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ABSTRACT
This study exposes the support that administrations in Washington have
given right-wing dictatorships that committed terrorism especially during
the cold war and war on terrorism. It offers a critique of this latter
war, and the study’s portrayal of the earlier war serves as necessary background
for understanding and evaluating the latter war. It rejects the narrow
definition of terrorism insisted on by Washington that exempts terrorism
committed by governments (state terrorism) from the definition, and for
political reasons restricts the term solely to the private terrorism committed
by private individuals or non-governmental organizations. Every one of
the six truth commission reports used in the study—one each for El Salvador,
Chile, Argentina, and South Africa and two with remarkably similar conclusions
for Guatemala-- found that the governments were responsible for the great
preponderance of terrorism and other acts of repression that occurred in
their respective countries, much more so than the guerrillas. In El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Chile the governments were found to be guilty of over 90
percent of the acts of terrorism and other acts of repression. Sponsored
by the United Nations, successor governments to those that committed state
terrorism, or the Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala City, each of these
reports is based on thousands of interviews mostly with surviving victims
or their families and friends. All of the truth commission reports charged
that the state terrorists committed unimaginable, unspeakable acts of cruelty
and terrorism, what the truth commission for Argentina characterized as
an “encyclopedia of horror.” Advertised as a defense against communism
and sometimes swayed by other motives-- racism in South Africa and Guatemala
and anti-Semitism in Argentina-- the basic motive for the state terrorists
was discovered to be the preservation of the status quo and the prevention
of social change. They hunted down, tortured, terrorized, and murdered
peasants, workers, students, teachers, priests, and nuns. The truth commission
for Guatemala sponsored by the United Nations found the government of that
country guilty of genocide. With some exceptions, a compliant national
media engaged in self-censorship, even passing on the government inspired
lies that held the guerrillas, not the government, responsible for the
bulk of the atrocities. This and other evidence suggest that the so-called
war on terrorism is a partial war that fails to target the main perpetrators,
the state terrorists. The incomplete definition insisted on by Washington
shields it from being accused of being a supporter of terrorism.
Washington’s support for state terrorist regimes typically has taken
the form of training their troops in “counterinsurgency,” now “counter-terrorism,”
and by providing funds and loans, military equipment, and diplomatic backing.
The study indicates that Washington helped the Saddam Hussein regime and
the apartheid regimes in South Africa successfully develop weapons of mass
destruction. Saddam used poison against the Kurds and the Iranians.
The racists in Pretoria produced six nuclear weapons, which they destroyed,
following a request from Washington, before handing over the government
to Nelson Mandela. In order to assure the continuing Kuwaiti financing
of Saddam’s war of aggression against Iran (1980-1988), the Reagan administration
put the American flag on the ships of the sheikdom to protect them from
Iran. This administration also became a co-belligerent in Saddam’s “oil
war,” sinking half of the Iranian navy. It is arguable that without this
aid Saddam would have been defeated and deposed by Iran in 1988.
The support for Saddam by the Reagan administration and by that of the
elder Bush in its early years puts in perspective Washington’s later moral
claims for initiating wars against the dictator. Support for Saddam in
the Iran-Iraq war also serves the reader as an introduction to what is
to come, as Washington’s policy shifted from supporting dictators/oppressors
in the cold war to supporting them in the war against terrorism. The intended
enemy in the first period was communism/social change, whereas in the later
period it was often to contain the type of Islam exemplified by the Ayatollah
Khomeini. The study indicates that the administration of the younger Bush
has followed this new paradigm in Algeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Its
support in Uzbekistan is for a dictator who persecutes Islam, and in Russia
it supports an authoritarian president who attacks Muslim Chechens, freedom
fighting terrorists. Support for terrorist governments in Colombia has
been rationalized by the cold war, the war against drugs, and now the latter
plus the war on terrorism. The study adds to the indictment against Washington
by references to statistical studies and to the opposition of the Bush
administration to the International Criminal Court.
The study critiques the way the Bush administration has conducted the
war on terrorism, arguing that it should be carried on without resort to
war. Renamed “defense against terrorism,” it would concentrate on the home
front and international cooperation. Pre-emption and counter proliferation
would be rejected as forms of aggression, and Washington would join the
International Criminal Court. The study questions the validity of the reasons
given by the Bush administration for invading Iraq in 2003, and it finds
that war to be immoral, illegal, and counterproductive. It has alienated
large sections of the world population, most especially the Arabs and the
Muslims. Aid to Israel, especially military aid, is a major reason for
the terrorism directed at the United States, volatile fuel that feeds Arab
and Islamic hatred. Israel remains the number one recipient of Washington’s
economic and military largess, receives Washington’s diplomat support and
intelligence, and is the beneficiary of a strange silence meant to shield
public knowledge of the existence of the Israeli stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The study recommends that Washington terminate all military aid to Israel
as well as aid to Colombia, Uzbekistan, and other countries that are currently
committing or sponsoring state terrorism. It recommends that a truth commission
be established to investigate and to advertise Washington’s support for
state terrorism so that the American public will know what has been done
in its name. |
