“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.” Thomas Jefferson
I want to first say that I realize that many people may say that I'm unpatriotic, un-American, for the statements I am about to say. I want to assure you that I am saying these things wit the utmost love for our country, and for the deepest respect for the foundation that our forefathers have established for our freedom and democracy. I am saying these things so that my fellow citizens will become more attentive of what is going on with our government.
We have all heard the bravado over the years. Treaties being signed for the good of man. Our troops being called to arms for the defense of democracy, protection for the oppressed people, but the reason often given for was for “freedom”, “stability”, “containing the Soviet Union” and so on. For the people of the region that had their popular leaders overthrown and replaced with corrupt rulers, this was surely not freedom. During the "Cold War", Communism was an often used excuse around the world, even if it was not the case. As Noam Chomsky details, it was often a convenient excuse, but the underlying threat was often that nations might be able to use their own resources and be an example for others to follow.
This causes me to ask some rather poignant questions. Has American Policy really followed the political rhetoric we are being told here at home? Has U.S foreign policy been based on the moral choices between democracy and authoritarianism? Does the US have a history of supporting Democratic movements? Do we, as Americans, really know what the democratic process is? Do you have to be a Democratic Nation to participate in the Democratic process?
The main ethics in which the democratic process is based are:
1) The belief in the integrity of the individual to make personal choices.
2) To bring a basic equality to all citizens
3) Rights of all people to allow equal participation in civil and political matters.
4) To allow all citizens to have a participation in the decision making in all aspects of government, Either by electing officials, not re-electing incumbents, or holding those that break the trust of the citizen accountable, through impeachment and/or imprisonment.
If you review the record of foreign policy decisions in the 20th century reveals that the United States has had a very poor record of supporting the democratic process. The United States has been willing to break treaties, overthrow Democratically elected governments and establish a dictatorship
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general turned dictator. By title, the President of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of Chile from 1974 until the return of democratic rule in 1990. His government implemented harsh measures against its political opponents, which included violations of human rights and for which he faced several unsuccessful criminal processes until his death in 2006.
Suharto was an Indonesian military leader, and the second President of Indonesia, holding the office from 1967 to 1998. He was a dictator well known for only a facade of Democracy, supported by the United States
Nicaragua: In the 1970’s the media and the U.S. State Department assured us that the SANDINISTA (FSLN) revolutionaries in Nicaragua were not communists. Somoza with mountains of evidence, which provided indisputable proof that his enemy was not an internal one, but an external one funded by nations that were considered "Communist", but we did not help this ally.
The list continues:
Abacha, General Sani ----------------------------Nigeria
Amin, Idi ------------------------------------------Uganda
Banzer, Colonel Hugo ---------------------------Bolivia
Batista, Fulgencio --------------------------------Cuba
Bolkiah, Sir Hassanal ----------------------------Brunei
Botha, P.W. ---------------------------------------South Africa
Branco, General Humberto ---------------------Brazil
Cedras, Raoul -------------------------------------Haiti
Cerezo, Vinicio -----------------------------------Guatemala
Chiang Kai-Shek ---------------------------------Taiwan
Cordova, Roberto Suazo ------------------------Honduras
Christiani, Alfredo -------------------------------El Salvador
Diem, Ngo Dihn ---------------------------------Vietnam
Doe, General Samuel ----------------------------Liberia
Duvalier, Francois --------------------------------Haiti
Duvalier, Jean Claude-----------------------------Haiti
Fahd bin'Abdul-'Aziz, King ---------------------Saudi Arabia
Franco, General Francisco -----------------------Spain
Hitler, Adolf ---------------------------------------Germany
Hassan II-------------------------------------------Morocco
Marcos, Ferdinand -------------------------------Philippines
Martinez, General Maximiliano Hernandez ---El Salvador
Mobutu Sese Seko -------------------------------Zaire
Noriega, General Manuel ------------------------Panama
Ozal, Turgut --------------------------------------Turkey
Pahlevi, Shah Mohammed Reza ---------------Iran
Papadopoulos, George --------------------------Greece
Park Chung Hee ---------------------------------South Korea
Pinochet, General Augusto ---------------------Chile
Pol Pot---------------------------------------------Cambodia
Rabuka, General Sitiveni ------------------------Fiji
Montt, General Efrain Rios ---------------------Guatemala
Salassie, Halie ------------------------------------Ethiopia
Salazar, Antonio de Oliveira --------------------Portugal
Somoza, Anastasio Jr. --------------------------Nicaragua
Somoza, Anastasio, Sr. -------------------------Nicaragua
Smith, Ian ----------------------------------------Rhodesia
Stroessner, Alfredo -----------------------------Paraguay
Suharto, General ---------------------------------Indonesia
