An aspect of American foreign policy that is seldom publicly discussed (or even acknowledged):
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent member of Congress and leading voice of the American left, has called on the US government to issue an apology to Latin American countries for decades of meddling in their affairs and causing instability in the region...In the 1950s and 1960s, the US helped overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz and Brazilian president João Goulart and made various attempts to assassinate Soviet-backed Cuban leader Fidel Castro. In the 1970s, Argentina and Chile launched brutal crackdowns against perceived socialist threats, often with US support.In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan’s administration supported anti-communist Contra forces against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, backed the Salvadoran government against leftist rebels, invaded Grenada after accusing the government of aligning with Cuba and invaded Panama to oust dictator Manuel Noriega.And in what became known as Operation Condor, eight US-backed military dictatorships – Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador – jointly plotted the cross-border kidnap, torture and murder of hundreds of their political opponents...“I believe that we owe Chile, and not just Chile but many aspects of that region, an apology,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Guardian in an interview at her campaign headquarters in the Bronx. “I don’t think that apology indicates weakness; I think it indicates a desire to meet our hemispheric partners with respect...
More at The Guardian.
The Monroe doctrine was both arrogant and inherently evil.
ReplyDelete"Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest nation in the world, and that somehow, the war was how we spread that greatness. What an amazing lie that was! The people of the other nations don't see our greatness; they hate us... and we deserve it." Prince Zuko, 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'
ReplyDeleteNow swap 'Fire Nation' for 'The United States'. It's still true.
There's a trade-off. If we wanted to build the Panama Canal for the agreed upon terms...we we're going to have to break Panama break off from Columbia.
ReplyDeleteIf we wanted a way to grow and gain influence in our own hemisphere, the Monroe Doctrine kept us out of having the enemy on our doorstep, so to speak.
No, it's not good that things happened. But they might have been better than the alternative.
Have you tried getting similar acknowledgement and apology from USSR/Russia?
ReplyDeleteAs a person from the other side of the world, I have found that while people from the West are not ignorant of war-mongering of their own nations, they are VERY detached from it.
ReplyDeleteWar-mongering or intereference in other sovereignities that is done by their country is criticised loudly, but NOTHING is done to stop it - yes you have protests and stuff, but it only makes an impact for three days then you all move on to the next controversy provided by the media. The only time protests barely worked was during that vietnam war, and that was only because the US was not doing great.
Wars are being fought all over the world, just that the underpriviliged countries are being chosen as battlegrounds, and their people are chosen to be militants by different foreign countries or corporations (yay capitalism) in order to engage in a war that does not affect the people of the countries causing the war.
I remember the time when my country was being invaded, and the US sent troops to stop us from defending ourselves. What a shitfest that was to get out of.