Iraq-Contra -- Chomsky on 'Proconsul' Negroponte

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--- jd0049 wrote:

 

 

> Fri, 13 Aug 2004 07:29:58 -0700

> Iraq-Contra -- Chomsky on

> 'Proconsul' Negroponte " From Central America To

> Iraq "

>

>

>

>

> From Central America To Iraq

> By Noam Chomsky

>

> http://issuesandalibis.org/

>

> ONE moral truism that should not provoke

> controversy is the principle of universality: We

> should apply to ourselves the same standards we

> apply to others - in fact, more stringent ones.

> Commonly, if states have the power to do so with

> impunity, they disdain moral truisms, because those

> states set the rules.

>

> That's our right if we declare ourselves

> uniquely exempt from the principle of universality.

> And so we do, constantly. Every day brings new

> illustrations.

>

> Just last month, for example, John Negroponte

> went to Baghdad as US ambassador to Iraq, heading

> the world's largest diplomatic mission, with the

> task of handing over sovereignty to Iraqis to fulfil

> Bush's 'messianic mission' to graft democracy to the

> Middle East and the world, or so we are solemnly

> informed.

>

> But nobody should overlook the ominous

> precedent: Negroponte learned his trade as US

> ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, during the

> Reaganite phase of many of the incumbents in

> Washington, when the first war on terror was

> declared in Central America and the Middle East.

>

> In April, Carla Anne Robbins of The Wall

> Street Journal wrote about Negroponte's Iraq

> appointment under the heading Modern Proconsul. In

> Honduras, Negroponte was known as 'the proconsul', a

> title given to powerful administrators in colonial

> times. " There, he presided over the second largest

> embassy in Latin America, with the largest CIA

> station in the world at that time - and not because

> Honduras was a centrepiece of world power.

>

> Robbins observed that Negroponte has been

> criticised by human-rights activists for " covering

> up abuses by the Honduran military " - a euphemism

> for large-scale state terror - " to ensure the flow

> of US aid " to this vital country, which was " the

> base for President Reagan's covert war against

> Nicaragua's Sandinista government. "

>

> The covert war was launched after the

> Sandinista revolution took control in Nicaragua.

> Washington's professed fear was that a second Cuba

> might develop in this Central American nation. In

> Honduras, proconsul Negroponte's task was to

> supervise the bases where a terrorist mercenary army

> - the Contras - was trained, armed and sent to

> overthrow the Sandinistas.

>

> In 1984, Nicaragua responded in a way

> appropriate to a law-abiding state by taking its

> case against the United States to the World Court in

> the Hague. The court ordered the United States to

> terminate the 'unlawful use of force' -- in lay

> terms, international terrorism -- against Nicaragua

> and to pay substantial reparations. But Washington

> ignored the court, then vetoed two UN Security

> Council resolutions affirming the judgment and

> calling on all states to observe international law.

>

> US State Department legal adviser Abraham

> Sofaer explained the rationale. Since most of the

> world cannot be " counted on to share our view " , we

> must " reserve to ourselves the power to determine "

> how we will act and which matters fall " essentially

> within the domestic jurisdiction of the United

> States, as determined by the United States " - in

> this case the actions in Nicaragua that the court

> condemned.

>

> Washington's disregard of the court decree and

> its arrogance towards the international community

> are perhaps relevant to the current situation in

> Iraq. The campaign in Nicaragua left a dependent

> democracy, at an incalculable cost. Civilian deaths

> have been estimated at tens of thousands -

> proportionately, a death toll " significantly higher

> than the number of US persons killed in the US Civil

> War and all the wars of the 20th century combined, "

> writes Thomas Carothers, a leading historian of the

> democratisation of Latin America.

>

> Carothers writes from the perspective of an

> insider as well as a scholar, having served in

> Reagan's State Department during the 'democracy

> enhancement' programmes in Central America. The

> Reagan-era programmes were 'sincere' though a

> 'failure', according to Carothers, because

> Washington would tolerate only " limited, top-down

> forms of democratic change that did not risk

> upsetting the traditional structures of power with

> which the United States has long been allied. "

>

> This is a familiar historical refrain in the

> pursuit of visions of democracy, which Iraqis

> apparently comprehend, even if we choose not to.

> Today, Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in

> the hemisphere (above Haiti, another main target of

> US intervention during the 20th century). About 60

> per cent of Nicaraguan children under age two are

> afflicted with anaemia from severe malnutrition -

> only one grim indication of what is hailed as a

> victory for democracy.

>

> The Bush administration claims to want to

> bring democracy to Iraq, using the same experienced

> official as in Central America. During Negroponte's

> confirmation hearings, the international terrorist

> campaign in Nicaragua received passing mention but

> is considered of no particular significance, thanks,

> presumably, to the exemption of our glorious selves

> from the principle of universality.

>

> Several days after Negroponte's appointment,

> Honduras withdrew its small contingent of forces

> from Iraq. That might have been a coincidence. Or

> maybe the Hondurans remember something from the time

> when Negroponte was there that we prefer to forget.

> © 2004 Noam Chomsky

>