Trujillo, Rafael Leonidas -----------------------Dominican Republic
Videla, General Jorge Rafael ------------------Argentina
Zia Ul-Haq, Mohammed ----------------------Pakistan
Here is a list of International Treaties the United States agreed upon by words but not action:
1. Ottawa Treaty (the land-mine ban)
2. Treaty on the Rights of the Child (only holdouts are the U.S. and Somalia)
3. Protocol to enforce the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (vote was 178-1, the US the only holdout)
4. United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
5. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
6. Convention on Biological Diversity
7. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
8. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
9. International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings
10. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
11. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
12. Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes Against Humanity
13. Forced Labor Convention
14. Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention
15. Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention
16. Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age to Marriage and Registration of Marriages
17. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
18. Convention on the International Right of Correction
19. International Criminal Court
20. Kyoto Accords (greenhouse gas reductions)
21. UN Convention on Biological Diversity (regulating genetic engineering)
22. UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
23. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty [prohibiting programs like "Stars Wars"]
24. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
25. Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes
26. International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries
27. International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
28. Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
29. Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
30. Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers (prohibiting sale of arms to human rights violators & aggressors)
31. Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
32. Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, and Other Related Materials
33. UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (bans toxic waste dumping, etc.)
34. UN Moon Treaty [declaring the moon part of the Common Heritage of Mankind]
35. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
36. UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
37. Protocol to enforce the Convention Against Torture
38. United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
Let us not forget the treaties that were signed with the Native people of our great country, and these are just a few examples. What does this say about the "moral" stand point we are told on the defense of Democracy?
So what is the single most important factor to US foreign Policy?
It seems to be whether a countries markets, labor, and resources can be made available to foreign business. Sometimes this means supporting wealthy landowners against peasants. Sometimes this means supporting atrocious dictators, to get the desired results.
In the case of Vietnam, it seems that the United States was trying to garner support from the business owners and the cities, as well as the wealthy land owners, to start a "class" war against the peasantry.
The United States had also put into place the South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem culminating nine years of autocratic and nepotistic family rule in South Vietnam. We supported interference with the Democratic process in Vietnam because we knew that the leader that we supported would not have won a popular election.
It is important to remember that the primary objective was to establish a setting where American style capitalism could be established, not the defense of the democratic process.
I believe that Historian Jonathan Neale said it best: "These state capitalist countries were a threat not so much because they called themselves 'socialist', but because they were competing capitalist powers and their markets were largely closed to American business."
So, where does this leave the American citizen in the 21st century?
This makes the citizen, himself, responsible for government policies in the Democratic process. Because we do not police our own representative, because We do not chose not impeach those who have power over us, and because we accept the known untruths presented. Ultimately, we accept the idea that politicians are dishonest because that is they way they are, but that does not alleviate our personal for what they do.
Maybe it is time for the United States citizenry to actually use our Constitution, the highest series of laws in our land, make our politician responsible for their words, their policies, and their actions. Is not a political promise, documented on Television, a oral contract with the citizenry and the politician and party? Isn't someone making policies that go against the populations belief systems and the Democratic process equivalent to a traitor to the United States?
This is what the Constitution says about United States Law and Treaties with foreign nations:
"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution
We have seen the effect of allowing our government to break agreements with foreign nations, it has allowed the framework for the careful abolition of our personal rights. I would like to finish with a quote from Thomas Jefferson:
"Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."
By Daniel Slack
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