"WARS WAGED IN OUR NAME"
Dear Readers:
First a brief follow-up to the last issue on the anti-gay marriage initiative, which prompted a lot of e-mail. Many who wrote were gay families, grateful to hear support from someone straight. A couple of other readers felt that my harsh criticism of gay marriage opponents left me "singing to the choir". I think they have a good point. Many people who are uncomfortable with gay marriage are not religious zealots, it is just something outside their own experience. Their objection to gay marriage may not be strongly felt, but strong enough to vote to deny others the same basic right they have - to marry the one you love.
Californians voted similarly in 1964, for a ballot measure that allowed people not to rent or sell a home to someone because they didn't like their skin color. I am sure that many of those who voted for that measure were not flaming bigots, but part of the majority at the time uncomfortable with people of another race. But, the effect is the same, to rob a basic right from others on the basis of our own discomfort. Is that really enough of a justification for such strong action?
Now on to the question of taking the strongest of actions without the benefit of truth or reflection - the U.S. and its war-making.
"WARS WAGED IN OUR NAME"
As the U.S. rains cruise missiles on Yugoslavia, perhaps it is an appropriate moment to reflect on the United States and its war-making. Here are excerpts from two e-mail notes forwarded to me in the past few days, written by people living under the bombs in Yugoslavia:
"After only one night of bombing the children are already experts in different sound announcements. I hoped they would not have such experience in their lives. Anyway, most of the population spent the night underground. The decision 'to use violence for humanitarian reasons' is a sign of impatience, incompetence and impotence of the political elite."
"The bombing started at 8 pm local time, there were a few horrible detonations in Novi Sad [the name of a town]. I spent the night in a shelter. The whole country is ruined."
I do not pretend to be an expert on Yugoslavia but there are two things I do know. One, is that at this time last week there were hundreds of people who were alive but who now are dead, and the U.S. killed them. Second, when one looks at the history of our military interventions around the world in the last thirty years it is pretty clear that what was told to us as truth more often than not turned out to be lies, with the result of our war-making doing far, far more harm than good to innocent people.
LEAKS OF TRUTH FROM HISTORY
The recent history of U.S. war-making is raised by two other current news items. The first is the ruling in London that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet can be brought to trail for the murder, torture and kidnapping carried out under his orders. The second is President Clinton's apology in Guatemala this month for the US's long support to the Central American militaries that killed hundreds of thousands in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sometimes it takes a long time for the truth to leak out from history, but eventually it does. More truth about the US's collaboration in Pinochet's terrorism leaked out recently, in a declassified memo detailing conversations between Pinochet and then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. An article in the March 29th issue of The Nation juxtaposes a secret Kissinger memo from the time with the self-serving lies of his new memoir. In his memoir Kissinger brags, "A considerable amount of my dialogue with Pinochet was devoted to human rights." In his secret memo, however, Kissinger noted that in private he made it clear to the Chilean dictator that U.S. pronouncements on human rights were merely window dressing to keep Congress off his back, "I can do no less, without producing a reaction in the U.S. which would lead to legislative restrictions. The speech is not aimed at Chile." First the U.S. paved Pinochet's bloody path into the national palace and once there he felt under no U.S. pressure to stop torturing and murdering his political opponents.
Another solid leak of truth from history can be found in a new book on U.S. war-making in Central America ("Our Own Backyard" by William LeoGrande.) As Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 his Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, drew up Pentagon plans for a full-scale invasion of Cuba. "You just give me the word," he told Reagan, "and I'll turn that fucking island into a parking lot." When cooler heads prevailed Haig was granted a consolation prize, an eventual $2 billion to support the barbarian military of El Salvador, for a war that left 70,000 dead, and a covert war in Nicaragua that killed thousands more. In 1986 on a visit to Nicaragua I met the mother of one of those killed on our behalf, a four year old girl.
THE CHOICE: TO REMEMBER OR TO FORGET
How cavalierly the U.S. makes war. With a gentle stroke of our national hand thousands are left dead, while at home we barely notice. "U.S. bombs continue to fall on Yugoslavia tonight, while meanwhile in entertainment news". There are those who think it best to move on and forget the mistakes of the past. A sentiment echoed here:
"It is best to remain silent and to forget. It is the only
thing to do. We must forget.
And forgetting does not occur by opening cases, putting
people in jail. "Forget",
this is the word. And for this to occur, both sides
have to forget and continue working."
- Augusto Pinochet, in 1995, on the 22nd anniversary of his bloody coup.
In his Guatemala apology Clinton made the promise, "The United States must not repeat that mistake." Yet to not repeat a mistake of such magnitude we must first remember it. We can not wait for the truth of that history to leak slowly but must insist that it be disclosed fully. And yet Clinton still sits on a mountain of "classified" U.S. documents about our covert adventures in Latin America these past three decades, keeping truth a secret (perhaps this has just become a Clinton habit).
TIME TO DECLASSIFY THE U.S. RECORD
In response, a growing number of U.S. human rights organizations are calling for a broad de-classification of these records and for formation of a "Truth Commission" to bring this history to light. A commission to seek the truth is what South Africa created to help heal itself from Apartheid. It is what the Guatemalan Catholic Church has done (at the cost of the assassination last year of its Archbishop) to move beyond its civil war. The U.S. should do no less to examine its four decades of collaboration with murder and terrorism in South and Central America.
Perhaps the bombings by the U.S. this week will turn out to be that rare combination of horrible and wise. Or perhaps the bombing will turn out to be but the latest in a string of arrogant and official acts of murder. We may not be able to know that now but we can at least take steps to know the facts behind our war-making of the recent past. Then the next time a President tells us that we need to kill for a humanitarian purpose, we might be better equipped to judge whether that is a hard truth or just another lie.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
You can join the call for declassifying the record of U.S. involvement in South and Central America, and for the formation of an investigative Truth Commission, by sending an e-mail to your local member of Congress and to President Clinton via the Web sites listed below:
Congress: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1411/index.html
President Clinton: http://www.whitehouse.gov
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