America Supporting Terrorism...
Category: News and Politics
U.S. will train Latin American militaries (again)
Friday, November 10 2006 @ 11:57 PM PST
Contributed by: Anonymous
Views: 66
TerrorismWASHINGTON .. Concern about leftist victories in Latin America has prompted President Bush to quietly grant a waiver that allows the United States to resume training militaries from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
U.S. will train Latin American militaries
Ban lifted to offset trend toward left
By Barbara Slavin
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON .. Concern about leftist victories in Latin America has prompted President Bush to quietly grant a waiver that allows the United States to resume training militaries from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The administration hopes the training will forge links with countries in the region and blunt a leftward trend. Daniel Ortega, an adversary of the United States in the region during the 1980s, was elected president in Nicaragua this week. Bolivians chose another leftist, Evo Morales, last year.
A military training ban was originally designed to pressure countries into exempting U.S. soldiers from war crimes trials.
The 2002 U.S. law bars countries from receiving military aid and training if they refuse to promise immunity from prosecution to U.S. servicemembers who might get hauled before the International Criminal Court. The law allows presidential waivers.
The White House lifted the ban on 21 countries, about half in Latin America or the Caribbean, through a presidential memorandum Oct. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The training is conducted in the USA.
A ban on giving countries weapons remains. Commercial arms sales are not affected, said Jose Ruiz, a U.S. Southern Command spokesman.
The training ban had resulted in a loss of U.S. influence in the region. The issue gained urgency after a string of leftist candidates came to power in Latin America.
On a trip to the region this year, Rice said that the impact of the ban had been ..the same as shooting ourselves in the foot...
China stepped into the gap. Ruiz said China ..has approached every country in our area of responsibility.. and has exchanged senior military officials with Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba and provided military aid and training to Jamaica and Venezuela.
The ban remains in effect for some countries. Venezuela, whose fiery President Hugo Chávez is a critic of the Bush administration, remains ineligible because it is on a State Department list of countries alleged to have permitted the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Chávez is up for re-election in December and leads in the polls. Cuba is also off-limits because of a long-standing U.S. embargo against Fidel Castro's regime.
Ruiz said efforts are being made to transfer money this year to begin training foreign officers from eligible countries.
We dont like it when these people ELECT leftist leaders...so we go back to supporting and training their militaries in order to keep our "influence" involved.
Anyone who knows a damn thing about the history of the region knows that Americas M.O. over the years has been to arm the militaries (or non governmental para militaries) in order to have the military act as a frightening deterrant to keep the populations in line with our wishes or to actually have the military overthrow elected/popular governments.
Case in point..Salvador Allende WINS AN ELECTION..he has policies we do not like..we support Pinochet in overthrowing the government and killing thousands of people. THis same scenario has played out or been attempted in damn near every country south of the Rio Grande.
Its one thing is a small, unpopular force overtakes these governments and we train people to get the country back...but to help any force intimidate or overthrow elected/popular government by force if TERRORISM and SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM.
Now..the bulk of the democrats would be all for this too..and historically they have played this game quite well...but the next time someone says Bush supports terrorism..dont roll your eyes and dismiss the person..because its damn true. Just like any american president, from either party..we have never had a problem using either a countries official military or minority guerillas in that country to overthrow elected and popular regimes.
Would people think it was okay if a country who disagreed with our policies started training our military in order to counteract the influence the peoples support has on the government? Would it be okay if they supported the military overthrowing an elected american government just because the country in question didnt like its policies?
NO.
Then in that case its just as much BS when we do it to other countries.
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