THREAT FOR WORLD PEACE

THE GREATEST THREAT FOR WORLD PEACE.

In some parts of the world the United States ranks even higher as a perceived menace to world peace, notably in the Middle East where overwhelming majorities regard the US and its close ally Israel as the major threats they face, not the US – Israeli favorite; Iran. Few Latin Americans are likely to question the judgment of Cuban nationalist hero. The further they draw  away from the United States the freer and more prosperous the Latin American people will be Marti’s judgment has been confirmed in recent years, once again by an analysis of poverty by the UN economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to the UN surveys it is indicated that far reaching performs have sharply reduced poverty in Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela and some other countries where US influence is slight but that it remains abysmal in others-namely those that have long been under US domination, like Guatemala and Honduras. Even in relatively wealthy Mexico, under the umbrella of the North American Free Trade agreement poverty is severe, with one million added to the numbers of the poor in 2013. Sometimes the reasons for the world’s concerns are obliquely recognized in the United States, as when former CIA director Michael Hayden, discussing Obama’s drone murder campaign, conceded that Right now there is not a government on the planet that agrees with our legal rationale for these operations except for Afghanistan and maybe Israel.

A normal country would be concerned by how it is viewed in the world. Certainly that would be true of a country committed to a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, to quote the Founding Fathers. But the United States is far from a normal country. It has had the most powerful economy in the world for a century, and has had no real challenge to its global hegemony since World War II, despite some decline partly self-administered. The US conscious of soft power, undertakes major campaigns of public diplomacy (aka propaganda) to create a favourable image, sometimes accompanied by worthwhile policies that are welcomed.

When the world persists in believing that the United States is by far the greatest threat to peace, the American press scarcely reports the fact. The ability to ignore unwanted facts is one of the prerogatives of unchallenged power.

A current example can be seen in the laments about the escalating Sunni-Shiite conflict that is tearing apart the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria. The prevailing theme of US commentary is that this strife is a terrible consequence of the withdrawal of American forces from the region a lesson in the dangers of isolationism. The opposite is more nearly correct. The roots of the conflict within Islam are many and varied, but is cannot be seriously denied that the split was significantly exacerbated by the American and British led invasion of Iraq. And it can not be too often repeated that aggression was defined at the Nuremberg Trials as the supreme international crime, differing from others in that it encompasses all the evil that follows, including the current catastrophe.

When Mandela at last obtained his freedom, he declared that during all my years in prison, Cuba was an inspiration and Fidel Castro a tower of strength. What other country can point to a record of greater selflessness than Cuba has displayed in its relations to Africa? Today the names of Cubans who died defending Angola from US-backed South African aggression, defying American demands that they leave the country are inscribed on the Wall of Names in Pretoria’s Freedom Park. The thousands of Cuban aid workers who sustained Angola largely at Cuban expenses are also not forgotten.

The US approved version is quite different. From the first days after South Africa agreed to withdraw from illegally occupied Namibia in 1988 paving the way for the end of apartheid, the outcome was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as a splendid achievement of American diplomacy one of the most significant foreign policy achievements of the Reagan administration. The reasons why Mandela and South Africans perceive a radically different picture  are spelled out in PieroGleijeses masterful scholarly inquiry visions of Freedom. Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa 1976-1991.

South Africa’s aggression and terrorism in Angola and its occupation of Namibia were ended by Cuban military might accompanied by fierce black resistance within South Africa and the courage of Namibian guerrillas. The Namibian liberation forces easily won fair elections as soon as these were possible. Similarly in elections in Angola the Cuban backed government prevailed while the United States continued to support vicious opposition terrorists there even after South Africa was compelled to back away. To the end the Reignites remained virtually alone in their strong support for the apartheid regime and its murderous depredations in neighboring countries. Though these shameful episodes may be wiped out of internal US history others are likely to understand Mandela’s words. In these and all too many other cases supreme power does provide protection against reality to a  point.