Latin American Revolutions Under Attack
Weekend Edition June 26-28, 2015
The World is Turning, Don't Let it Turn Away
Latin American Revolutions Under Attack
by ANDRE VLTCHEK
Do not take the Latin American revolutions for granted.
They inspired the entire Planet. They brought hope to every corner of our scarred Earth. But now they are themselves in need of our support.
If left alone, they would thrive for decades and centuries. But the Empire is once again on the offensive. It is shaking with fury. It is ready to invade, to smash, burn to ashes all the hopes, all that which had been achieved.
Don’t believe in the “common wisdom” which proclaims that the rulers of the world simply “closed their eyes” more than a decade ago; that George W. Bush was “too busy” ravishing the Middle East, therefore “allowing” most of the Latin American countries to “sneak away” from the iron grip of the Empire.
Such “analyses” are as patronizing as they are false. The Empire never sleeps! What Latin America now has was built on its daring, its sweat, its genius and its blood – it fought against the Empire, courageously, for decades, losing its best sons and daughters. It fought for freedom, for justice and socialism.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/26/latin-american-revolutions-under-attack/
Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016125787
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Don't ever believe "common wisdom" on foreign matters, especially the "global cop" which is completely nonsense it outrages me when I hear it -- these people don't have a clue but the politicians and media create a narrative that sticks on people's impressions.
On inspiring the world -- The reason (I'm assuming but it is clear) the reason the charismatic populist in Columbia was assassinated because he was a huge threat to the sociopath's goals. I'm often reminded of the sociopath-apath-empath triangle but to stay on point I recall Che's Motorocycle Diaries which he saw the Two Americas for himself and saw the unjust of it all. To keep it short I'll focus on a couple of things.
"The laws of capitalism, blind and invisible to the majority, act upon the individual without his thinking about it. He sees only the vastness of a seemingly infinite horizon before him. That is how it is painted by capitalist propagandists, who purport to draw a lesson from the example of Rockefeller—whether or not it is true—about the possibilities of success. The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this."[135]
This is very true, especially in how it relates to public opinion of foreign policy. Right now I'm seeing Western Media all the way in Qatar investigating completely the living conditions of the imported migrant workers (AKA slaves) going into the compounds, looking at the incredibly unsanitary living conditions, cramped, not even a shower which I appreciate but it isn't a concern over the workers as to why they were doing that because where were they for over a decade when the Department of Defense was doing the very same thing -- Halliburton's Subsidiary KBR subcontracted out to a Kuwaiti Contractor who uses the same slaves to do most of the work in War Zones & were exploited and abused in the process.
A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad:
Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy
Not one of the five different US embassy sites he had worked on around the world compared to the mess he describes. Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia all had their share of dictators, violence and economic disruption, but the companies building the embassies were always fair and professional, he says. The Kuwait-based company building the $592-million Baghdad project is the exception. Brutal and inhumane, he says “I’ve never seen a project more fucked up. Every US labor law was broken.”
