Robert Reich: Children fleeing to the U.S. are ‘refugees of the drug war we created’

[octoberlib]

Robert Reich, President Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor, recently put the so-called immigration crisis in perspective by reminding Americans that the women and children who were escaping to the U.S. were “refugees of the drug war we’ve created.”

“I’ve been watching media coverage of angry Americans at our southern border waiving signs and yelling slogans, insisting that the children – most of whom are refugees of the drug war we’ve created — ‘go home’ to the violence and death that war has created, and I wonder who these angry Americans are,” Reich wrote on Facebook over the weekend.

The former Labor Secretary explained in a July 14 post why the “United States is not a detached, innocent bystander” when it came to the refugee crisis.

For decades, U.S. governments supported unspeakably brutal regimes and poured billions into maintaining them ($5 billion in El Salvador alone). Implacable opposition to communism—often defined as virtually any reformer—gave these regimes a blank check. The result is a legacy of dealing with opponents through extreme violence and a culture of impunity. Judicial systems remain weak, corrupt, and often completely dysfunctional. After the cold war ended, the United States lost interest in these countries. What was left was destruction, tens of thousands dead, and massive population displacement. The percentage of people living below the poverty line is 54 percent for Guatemala, 36 percent for El Salvador,and 60 percent for Honduras. More recently gangs, organized crime, and drug cartels feeding the US market have become part of this unholy mix.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/16/robert-reich-children-fleeing-to-the-u-s-are-refugees-of-the-drug-war-we-created/

[CTyankee]

1. This is so sad and awful. Reich is right...I love him...

[littlemissmartypants]

5. What you said. eom

Love, Peace and Shelter.
littlemissmartypants

[malaise]

2. Not just the drug war but the

Last edited Wed Jul 16, 2014, 09:07 PM - Edit history (2)

slaughter of liberation theologists, social democrats, and communists all in the name of 'freedom and democracy' - the freedom to exploit Latin American labor and prevent social justice. Remember Iran Contra was about drugs funding weapons.

The chickens have come home to roost.

[Louisiana1976]

3. Exactly. And Iran/Contra was just the tip of the iceberg. The Reagan administration had

an evil policy of political and economic intervention in Central America that screwed up those countries' societies and led to today's lawlessness and violence. Hence all the refugees from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

[SunSeeker]

6. Exactly. I remember all that shit. Sadly. nt

[libodem]

16. So well stated

I'm with you.

[Raine]

18. Yes, exactly and I wish the talking heads would point that out. A few have said

a bit about it but not nearly enough have or really pressed it the way they should.

[duhneece]

24. Your use of the word 'slaughter' calls to minds exactly what was done

...then our 'War on Drugs' escalated the damage, the violence. As usual, those hurt the most are our most vulnerable: the children, women and they left behind the old and sick who couldn't make the trip or died in trying.
Our Democratic Chair and Secretary took a load of diapers and supplies to those in Artesia, NM and will be taking another load soon. And we live in US Rep Steve Pearce who made it to DU's home page for his hypocrisy.

[valerief]

4. You tell 'em, Reich! You're absolutely right. nt

[SunSeeker]

7. K & R

[ReRe]

8. K&R

And we trained their killers at the "School of the Americas". Such a benign name.
It's still there in NC, I presume, but under a different name.

[octoberlib]

11. And then Blackwater hired some of the guys

we trained for the Honduran death squads to work in Iraq.

[ReRe]

13. To some of these young...

... whipper-snappers, we probably sound totally insane.
From one atrocity to another, decade after decade.

[Roy Serohz]

9. Hell yeah!

DUly RECommended.

[moondust]

10. And the guns?

Made in USA by any chance?

[Hekate]

12. What he said. nt

[RainDog]

14. truth n/t

[Uncle Joe]

15. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, octoberlib.

[riderinthestorm]

17. Exactly. K&R nt

[blkmusclmachine]

19. ,

,

[lunasun]

20. Yes what the teabagger 'murkins SHOULD be angry about!

Screwed victims of free trade, CIA regimes, and drug wars created to get US military bases in resistant SA & CA .....results of that came back to the USA now
surprise surprise
Couldn't keep it all 'down there' where the haters did not have to acknowledge/remain ignorant of facts
you break it your own it regardless of what color it is

[JDPriestly]

21. This is the result of Reagan and Nixon intervention that all subsequent presidents

continued. The US needs to stop backing dictators around the world and let the people of other countries decide their own laws.

We need to study addiction and find solutions for it that include rejecting addictive drugs but also examine why people take them in the first place.

Most people know that heroin and cocaine for example are addictive and destroy the body. So why do they use them? We need to find out.

Most people now know that meth and Oxycontin are also addictive and destructive.

What do we do about the addiction? Prison may be the answer for suppliers but perhaps is not for the addicts themselves.

We approach drug addiction as if it were a moral failing (which it may be) but we approach alcohol and tobacco addictions as if they were disease. Yet far more Americans die of alcohol and tobacco addiction each year than of addiction to other drugs.

While I am at it, on a personal note, I must sadly say that, at 71, I have observed that of my friends, those who smoked the most died the youngest in general. There are a few exceptions -- an aneurism, obesity in one case, accidents. But for the most part, tobacco and in a few cases, alcohol were the root causes of the early deaths of my friends.

Just for the record.

The children are the victims, but still we cannot just absorb unaccompanied children into our social framework. If they are under 18, they have to have legal guardians. They have to be housed. They cannot just live on their own. The parents who send them here are negligent and should be fighting for better government and police protection in their own countries.

If the police protection is so poor that gangs have taken over, then those who are not in gangs have to stand up together and protect themselves as a group. The answer is not in sending your children, unaccompanied to a foreign country.

The UN should treat this as they would any other refugee crisis.

[hopemountain]

22. but for this:

the governments and military in these countries are also corrupt.

example as reported in the documentary series "borderland" on aljazeera: local efforts for farmers and villages to organize and protect themselves from the cartels has resulted in the military and local government outlawing open carry. the residents were limited to one rifle (hunting) per home that could not be removed from the home. the people have fewer and fewer options to protect themselves and their families.

another participant's overall observation from this series: nafta has resulted in fewer opportunities for the people to obtain jobs and earn wages to support themselves and their families.

[JDPriestly]

23. They need to organize to get rid of the corruption.

And we need to do the same.

[hopemountain]

26. completely agree. nt

[kelliekat44]

25. Amen to that!!! nt

[They_Live]

27. That's what I was thinking as well.

Policy and economics have brought us to this present situation.

K & R.