On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 18:03:29 -1000, Reese wrote:
>I gotta call bullshit. Your "everyone knows" is about as convincing as
>"everyone knows you'll go blind if you keep playing with "it"."
>
>Precisely what steps has the US gov't taken to actively repress all the
>worlds "third world" countries? Be specific please,,, and give me a
>breakdown of at least two such nations with specific actions taken which
>serve only to repress them,,, and do take your rose-colored glasses off
>before you select, I'd hate to receive what could only be described as a
>manifesto or rant-against-capitalism.
There are numerous examples of the US overthrowing foreign leaders and replacing them
with clients that would protect our investments at the expense of the
foreign population.
In the mid-70's, the US government realized that we could get a better deal for
East-Timorese oil if Indonesia was in charge, so we gave Suharto the guns and the
training and permission for what became one of the biggest genocides since the Nazis.
In Chile, they elected a leader (Allande -- is spelling correct?) who threatened to
interrupt the flow of domestic resources into foreign hands, thus we gave Pinochet
power and he murdered people.
In South Vietnam, our client regime was doing such a bad job providing for its own
population that the situation threatened to upset the entire Asia-Pacific. The
people wanted revolution, but if the South Vietnamese became "nationalistic", that
could "domino" to places that counted like Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, etc.
You know the rest of the story. (That's the real definition of domino-theory).
If you look for the pattern, it becomes obvious. If the developing country provides a
good "investment climate" (cheap resources and labor) to the west, it doesn't
matter whether they're dictatorship, fascist, etc... we support them. If a
"nationalistic" political trend threatens to cut off western investment (causing
domestic
resources to be reinvested domestically, creating higher-paying jobs for the locals),
then it doesn't matter whether they're democratic, etc... we'll do our best to
overthrow them. That is the pattern in Latin America, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Now that the Soviets are gone, it's going to be the pattern in East Europe.
And this isn't unique to the US. Britain was doing it to India and the American
colonies back when Adam Smith was commenting on it. Being on the crappy-end was
definitely a factor in our revolution, thus I'm surprised that people don't realize
this stuff. Anyone heard of the Monroe doctrine before?
