ year civil war. They didn't want that diplomatic triumph--Betancourt's release--or a peace accord to be credited to a leftist government--Ecuador. About two months before, the Colombian military aimed rocket fire at two hostages that Chavez had gotten released, while they were on route to their freedom--no doubt on orders from Washington, and no doubt for the same purpose, to prevent Chavez from getting any credit, and possibly to hand him a diplomatic disaster, with dead hostages.

This is not neglect. The Latin Americans have achieved democracy in spite of on-going military, covert and heavily funded efforts to prevent it. Attributing the success of democracy in Latin America to Bushwhack neglect may be why the writer ends on a pessimistic note. Democracy in Latin America is the achievement of the people of Latin America, and it has produced leaders who are, at long last, pulling Latin America together, and are doing so formally, in new institutions, in which political and economic strength can be brought to bear, to fend off attack. And that is exactly what happened with the Bushwhack-instigated attempted coup in Bolivia. UNASUR had no more been formalized when it met its first challenge: a civil war in Bolivia, directed from Washington (and funded and organized right out of the US embassy ). Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, threw the US ambassador (and the DEA) out of Bolivia, for their collusion with the fascist rioters and murderers. Chile's Michele Batchelet (UNASUR's temporary exec) called an emergency meeting of UNASUR and UNASUR strongly backed him up, and helped him restore peace, with Brazil and Argentina using their considerable economic clout in Bolivia to reinforce those efforts.

This is the context in which the Honduran coup occurred--a desperate act by the Honduran Oligarchy to cling to power in a changing world, backed by corpo/fascist elements here, and probably by the Pentagon, for their own reasons. I'm not saying that these rightwing forces can't succeed--in turning back democracy in Latin America, and/or their plan to grab Venezuela's and Ecuador's oil. Obviously that is a possibility. They very nearly killed our democracy. And they most certainly stole Iraq's oil amidst unconscionable suffering and death. But I think the odds are very much against their success in this case.

One other thing: Democracy in Latin America has succeeded due to the work of many thousands of people of all kinds, over a long period--about a decade (early 1990s through the early 2000s)--in building up Latin America's democratic institutions: such as clean elections--transparent vote counting, fair rules; writing and holding national referendums on new Constitutions; grass roots social and labor organizing--and much more. This did not happen overnight. And it did not happen because of Bushwhack neglect. It happened because it was the will of the people--after many decades of brutal dictatorships, followed by the brutal economics ('neoliberalism,' 'free trade') of both the Clinton and Bush regimes.

If our global corporate overlords want war with these people, they may well cause horrendous suffering, but I don't think our overlords will win. Hitler made the same mistake about the U.S. He thought we were not capable of defeating his great war machine. We weren't ready. We had no tanks and guns. Some of us were "isolationists" and simply wanted to tend our businesses and farms, and recover from the Great Depression. We were "weak," divided and unwarlike. But Hitler was very wrong about what an aroused democracy can do; what belief in social justice, equality, fairness, tolerance and good government can do, to people who find all those things gravely threatened by a nazi bully. Like us, back then, South America not only has the spirit to win such a war, also like us, back then, they have the resources, the people and the creative intelligence to win it.

Our corpo/fascists--for all their money and power--are out of ideas. All they have is bully power. A war machines. Stealing elections. Lies and disinformation, and illusions. They can certainly cause great harm in the world, as Hitler did. But they do not have popular support, anywhere--neither here nor in Latin America. They have to use "big boots" to get their way. That is profound weakness. And I think that what we are going to see, in Latin America, on the Honduran coup (and U.S. oil war plans), is just how strong their passion for democracy has become, and the fruits of all the hard work they have put into it--including their unity.