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of him on the Honduran coup, I suspect. I think he has always known that the U.S. wouldn't likely changed its stripes, but he must have had some hope, as we all did, and as I'm sure most Latin Americans and their leaders did, that there was some sincerity in Obama's promise of "peace, respect and cooperation" in Latin America, and that, at the least, U.S. policy would improve over Bush Junta wretchedness.
Honduras and the new U.S./Colombian military agreement have made it very clear that U.S. aggression, bullying, domination, coup-making and subversion of democracy continue to be great threats to Latin America. No change. In fact, the CIA seems to have improved its skill set, with Obama's appointment of (old CIA hand, believe me) Leon Panetta--if Honduras is any guide.
The thing that keeps nagging at me--that is difficult to articulate--is this: I feel manipulated by Obama's depressing actions (or is it his lack of power?), as if my disappointment were on schedule, and part of the corpo-fascist narrative that is already being written about him, for the 2012 (s)election of someone worse than Bush. It feels like Germany 1932--the catastrophic failure of the center-left, its inability to govern, which paved the way for Hitler's rise.
Lula da Silva and the other leaders of Latin America's huge--wide and deep--leftist movement cannot act otherwise. They must see to the interests of their own people and their region. Essential to those interests is their assertion of their sovereignty--their right to make their own decisions about foreign policy, and make their own alliances--whether between Brazil and Venezuela, or Brazil and Cuba, or Brazil and Iran--not dictated by the U.S. Lulu has made all three alliances in defiance of U.S. dictates.
Latin America, with its fabulous natural resources, and newly awakened democracy movement, is in a position to become an economic powerhouse. If things go well for them, this will be "their century." The U.S. has run through much of its natural resources--oil, forests and others; its democracy has been gravely damaged; and its corporate rulers and war profiteers have become mean and murderous. They just slaughtered about a million innocent people in Iraq to steal their oil. These kind of actions--corporate resource wars, torture, ripping up the Constitution--are the symptoms of an aging dragon--old, ailing, exceedingly jealous of its power, lashing out with fiery tongues to protect its mountain of gold and precious jewels. And Latin America is like the young "knight in shining armor" whose youthful energy and idealism cause it to ignore the odds and bring the sword of righteousness home against injustice.
They will not tolerate U.S. bullying any more. And this, too, will be lathered into the Obama "failure" narrative to make the installation of a Sarah Palin or a Jeb Bush seem credible in U.S. Illusionland.
I keep wondering about Obama's failure to remove William Brownfield--the bad, bad Bushwhack appointee as ambassador to Colombia. I keep wondering at first-term Senator Jim DeMint (Puke-SC, a Diebold touchscreen state) and his strange power over Obama in Latin America. I keep wondering about all these "Blue Dogs" in Congress and how they got 'elected.' I keep wondering about Obama being set up--being a powerless "liberal" placeholder. And I am very bothered by this. I think about it every time I am compelled to criticize Obama--for actions that very much deserve criticism. Am I being played? Are "we, the people" being played again--but in a different way than before?
I've been puzzling over the election of a rightwing billionaire in Chile, and someone--and I think it was you, rabs--said that it might turn out to be beneficial in the end, and result in a cleaning out of the 'old guard' in Batchelet's socialist party, who have made too many compromises with U.S. "neoliberal" and other policy. I hope that is true--that the billionaire is a one-termer. But I don't have the confidence in our own election system and our democracy to see something like that happening here. Here, things are so manipulated that it is simply not possible any more to elect someone like, say, FDR, who would emerge from a grass roots reform movement of the Democratic Party (or a third party), after an Obama loss. It would be prevented. The corpo/fascist rulers have the capability--the EASY capability--to prevent a reformer in the White House and a reform Congress from being elected. Here, the ascendance of a Palin, or another Bush, or DeMint, would be permanent. It would be the final toll of the bell. We would never recover from it. We do not have control of our vote counting system--our only practical power mechanism as a people. People can outvote the corpo-fascist media, and the rich and the corporate. But they cannot do so if a handful of far rightwing corporations--including one (ES&S, which just bought out Diebold) that now has an 85% lock on voting systems in this country--are 'counting' the votes with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls.
I look at this picture of Lulu and Fidel, and I'm thinking: That should be our president there, making peace, making up for all the horror our country has inflicted on Latin America, recognizing that Cuba's government has done a lot of good--has supported free education through college, and free health care in an excellent medical system, has 100% literacy and one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. And it exports education and health care--unlike the U.S., which exports torture and war. Our president should be making amends, and joining Latin America in trying to create a more just and peaceful world. But that is not our president, whom Hugo Chavez described as "a prisoner of the Pentagon." That is Lulu--an independent-minded defender of the interests of his own people and his region, whom our Sec of State warned of "the consequences" if he dared to meet with president of Iran. That era is over, wherein the U.S. can dictate policy in Latin America--and it is dismaying that our leaders remain on the course of domination and aggression.
I wish I understood this better--Obama and our dismay at Obama. I wish that it didn't feel scripted.
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