Reply #1: Smart man, Sarkozy...

[Peace Patriot]

(and keep in mind that a "conservative" in France is far to the left of any Democratic leader in this country, except maybe Dennis Kucinich).

The Bushwhacks have fucked us up in so many ways it is impossible to enumerate them. But one of the ways that most of us don't know about--because the news was largely black-holed by our corpo/fascist press--is that the Bushwhacks funded and organized white separatist rioters and murderers, right out of the U.S. embassy in Bolivia, last September (while we were preoccupied with the Bushwhacks' Financial 9/11). Morales threw the U.S. ambassador (and the DEA) out of Bolivia because of it. And the occasion also prompted the first emergency meeting of the newly formalized South American "common market," UNASUR, which acted strongly and unanimously to back up Morales and prevent the split-up of Bolivia.

The Bushwhacks then cut off poverty aid to Bolivia--to punish Morales for objecting to, and stopping, their goddamned civil war scheme.

So, whatever chance U.S. companies had to access one of the very few supplies of lithium in the world, and whatever chance U.S workers, U.S. car companies, U.S. computer makers, and the people of the U.S. in general could have had from good relations with Bolivia have all been blown.

Earlier in the year, the Bushwhacks had sabotaged hostage negotiations with the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, by French, Swiss and Spanish envoys, and the presidents of France, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and others, to release Ingrid Betancourt and begin a peace process to end Colombia's 40+ year civil war. This was in March '08. The Colombian military--no doubt in my mind, on orders from Washington--sent rocketfire at the location of the first two hostages that Hugo Chavez got released, probably trying to hand him a diplomatic disaster with dead hostages. The US/Colombia then dropped ten 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" on the chief FARC hostage and peace negotiator, Raul Reyes, blowing him and 24 other people away in their sleep , at a temporary camp just inside Ecuador's border--ending all talk of peace, and nearly starting a war between the US/Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela.

And, very unfortunately, indeed, this warmongering attitude toward leftist democracies in South and Central America is still the official policy of the U.S., eight months into Barack Obama's term. Colombia just announced a deal with the U.S. to establish seven new U.S. military bases in Colombia, with an open-ended commitment for more--a deal that is being sold as merely about U.S. "military advisors." (Where oh where have we heard THAT before?!) And now all of Latin America is up in arms about U.S. ill intentions in the region--as well they should be. They have asked Obama to attend the current meeting of UNASUR to explain it. Believe me, he won't. (Or maybe I should put it this way: "Surprise me, Barack!")

Meanwhile Sarkozy does a little trading with Bolivia, shows some respect, honors Bolivia's truly great president--the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country)--a healer, a peacemaker, the Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela of South America--and gets French access to the lithium and other resources.

Evo Morales famously said, "We want partners, not bosses." (He was a union leader before he was elected president.) That is what Sarkozy is offering--the hand of a partner. The people who rule our country--I mean the people who really rule it--don't want to be "partners." They want to tyrannically monopolize every resource, commandeer our war machine to that purpose, and kill anybody who gets in their way. And thus the peaceful people in the world--and the people who believe in a true market place, an open marketplace, free of monopolies and tyrants--are telling the U.S. to "get lost!"

I really don't know what Obama's intentions are in Latin America, but if they are, as he stated, a new policy of peace, respect and cooperation, he has failed to implement it, and either approves or is powerless to prevent just the opposite policy: militarism, with increasing evidence of a war plan.

I don't think this terribly wrong path we are on--in Latin America and elsewhere, and here at home--can be altered, nor our democracy restored and our government reformed, until we rid ourselves of 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code in all the new voting systems, owned and controlled by a handful of rightwing corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. This system was fast-tracked across the U.S. during the 2002 to 2004 period, first of all to 're-elect' Bush and continue the Iraq War, and second of all to prevent any serious reform after the Great Looting and the bloodbath in Iraq were over. It has worked very well so far. Thus, Bushwhack brutality continues to be the only idea we have. Bushwhack moles are everywhere. Bad Bushwhack ambassadors are still in place all over Latin America. Bushwhacks at the Pentagon and the State Department are planning to turn Colombia into Vietnam. Bushwhacks consider UNASUR an enemy, not a potential, thriving, robust partner. They are bosses--mean M-Fing bosses--NOT partners, and, from what I can see, they are still running U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.

So, goodbye, lithium! Goodbye, cooperation! Goodbye, partners! 'We don't need no stinking badges' is the U.S. policy in Latin America, to our great misfortune.