U.S. foreign policy

My father and I enjoyed watching Archie Bunker on “All in the Family” during the late sixties and early seventies.  Mr. Nixon was the president, Meathead was anti Nixon and the poor economy was Nixon’s fault according to Meathead.  Archie was pro Nixon so they had a hot argument over the state of the economy.  This is late sixties so please note this and USA forces are still in Vietnam destroying the country.  Meathead asks Archie what Nixon should propose?  Archie replies that maybe we need a little war, to stimulate the economy, nothing large, we could attack Mexico while they snooze under their dopey hats. 

This was spoken on USA television and must have raised a few eyebrows at the time.  It seems as if it was very true, that each time the USA economy needed a stimulus a small war was started somewhere—nothing too big. Granada was one, USA did not like the people in control so lets go in and get rid of him.  Everyone wanted their pictures taken with Momar Kadaffi but all of a sudden Momar was not nice and the USA decided on their own to get rid of him.  Saddam Hussain of Iraq was good enough to buy many billions of dollars of weapons from the USA including the chemicals he used on his neighbours but then all of a sudden he became a “bad guy” and the USA has to go in and get rid of him.  In 1953 the USA department of the CIA overthrew the legitimate government of Iran and installed the Shah so the USA oil giants could milk the oil fields of Iran for billions of dollars.  Then when the Shah was thrown out by his own people the USA was upset because the new government was not pro USA—go figure. 

George W. Bush enjoyed coffee many mornings with the evangelist, Pat Robertson.  Pat was quoted on his own TV program that since the USA has trouble with Chavez in Venezuela, that it is cheaper to send in the CIA to take care of Chavez than to send in the army.  Where does this come from? 

So, we come to Cuba in 1960 or so.  The mob in the USA and many large USA companies enjoyed vast freedoms to exploit the island only 90 km from the USA.  People of Cuba were poor and uneducated with no medical system and no real order to their life except what the foreigners demanded of them—cheap labour.  Then came Fidel Castro trying to start his power struggle.  This did not please the powerful people in the USA so the CIA was sent in to take him out and restore the USA influence once again.  Castro and his troops gave the CIA a real whopping and they had to be rescued from the beaches.  The USA did not like to get a whopping so they tried for nearly 60 years to punish the Cubans by installing an embargo on business with Cuba.  This severely hurt the little country but they survived.  Castro did two things for the Cubans: a medical and an education system.  The dictatorship of his regime was not to be envied by anyone.  Prior to Castro the country was at the mercy of the mob and the large banana and sugar companies of the USA.  After the USA loss at the Bay of Pigs and Castro’s control of the government, the CIA, with the blessing of the USA governments tried many times to assassinate Castro to attempt to punish him and retake control of the little country.  It is amazing that the CIA could not get this work done in 60 years. 

If your country’s politicians are not on board with the ideas of the USA government — i.e. dislike the Cuban dictator then you are not friends with the USA.  Justin Trudeau gave a speech re: Fidel Castro’s death that many thought was in poor taste according to USA foreign policy. 

Now, both Russia and the USA are busy bombing the daylight away in Syria, Assad has to go says Obama many times on TV.  Is this just another continuation of stimulating the USA economy or does the air force of both nations just need to get rid of “old stock” bombs so we might as well use them somewhere.  Does the CIA need to have someone new to assassinate to justify their endless budget?  Don’t just think CIA, the USA government has seventeen other secret agencies — damn scary isn’t it?

So, let us go home to Canada: we have CSIS — please let us not have them become our CIA. It was president Eisenhower who said to the USA public, “Do not allow the military establishment to have control of the government”.

Jorgen Hansen