<snip>
No Questions Asked
By March 2006, First Kuwaiti’s operation began looking even sketchier to Owens as he boarded a nondescript white jet on his way back to Baghdad following some R&R in Kuwait city. He remembers being surrounded by about 50 First Kuwaiti laborers freshly hired from the Philippines and India. Everyone was holding boarding passes to Dubai – not to Baghdad.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14173
Where was the media so the narrative is still the US is out there (people think its still WWII where government uniformed troops = war) out there doing this and the belief or even if the reality is presented there are numerous justifications and excuses where the US is forced into this position but the most common myth in economics is the idea a business does something because they have to when the truth is they're doing something because they can. Aside from that, if it was that kind of thing they'd tell the truth instead of "freedom and democracy" and they always use war rather than assist in forming a political solution & especially do very little as far as humanitarian assistance but the USAID is yet another agency filled with CIA agents on "official cover" and get rich quick schemes but political solutions don't sell weapons. Nothing has changed but only accelerated since The Pentagon Wars
“There was no person more feared by the company [CIA] than Che Guevara because he had the capacity and charisma necessary to direct the struggle against the political repression of the traditional hierarchies in power in the countries of Latin America.” -- Phillip Agee
Agee describes his first overseas assignment in 1960 to Ecuador, where his primary mission had the aim of forcing a diplomatic break between Ecuador and Cuba. He writes that the technique he used included bribery, intimidation, bugging, and forgery. Agee spent four years in Ecuador penetrating Ecuadorian politics. He states that his actions subverted and destroyed the political fabric of Ecuador.[5]
Agee helped bug the United Arab Republic code-room in Montevideo, Uruguay, with two contact microphones placed on the ceiling of the room below.[5]
On December 12, 1965 Agee visited senior Uruguayan military and police officers at a Montevideo police headquarters. He realized that the screaming he heard from a nearby cell was the torturing of a Uruguayan, whose name he had given to the police as someone to watch. The Uruguayan senior officers simply turned up a radio report of a soccer game to drown out the screams.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Agee
I want to mention something about Uguanda right here. The third-country nationals mentioned above, most came from India, Nepal, Philippines, countries in Africa (don't know which ones) they did the construction, served food, drove supply convoys, etc while abused, treated very disrespectful in general. The US defense budget requests doesn't put a number for Indirect foreign hires just direct foreign hires. However, there was a very interesting exception when it came Uguandans. They were paid more, given a bullet proof vest, a kevlar weapon, and a rife and guarding checkpoints entering into bases such as Baghdad International Airport. I'm dead serious because unlike most people here I've been to Iraq during "Operation Iraqi Freedom". The reason why this is interesting is because there is a very aggressive yet secret push to Christianize the citizens. This is what is going on Uguanda now so why were they given special assignments like that?
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HBO’s VICE Goes to Uganda to Witness U.S. Evangelical-Led Homophobia in Action
Friday night’s episode of VICE on HBO featured a disturbing segment on the anti-gay climate in Uganda and how it was in large part inspired by American evangelical Christians. (Remember: This is the country that once considered a bill that could apply the death penalty to homosexuals. I think Christians refer to that as “loving the sinners.”)
David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement summarizes the theme:
In the VICE episode, [Member of Parliament David] Bahati refuses to name any one of his American partners, but [U.S. Senator James] Inhofe is clearly one. Also among Bahati’s supporters and partners are Scott Lively, Pastor Rick Warren, Sharon Slater, and the World Congress of Families. And Bahati makes clear he and his country support the culture these American Christian extremists have brought to Uganda — one that teaches, falsely, that gay people are all pedophiles, homosexuality is a choice, it is evil, and children must be protected from it at all costs.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/05/17/hbos-vice-goes-to-uganda-to-witness-u-s-evangelical-led-homophobia-in-action/
That has led me to (I seen the whole thing which is restricted to HBO rather than clips)
C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy
C Street includes everything a riveting tale about a controversial national movement should-scandal, affairs, conspiracies, death, and, of course, secrecy. Sharlet's story of American fundamentalism begins in a historical mansion on Washington DC's C Street, diverts to Argentina, takes root in Uganda, and ends at a street protest in Manhattan. The second in an unofficial series (after The Family) about a religious cabal of politicians from both major parties, Sharlet brings a wealth of research (including many quotes from conversations with "C-streeters" and others in "the Fellowship"
to reveal the startling mindset of a movement few even know exists. Vivid descriptions of key players brings his tale to life; in fact, the reader is never allowed to forget that this is true, and Sharlet's repetition is unnecessary. But he deftly unravels the residence as not just a place, but an ideological greenhouse for the teachings of evangelists, Christians, proponents of the Far Right, and others who compose a fundamentalist movement that aims to put Jesus in the Oval Office and get the Bible equal footing with the Constitution.
