VHeadline's Washington D.C. commentarist Chris Herz writes: It is the underlying assumption of this article that present US foreign policy is dysfunctional both for the USA and for the various nations which are the targets of its operation. This we see proven in the failure of all of its initiatives in recent years to procure anything save appalling spasms of violence producing full-spectrum disorder; all done at immense and unsupportable cost to the social, economic and political order of the imperial motherland herself.The author makes the further assumption that the present real political, economic and even constitutional arrangements in the USA are quite unsustainable yet make any of the substantive reforms needful quite beyond the zone of possibility.
The analogy must be a comparison to a terminally ill patient: The toxicities associated with the powerful medications which must be used in ever less fruitful attempts to prolong life are themselves deadly to survival, let alone growth.
- But ignoring for the moment the last two points, and focusing on the first what would a new and useful US foreign policy look like?
The policies, both foreign and domestic, of any government must be based on realistic assessments of how best to maintain both its territorial integrity and the welfare of the mass of its people. We must adhere to the conservative principle that these must always be the mainsprings of any legitimate governmental system. Furthermore, if we expect foreigner to refrain from destructive activities within our own country we must refrain from such in theirs. Reciprocity is the guiding principle always in the relations between nations.
We must first get control of our budgetary processes by building down our reliance on military power to the level of 1939. We must assume that we do not face in the future a repeat of World War II. It is unnecessary, it is even a threat to the financial survival of the state to have 13,000 nuclear bombs, 13 aircraft carrier task forces, bases in 100 different countries. We see an immense air force so widely dispersed and wrongly deployed across the globe that it cannot defend the major cities of its own homeland against an half dozen airliners transformed by an handful of terrorists into cruise missiles. Etcetera, etcetera and etcetera.
We must reduce our reliance on an "intelligence" apparatus designed not for realistic analysis of real threats, but for the forcible expansion of corporate ownership by our elites into the resources of other countries which rightly see no need of becoming peons in their own lands.
With the closure of foreign bases, should come the reduction of embassy staff to the same level as that which the host countries deploy in Washington. The cover of legitimate consular and diplomatic activities should no longer be perverted by subversive agencies.
Realistic policies vis-a-vis Venezuela and her adjacent countries might look like this: A grand bargain should be arranged with Venezuela and Colombia and the other countries of the Andean north land: Hands off their domestic politics in exchange for real efforts, domestically mounted rather than orchestrated in Washington for geo-political purposes, to suppress the international drug trade. For instance, any serious US diplomat should gladly trade support for the present death squad government in Colombia for a new FARC-EP led regime's total Socialist commitment to the complete suppression of cocaine smuggling, as poisonous for its own people as it is for ours. New Colombian officials should know far better than Washington bureaucrats how best to succeed in this task.
Trade policies likewise need economic rationalization. Silly stuff like the Andean Trade Initiative, CAFTA, NAFTA and the like should be scrapped. We don't need the expansion of corporatism or mono-culture farming, things which without state subsidy and military support can never be economic. In any event, a natural Inter-American trade is a matter which can almost take care of itself without a lot of governmental interference.
What can possibly be more efficient than that respectful neighbors in close geographical proximity trade among themselves? If experience shows that some organization as a bloc is needful, why then that should take as its model that of the European Union, protective of human rights, the environment, and allowing for the free movement of people as well as of goods and capital. I have a dream: The accession of a new USA to ALBA! An inter-American union of free and sovereign peoples from Cape Horn to Point Barrow.
When the USA took proper care of the needs of her own people for remunerative employment, when she manufactured for herself, all the countries of Latin America found little difficulty in buying from and selling to the Yankees. If a Ford is better and cheaper why import a Toyota from halfway around the world? To such useful, everyday products, rather than designing the latest fighter and bomber aircraft is where our best engineers should be assigned.
Above all else, the Marines and the CIA remain at home. Massively reduced in size and power. No more attacks on democrats like Benz or Allende. Or Chavez. Or Kennedy, for that matter.
We call for a USA neutral and respectful of the efforts of other nations to organize their own affairs. We recognize that positive values, those of social equity and political democracy only come from within, and develop only over time, they are never successfully gifted by clandestine subversion or military invasion by foreigners.
- And if the USA really wish to promote democracy world wide, they must first do so at home. Only then might real, positive policy options open for all of us.
From the Imperial Capital,
Chris Herz
cdherz44@yahoo.com
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