William Blum: Hell Hath No Fury Like an Imperialist Scorned

[laststeamtrain]

Hell Hath No Fury Like an Imperialist Scorned

By William Blum

March 05, 2009 "Information Clearing House" --- Hugo Chávez's greatest sin is that he has shown disrespect for the American Empire. Or as they would say in America's inner cities — He's dissed the Man. Such behavior of course cannot go unpunished lest it give other national leaders the wrong idea. Over the years, the United States has gotten along just fine with brutal dictators, mass murderers, torturers, and leaders who did nothing to relieve the poverty of their population — Augusto Pinochet, Pol Pot, the Greek Junta, Ferdinand Marcos, Suharto, Duvalier, Mobutu, the Brazil Junta, Somoza, Saddam Hussein, South African apartheid leaders, Portuguese fascists, etc., etc., terrible guys all, all seriously supported by Washington at one time or another; for none made it a regular habit, if ever, to diss the Man.

The latest evidence, we are told, that Hugo Chávez is a dictator and a threat to life as we know it is that he pushed for and got a constitutional amendment to remove term limits from the presidency. The American media and the opposition in Venezuela often make it sound as if Chávez is going to be guaranteed office for life, whereas he of course will have to be elected each time. Neither are we reminded that it's not unusual for a nation to not have a term limit for its highest office. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, if not all of Europe and much of the rest of the world, do not have such a limit. The United States did not have a term limit on the office of the president during the nation's first 162 years, until the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951. Were all American presidents prior to that time dictators?

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http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22161.htm

[midnight]

1. That imperalism thing has worn out it's welcome.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Yup, it sure has. The South Americans are fucking sick of it, and aren't going to

take it any more. Hugo Chavez has many friends and allies among the leaders and peoples of South America, and they have his back. For instance, Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, said, of Chavez: "They can invent a lot of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy!"

When one of the Chavez's closest allies, Evo Morales, became the target of a Bush Junta fascist coup attempt this last September--with the U.S. ambassador and the DEA funding and organizing fascist rioters, who trashed government and NGO buildings, beat up Morales supporters, blew up a gas pipeline and machine-gunned some 30 unarmed peasants, and Morales threw the U.S. ambassador and the DEA out of Bolivia, all of South America rallied to his side, and they held a meeting of their newly formed 'common market,' UNASUR, which took immediate, unanimous action, to stabilize things in Bolivia, and succeeded--insuring a peaceful nationwide vote on the new Constitution. That meeting was called by Michele Batchelet, President of Chile. Later, speaking to U.S. investors, she told this joke: "Why has there never been a coup in the United States?" Answer: "Because there is no U.S. embassy in the United States!" (--and she got roars of laughter; everyone understood what she was talking about).

Not that the U.S. interference in Bolivia was funny. It wasn't. But the self-confidence of the South Americans in dealing with it, is illustrated by this joke. They know what's what. And they have remarkable unity on their new, independent course (independent of the U.S.), aimed at the economic and political integration of Latin America, with social justice goals. They have fended off several Bushwhack assaults--including a Bushwhack/Colombia effort to draw Ecuador/Venezuela into a war early last year. Brazil--who president said that the Bushwhack reconstitution of the U.S. 4th Fleet in the Caribbean is a threat to Brazil's oil fields (as well as Venezuela's) has proposed a 'common defense' in the context of UNASUR. They all know what U.S. corporate and war profiteer intentions are. If Obama keeps it up--and, right now, it is impossible to tell what he intends--they will simply go their own way, and create their own well-thought-out cooperative prosperity.

[bemildred]

3. That's the point. He is a very popular guy in his own neighborhood.

It's hard to reconcile that with the notion that he is some sort of huge threat.

[Grinchie]

6. Well said, thanks you for bringing up Evo Morales and the Columbia attempt

Bush did so much tinkering in South America that we did not hear about, I shudder to think how much damage he has done.

People have no idea how large a landmass South America is. Nor do they realize the wealth of natural resources present down there. Those "primitive Indians" are finally getting the picture on how much wealth they actually have.

More power to them!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Wow, really hope William Blum will go ahead and write that book for us. We need it.

Will be waiting with a catcher's mitt, no doubt about it.

Wonderful article. It's wonderful reading from someone who has been watching the same things we're watching. Comforting!

Regarding his reference to that Coha article with Larry Birns, I saw it too, was flattened, devastated. I had always seen Larry Birns in such a different light, based on what else I had read by him up to that point. When I saw that unbelievable outpouring of disinformation, of deliberate LYING, as he's far too intelligent to believe what he wrote, I had to race to google images to find a photo of his face,

http://www.minci.gob.ve.nyud.net:8090/img/larry_birns.jpg

and stare at it, taking it all in, "Oh, so THAT'S Larry Birns," as in a stage of grief, as in letting go of someone who has died. "I see."

That's the kind of action taken by someone deliberately. There's so very little he could ever say which would excuse what he did.

So glad William Blum has written he went through this, too, felt the shock and horror, just the same. To see someone you once respected would actually be capable of jumping on the disinformation bandwagon is breathtaking. Someone must be blackmailing him!

Thanks for the article, laststeamtrain.

[Grinchie]

5. Not only Dissed the Man, but Dissed the Monsanto

I actually discovered this only yeasterday, but Chavez took the amazingly foresighted step to ban GMO Soy cultivation in 2006.

As an observer of the criminal way the U.S. Government supports the uncontrolled spread of GMO's around the world by neglecting to acknowledge the grave threats this technology has to destroy our ecosystem, I found the BAN of GMO's in Venezuela by Chavez just another demerit for him as far as the U.S. goes. It is also a really good reason why you see nothing but bad stories on Chavez, and never get to see the real picture on what started it all.

The Bush Junta started to undermine Chavez almost immediately in 2000. All the old players in the Contra Affair were now back in office, maneuvering Venezuela into a coup environment, but somehow, they were prepared for it, and Chavez escaped with the help of his people. When the attempt to destabilize re-implant a U.S. Friendly right-wing schill in the Oil rich Venezuela failed, Bush/Cheney attempted Iraq, and were able to get their way. Meanwhile, the long term pressure against Chavez remained, as they continued to try and weaken his position.

We know very little about life in Venezuela. One would think that it's a closed state, considering that the only news we here is about that bad old Hugo Chavez, but lately, a brief glimpse has appeared through the media filter, and it shows an interesting picture.

It has been reported widely that Venezuela has nationalized certain U.S. Based Cargill rice processing plants because commodity prices have escalated. One would assume that Venezuala has the capability to produce all the rice it needs, considering it's location in the tropics. Other news is placing the blame on dropping oil prices and that Venezuela is getting hurt by this. We also see that Bernie Maddof had quite a footprint in Venezela, and that it caused some disruption in the Bank of Venezuala.

So, this leads me to the conclusion that most people don't know know what Venezela is all about, and that it isn't some backward Banana Republic, no matter what the previous Bush administration would have you believe.

We do a lot of business with Venezuela, but corporations want a bigger cut.

[bertman]

7. Recommend and kick.

[mikita]

8. for Bill Blum fans

here's an interview (38 min) I was privileged to conduct a few years back..... the message is current.

Mikita

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5875765740178483812&ei=SNSzSYvcF8GN-Ab-j5n8Aw&q=william+blum+interview