Even after the sexual affairs of several congressmen brought the Fellowship (and its D.C. residence on C Street) into the light, most Americans have still never heard of this elitist fundamentalist organization. Even those who have will have trouble getting their heads around a mostly faceless organization whose goal is to convert the world to a trickle-down Christianity, as Sharlet calls it, where God has chosen the leaders (them) and everyone else follows. With our leaders somehow prechosen, it makes it easier to forgive their transgressions (the Fellowship, for example, has no problem working with heads of state like Haiti’s Papa Doc Duvalier and those in present-day Uganda, who advocate the death penalty for homosexuals).That this heavily financed, multilayered organization has been operating for decades—and today is actively implanted within the U.S. military—makes this well-documented, probing investigation even more mind-bending. Mostly, those in the Fellowship don’t talk. Maybe now the discussion will start. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: When the affairs of Fellowship members Senator John Ensign R-Nev. and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford broke, Sharlet’s book The Family became a best-seller. His follow-up is sure to attract similar attention. --Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fundamentalist-Threat-American-Democracy/dp/B0062GLZEQ
I looked into the organization on Wikipedia and it reminded of when I was in I think basic training or AIT but I didn't think anything of it all since I don't pay attention at all to religious material, don't think it was in the regular Army at an active duty station because it is more optional to eat at a DFAC is different on a duty station and this wasn't but I did go to "prayer breakfast" and it wasn't high profile like what goes on in DC but I remember and this is a fact there was a copies of "The Purpose Driven" by Rick Warren on the table at every seat. I didn't read it, didn't care, didn't know who Rick Warren was until that famous event at Saddleback Church in 2008 --
As I was typing this I didn't intend to mention Uganda (I could mention a whole hell lot of things but intended to keep this short) but with the Che -- Phillip Agee posting I saw the full circle with Uganda and started remembering more. What is going on when the US is "at-war" is people need to forget about troop levels or the impression of levels of work and picture forced labor camps -- third country nationals outnumber everyone on the military bases, US contractors have the 2nd most people and also with most of the high level details such as tasked with base security -- you don't see troops at checkpoints except for highway ones usually, there are separate sections in a way where troops are here, contractors are there and the TCNs go home to Kuwaiti Contractor compound. Higher ranking Army officials like majors, colonels, etc depending on their jobs or tasked do work with contractors and something like Special Forces do a lot but Academi, private paramilitaries, CIA paramilitaries do a lot of the high level, super classified missions. What I'm saying is what the US public largely believes & defends is far different than the reality which is kept a secret from us. Some very unethical, immoral, unjust, brutal actions for actual reasons far different than the real reasons & the ends justify means approach to get to whatever the means actually are.
There is a whole lot of this & more going on that alone is made even worse by the media, the sort of media the public receives most of the information outrages me even more because if you are going to do this or support this just have the decency to tell the truth or accept the truth rather than tell a whole bunch of lies build a narrative that puts US in the good position. Movies especially run wild with this turning something like American Sniper into completely leaving out the atrocities committed at the Battle of Fallujah 2 which by far the most common thing said by people from different backgrounds. Residents, journalists both local & western, US humanitarian aid workers, etc said the worst of it was "from snipers" and a "fear of windows". I wouldn't mind the movie if it told the truth but instead we have the fantasy land version of who, what, when, why rather than reality.
Why I'm depressed is due to the uphill battle. One President isn't enough to completely clean house & there are full scaled efforts to discredit the charasmatic populists if not assassinate one. The Republicans are so far off from reality it really frustrates me and the bipartisanship in all the wrong places. The media & the public. People don't care by and large or other come up with reasons to justify one thing or another especially the dependent one when we don't have to be #1 plus most of what we do don't solve the so-called problems we claim to be addressing. In so many places there is conflict because of the need for a political solution but the US only does war because of profits. Most of the time we can simply have a discussion which we have a lot of when it comes to very brutal regimes. We lack the perception to see ourselves and don't mean Canada or Europe I mean the perception of citizen that is victimized by the US defense industry & commercial exploitation.
I'm resigned to this because I have no idea how to change this particularly because they sabotage efforts & present themselves as the 'good side' that either people follow it or they so far out in outer space theory like the moon landing was faked or America loses wars because something about not being on god's side as much as we were which for some reason think the cutoff was WWII.
