http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/08/us-
foreign-policy-self-determination
The great US foreign policy flaw
By failing to recognise why national self-determination is important, the US
hinders global economic and social progress
By Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, 8 April 2010
Of all the misunderstandings that guide US foreign policy - including
foreign commercial policy - perhaps the most important and long-lasting is
the failure to recognise or understand what national self-determination
means to most people in the world. Or why it might be important to them. Our
leaders seem to have learned very little since their disastrous war in
Vietnam, which ended 35 years ago.
The cynical would say that America's leaders do understand these things, but
don't care. However that would not explain why President Obama would go to
Afghanistan and humiliate President Karzai, in a way that was sure to
alienate the government that Washington wants to work with, and its
supporters.
Karzai reacted angrily: "In this situation there is a thin curtain between
invasion and cooperation-assistance," he said last week. He also warned that
the insurgency "could become a national resistance."
Of course, Washington's problem with the Afghan government does not really
have so much to do with corruption, as Obama lectured Karzai about - just
look at the billions of dollars that the US government continues to slather
on corrupt governments all over the world, from Pakistan to Colombia. It is
more that Karzai wants to negotiate a peace agreement with the Taliban
insurgents, while Washington - especially the Pentagon - wants to pull off
something it can claim as a "military victory" before that happens. It
remains to be seen how many people, including civilians, will die needlessly
before the Afghan government's preferred strategy of negotiations is
allowed.
But the problem is much more general and extends to US foreign policy
throughout the world. Washington claims to support "democracy", but
democracy without self-determination is a very limited form of democracy. It
is a great irony that Latin America, for example, had more
self-determination in the realm of economic policy from 1950 to 1980, when
much of the region lived under dictatorships, than it had after formal
democracy became widespread. Not surprisingly, the region's economy grew
enormously faster between 1950 and 1980 than it has in the last 30 years,
when "Washington consensus" economic policies became the norm.
Fortunately the Latin American electorate did not conclude from this
experience that dictatorship was better than democracy. Instead, over the
last decade they decided that they needed more democracy, the kind that
includes national self-determination and economic policy making that
benefits their own countries and also the majority of their citizens.
Bolivia took control over some of its most important natural resources -
especially hydrocarbons - and now has an extra 20% of GDP that the
government has been able to spend for economic and social development. (For
comparison, 20% of GDP is the average amount of the entire federal budget in
the United States over the last 40 years). Bolivia also now has an
independent foreign policy, where it can play a leading role on issues of
great importance to the country, such as climate change.
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on its massive foreign debt and changed its
economic policies, getting rid of the Washington-controlled IMF in the
process. There is no question that they were also better off for this move,
with the economy growing 63% in the ensuing six years. Venezuela is another
example of a government that was able to grow very rapidly after getting
control over its national oil industry in 2003, and to greatly expand access
to health care and education. It has also used its oil wealth to help other
countries in the hemisphere (including the poorest, Haiti, where it has
apparently pledged more money than the US government for relief and
reconstruction; and the richest, the United States, where it has donated
tens of millions of dollars annually in the form of discounted heating oil
to low- income Americans). Ecuador's left, nationalist government has
doubled spending on healthcare, got rid of a third of its foreign debt
through default, and has refused to cave to US pressure on the multi-billion
lawsuit of Ecuadorians against oil giant Chevron for pollution of ground
waters. There are numerous other examples that could be cited from "pink
tide" governments that now govern most of Latin America.
Of course, national self-determination also matters in countries that do not
have democratic governments. China has had the fastest-growing economy in
world history over the last three decades, pulling hundreds of millions of
people out of poverty despite widening inequality. As economists Nancy
Birdsall, Dani Rodrik, and Arvind Subramanian have noted, this would not
have happened (pdf) if China had pursued "a garden-variety World Bank
structural adjustment programme in 1978 instead of its own brand of
heterodox gradualism."
And Vietnam, another country ruled by a communist party, has also had one of
the world's fastest growing economies since it got rid of the American
troops 35 years ago. Over the past three decades its income per person has
more than quadrupled.
The hope is that these countries will become more democratic as they
increase their living standards and education. But in any case they still
illustrate one of the reasons - which is not intelligible to most of
Washington - why people might care so much about national
self-determination.
By facing off squarely against one of the most important political forces of
the 20th and 21st centuries, Washington is not only placing itself on the
wrong side of history. It is guaranteeing that the United States will be
involved in any number of "long wars", indefinitely, and generally slowing
the pace of economic and social progress in the world.
***
This Sunday, April 11, 1pm see the following films:
The Panama Deception:
Cover Up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair
Destination Nicaragua
Free
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
6522 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Art Against Empire uses the power of posters to document 60 years of
opposition to U.S. interventions into the domestic affairs of sovereign
nations. Political, economic and military interventions, many of them
covert, have repeatedly resulted in unacceptable deaths and misery for
millions. These posters show hopes and dreams, and the pain of dreams
destroyed.
Art Against Empire will showcase over 100 political posters in the LACE
galleries, spanning two dozen sovereign nations including Korea, Vietnam,
the Philippines, Guatemala, Haiti, Cuba, Iran, and South Africa. It attempts
to inform, challenge and inspire by confronting the viewer with images of
past struggles that remain powerfully relevant today. It both raises
questions about past interventions and fosters debate about present ones.
The exhibition will also provide insight into why the amount of devastation
caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti can be linked to its long history
of French colonialism and U.S. imperialism.
The United States is the focus of this exhibition. As citizens, we are
ultimately responsible for the actions that are taken by our government in
our name. Censorship and repression, so prevalent in wartime, invariably
attempt to eliminate dissent, thereby violating the principles on which this
democracy was founded. These posters document the efforts of people who
refuse to remain silent and who use the power of art to inspire action.
Gallery hours: Wed-Sun noon-6pm, Fri noon- 9pm
There is a $10 parking lot located behind LACE, enter from Wilcox Ave.
Ample street parking is also available on Hollywood Blvd and adjacent
streets.
LACE is also located between the Hollywood/Vine and Hollywood/ Highland
stops on the Metro Red Line.
***
From: aSharpShow
Subject: Robeson event
Ed,
Here's the 411 on the Robeson event:
The Paul Robeson Community Center celebrates Paul Robeson's birthday:
SUNDAY APRIL 11th 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Los Angeles Southwest College -- Little Theatre
1600 W. Imperial Hwy. LA 90047
Enter parking lot from Imperial Hwy at Denker.
$20 Students & Seniors $10 Champion's Circle $50
featuring singer K. B. Solomon as Paul Robeson and poet Janaci / honoring
the founders of the Paul Robeson Center
No comments:
Post a Comment