Overthrow the constitutionally elected democratic government. Install
willing stooges, backed by local oligarchs, in its place. Send in your
own troops to take part in the crusade du jour (anti-communism,
anti-terrorism, the "War on Drugs") and establish your iron dominion
over the lesser breeds south of the border. Repeat as often as
necessary.
It's a tried-and-true formula, a traditional remedy,
as American as apple pie, Chevrolet and murdering wedding guests and
funeral-goers by remote control from a comfy chair in a secure fortress
10,000 miles away. And Barack Obama -- who is nothing if not a genuine
American Traditionalist -- is carrying on the grand tradition of
America's always extra-special relationship with the nations of Central
America.
Last Saturday, the Obama Administration finally came
clean on its "commando-style" operations in Honduras -- the country
whose government Obama helped overthrow in the rosy dawn of his
progressive presidency. A "commando" of the Drug Enforcement Agency shot
and killed a man in a group of alleged drug smugglers who had
surrendered after a raid. As the New York Times reports:
"During the operation,[U.S. embassy spokesman Stephen] Posivak said, the government agents told a group suspected of smuggling to surrender. Four of the suspects did so and were arrested, but a fifth reached for a holstered weapon. The American agent shot him before he could fire.
"'The suspect, instead of surrendering, reached for his firearm,' Mr. Posivak said. 'The other suspects surrendered, but this guy went for his gun.'"
Well, that's what Mr. Posivak said, so it must be true. It may even
be as true as the story of Osama bin Laden going for his gun when he was
shot down unarmed in his bed. Or maybe the "guy" in Honduras was
reaching for his holstered weapon in order to surrender it, as ordered.
Who knows? But if the story changes tomorrow or next week, we should not
be surprised -- nor should it make us doubt the words of our leaders
and their Posivaks as they try their darndest to give us the true facts
through the ever-present "fog of war."
America's drug-warring
commandos have been linked to a number of deaths in Honduras this year
-- including a raid in which two pregnant women were killed, according
to local eyewitnesses -- but the White House has always denied that our
boys were actually pulling the triggers. But now, after the carefully
orchestrated revelations by "administration insiders" about Obama's
weekly Death Squad meetings -- and the near-universal non-reaction to
this story by the media-political establishment and the general public
-- there's no need to hide a little penny-ante wetwork down south. Now
it's praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, the whole world is a
"free-fire zone."
As the NYT noted in an earlier story about
the spread of American "forward bases" in the client land, "government
leaders in Honduras, who came to power in a controversial election a few
months after a 2009 coup, have strongly supported assistance from the
United States, but skeptics contend that enthusiasm is in part because
the partnership bolsters their fragile hold on power."
Oh, those
skeptics. Always pouring cold water on even the most altruistic
operation. For everyone knows that the sole and only single purpose of
the War on Drugs is to keep the pusherman away from little Sally's
middle-school playground. Sure, the Drug War has given rise to the most
powerful underworld organizations the world has ever seen; sure, it's
corrupted governments and politics around the world on a staggering
scale; sure, it's stuffed respectable banks with obscene profits from
money-laundering; sure, it's led to the deaths of countless thousands of
innocent people, fueled civil wars and insurgencies, served as an
excuse for government repression and tyranny, and blighted the lives of
millions of people who have been jailed and ruined for the crime of
choosing the wrong kind of intoxicant. But despite this 40-year record
of carnage and despair (which, oddly enough, has not curtailed the
trafficking and use of drugs), we all know that the War on Drugs is a
good thing. It has made the world a better place.
And that's why
a good progressive like Barack Obama has embraced the War on Drugs with
same avidity with which he has taken up -- and extended -- the War on
Terror. That's why our boys are down in Honduras today, shooting "guys"
with holstered weapons and helping our satraps keep their grip on the
power we gave them.
II.
But just to give a
little context to this noble crusade, we might look back at Obama's
progressive dealing with Honduras since coming to power. As I wrote here last year, in a piece that came out as the White House was basking in the glow of the bin Laden killing:
"One of President Barack Obama's most signal achievements in inter-American relations has been his countenancing of a brutal coup in Honduras and his avid embrace of the repressive regime produced by the elitist overthrow of the democratically elected government. As we noted here last year:"Since the installation of these throwbacks to the corrupt and brutal 'banana republics' of yore, Obama's secretary of state, the 'progressive' Hillary Clinton, has spent a good deal of time and effort trying to coerce Honduras' outraged neighbors in Latin America to 'welcome' the thug-clique, now led by Porfirio Lobo, back into the 'community of nations.' Let bygones be bygones, Clinton says, as Lobo's regime murders journalists (nine so far this year), political opponents and carries on the wholesale trashing of Honduran independence (such as sacking four Supreme Court justices who opposed the gutting of liberties and the overthrow of constitutional order). After all, isn't that Obama's own philosophy: always 'look forward,' forget the crimes of the past? Every day is a new day, a clean slate, a chance for a new beginning -- indeed, for 'hope and change.'
"In other words: let the dead bury the dead -- and the rich and powerful reap their rewards.""And even as Obama basks in the atavistic glow of the Warrior Prince (you would think he'd killed bin Laden in single combat on the field of battle instead of ordering 80 Navy Seals to storm a house filled with women and children and shoot an unarmed man), his favored elites in Honduras continue to hunt down and kill those who seek to shine the smallest light on their corrupt, repressive rule. As the Washington Post reported last week:
"Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a journalist outside his home in a city in northern Honduras, officials said Wednesday. Francisco Medina, a 35-year-old television reporter, was ambushed Tuesday night in the city of Morazan, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Honduras' capital, said Santos Galvez, a member of Honduras' College of Journalists press group .....
"In his reporting, Medina was critical of the Honduran national police and of private security firms contracted by ranchers in the area, where drug traffickers operate. Medina became the 11th journalist to be killed in the past 18 months in Honduras. ... A committee of missing persons in Honduras said Medina was followed by two men on a motorcycle after his evening show. They shot him three times in the back and once in his arm as he was about to enter his home. Relatives of Medina called an ambulance, which took him to a hospital. He later died. Medina's brother, Carlos Medina, said police officers refused to escort the journalist in the ambulance.""This is a precise echo of the case noted here last year:
"[From John Perry at the London Review of Books]: On the night of 14 June, Luis Arturo Mondragon was sitting with his son on the pavement outside his house in the city of El Paraà so in western Honduras. He had often criticised local politicians on his weekly radio programme, the latest edition of which had just been broadcast. He had received several death threats, but disregarded them. At 10 p.m. a car drew up and the driver fired four bullets, killing him instantly. Mondragon was the ninth journalist to be murdered so far this year. Honduras is now officially the most dangerous country in the world in which to work for the press.
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