Two Visions
In a speech to the "National Endowment
for Democracy" on October 6, 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush tried to
rally support for the U.S.-led global "war on terrorism",
particularly for the continuation of the U.S.-British occupation of Iraq, and
to intensify the ideological struggle against "Islamic radicalism".
In his speech Bush drew a parallel between the fight that U.S. imperialism led
against "communism" in the last century and the fight it is waging
against "Islamic radicalism" in this century. He said that the
"ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new
century" and "resembles the struggle against communism in the last
century".
Speaking about the role of the United States
during the last century, Bush said: "We spoke for the rights of dissidents
and the hopes of exiles. We aided the rise of new democracies on the ruins of
tyranny. And all the costs and sacrifices of that struggle have been worth it
because from Latin America to Europe to Asia we've gained the peace that
freedom brings." The only problem
from Bush’s perspective is that this "peace" was destroyed by the
terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Now,
"freedom is once again assaulted by enemies, determined to roll back
generations of democratic progress", according to Bush.
What was this so-called "freedom's
victory" in the last century from Latin America to Europe to Asia? U.S.
imperialism murdered millions of people in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
It installed the fascist dictatorships of the Shah in Iran, Marcos in The Philippines
and Suharto in Indonesia, supported the fascist governments of Salazar in
Portugal, Franco in Spain, and Papadopoulos in Greece. It established fascist
dictatorships in almost every single country of Latin America including Batista in Cuba, Somoza in Nicaragua, Armas in
Guatemala, Noriega in Panama and Pinochet in Chile. This was all done by U.S.
imperialism to defend "freedom" and oppose "communism".
This is still the American agenda for Latin
America, Europe and Asia. In fact, this is the agenda of the "National
Endowment for Democracy",
inaugurated by Ronald Reagan in 1983. Under the cover of being a
"non-government organization" it carries out the same criminal
activities as the CIA around the world. It meddles in the internal affairs of
other countries by supplying funds, technical know-how, training, educational
material, computers, fax machines, copiers, automobiles and so on, to selected
political groups, civic organizations, labour unions, dissident movements,
student groups, book publishers, newspapers and other media.
For example, between 1990 and 1992, the
Endowment donated a quarter of a million dollars to the Cuban-American National
Fund (CANF), the anti-Castro Miami group. The CANF, in turn, financed Luis
Posada Carriles, one of the most pitiless terrorists of modern times, who was
responsible for blowing up a Cuban airplane in 1976, killing 73 people. Without
the support of these terrorist organizations in Florida, George Bush would have
failed to win the presidency of the
United States.
George Bush lashed out at what he calls the
"vision of the radicals", saying: "... these extremists want to
end American and Western influence in the broader Middle East..." Would not any self-respecting people would
want to end the foreign domination of their country? Furthermore, this
"vision" of ending "American and Western influence" does
not only belong to the Middle East. In fact, right off the mainland of the
United States, the people of Puerto Rico are demanding, and have been doing so
for decades, that the United States end its "influence" in their
country, observe the United Nations resolutions on de-colonization, and respect
their right to self-determination. On the mainland of North America, the
peoples of Canada and Mexico share this
"vision" of ending U.S. imperialist domination.
Nor is this "vision" confined to a
few "extremists" in the Middle East. It was not so long ago that many
countries in that region overthrew European colonial rule and achieved their
formal independence in the 1950's and 1960's. Since then the people of these
countries have tried in may ways, including by the election of nationalist
governments, to take a path of independence, including the taking back of the
ownership and control of their oil and gas resources. The United States,
however, has consistently opposed the aspirations of the peoples, using one or
another reactionary regime to continue their exploitation and domination in the
region.
The United States is the biggest enemy of
peace, freedom, democracy, human rights and social progress in the world. Even though Bush claims that the
biggest problem in the world is "Islamic radicalism", it is not
"Islamic radicalism" that lies at the root of poverty, illiteracy,
famine, disease, terrorism and war. These ills of society have their source with, or are
perpetuated and aggravated by, the exploiting systems of capitalism and
imperialism, which
are part and parcel of the vision that George Bush has for the world’s future..