What
Is The Main Plank Of
The US Foreign Policy?
By Chandi Sinnathurai
19 April, 2007
Countercurrents.org
I
read among an avalanche of Asian Affairs information on the internet
that the US foreign policy towards Sri Lanka is governed by realism
and characterised by the following three primary principles.
1) Respect for her independence
2) Honor her sovereignty
3) Act neutral on her “moderate”
non-aligned policy
Since the mid-seventies the US has warmly welcomed the Sri Lankan policy
reforms. In 1978, Lanka opened its economy to foreign investment by
slowly drifting away from socialist orientation. The economy however,
solely depends on foreign aid/investments. Since 2001, Sri Lanka has
sought closer links with the US and has adopted a multi-lateral foreign
policy. As a result, the US now enjoys “cordial relations”
with Lanka. The US Armed Forces also have formally forged a military-to-military
relationship with the regional security in mind. The ACSA (Acquisition
and Cross servicing Agreement ) was signed between US and Lanka on March
5 2007. This agreement is about exchanges of logistical support, supplies
and services. Sri Lankan Media reported that “…the finalisation
of the ACSA took place in the backdrop of a sharp improvement in relations
between India and US in recent years. The US and India sees each other
as strategic and economic partners in the emerging Asian order.”
[1]
Now all these international
relations, policy adaptations and economic developments will have to
be viewed from the on going Tamil liberation struggle in the island.
The US proscribed the Tamil Tigers in October 1997 under the provisions
of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. In October
of 2003, “after further review it re-designated the Tamil Tigers
as a “Foreign terrorist organisation.” Whilst taking all
such drastic actions however, the Bush Administration often neglected
to take action or even to exert pressure against the State terror in
Sri Lanka, particularly aimed at the Tamil population. The Tamils are
facing a mass slaughter in the East [Mattakalappu & Amparai] and
the North of Sri Lanka even as I write…
It is apparent that, the
President of Sri Lanka, Mahinada Rajapaksha has found favour as the
“our kind of guy” for the West. It brings to mind the struggle
of East Timor. Suharto was ‘our kind of guy’. The following
are the words of Professor Chomsky in December 1995:
<<Well, 1995 is also
the 20th anniversary of war crimes and crimes against humanity that
are actually far more important than any of these cases and that's 'cause
they're still going on and -- as Allan [Nairn] just eloquently said,
and correctly said -- can be brought to an end. That's the U.S.-backed
Indonesian invasion of East Timor. And, I think, we should stress the
"U.S.-backed" part, because that's the part that primarily
concerns us on December 7, 1975. That initiated the worst slaughter
since the Holocaust, relative to population, which is the most significant
measure and, in fact, even in absolute scale, despite the small size
of the territory, in absolute scale, comparable to some of the great
atrocities of the same period. Well, that 20th anniversary, as far as
I can see, passed without regrets or apologies. There were opportunities,
not only on the day itself, but shortly before, when "our kind
of guy" showed up in Washington and was treated as Allan described.
>>
<<He's been "our
kind of guy" for a long time, actually. He's been a great hero
in the United States and the West, generally, since he took power --
again, with U.S. support -- just thirty years ago. It's another memorable
anniversary. He celebrated that takeover of power with what the New
York Times described as a "staggering mass slaughter" of some
half a million to a million Asians. Nobody counts much, but somewhere
in that neighborhood -- number of people -- mostly landless peasants,
in a couple of months. The CIA concurred with the Times judgment. It
described this as, in its words, as "one of the worst mass murders
of the 20th century." Went on to compare it to Hitler and Stalin
and it described Suharto's coup as certainly one of the most significant
events of the 20th century. That's the 1965 coup that led instantly
to the massacre. >>*
There are sadly among Tamils,
those who flirt with the names of Stalin, Mussolini, Mao etc and in
the same breath, they will worship Mahatma Gandhi (It depends which
way the pendulum is swinging!). Worse still among them, there are even
a few, who apparently “profess” and pontificate the liberation
cause - And to them, the value of lives, particularly the lives of landless
peasants amounts to Zero. It is the GOAL that matters, they argue, in
utter impoverishment of spiritual ethos and total depravity of moral
values. In other words, these helpless peasants could be used as human
shields – as long as such “profess-ors” kith and kin
are safe.
All Tamils must be passionate
about Tamil [2] and ought to be deeply concerned about their fellow
being’s suffering and suppression. When a Tamil is raped and brutally
murdered our stomachs are churned with natal pain while our faces are
covered with tears. Such ought to be the case when innocent fellow humans
are murdered or maimed by terror any where in the world.
One would suggest that, the
Tamils must seek to cut through the main plank of the US foreign policy
towards Sri Lanka and get the ‘ears’ of the West. The message
of the Tamil struggle must convince the West and the US in particular
of the validity of the struggle on moral grounds among other things.
Releasing Press statements and condemnations of the US Government may
be of some help. But behind-the -scenes work and building links are
of immense long-term value.
I quote below a question
put to Chomsky at Colombia University in 1995. The response he gave
against ‘quick fixes’ and the importance of ‘bringing
awareness’ is still relevant today:
QUESTIONER
<<This is a question for Professor Chomsky. I am a Sri Lankan
Tamil, and I sympathize a lot with what is going on in East Timor today.
But I also want to point out that, as of now, there is more than 90
percent of the population of the north [of Sri Lanka] -- civilian population
have been pushed out or they've fled a military invasion with 100 percent
[unclear]. That, being the example I wanted to bring out, what I want
to ask is that, as a result of this massive refugee problem, there was
a hearing and they brought three academics. One of them was Marsha Singer
from Pittsburgh. They were fantastically informed with the ground level
situation and they could answer all the questions that were put to them;
very balanced.>>
<<On the other hand,
when the State Department came on the floor -- it's incredible, their
view of the same problem. This, to me, is what you said before, that
is, that there's a big gap between what the public opinion is and what
the U.S. policy and the people who are connected with the policy is.
And my general question to you -- this not only would help Timor --
but any [unclear; word may be "reasonable"] ethnic problem
across world is that how the U.S. citizens -- educated people who are
assembled today, here -- I think this is enough to make us change this
type of disparities. What is there really to do, other than grassroots
organization? To me, observing that is very fulfilling but, still, not
very efficient to the kind of power where it gets projected down to
us. So could you help us that, structurally, what changes that are reasonable
to look for and work for to make this change happen in a very spontaneous
way? People want to separate -- live… >>
NOAM CHOMSKY
<<…you can't get a quick fix -- something you have to work
on. And there's no secrets. These -- goes right back through history.
I mean, the reason we don't live in slavery and feudalism and, you know,
mass terror and so on is that people were willing to struggle against
oppression. And it's slow and hard and you get -- it takes time and
there's no quick fixes and there's no simple answers and everybody knows
the answers. I don't have to repeat 'em: you have to educate, you have
to learn, you have to organize, you have to find ways of acting and
so on. That's all there's ever been in history, and nobody's going to
find another magic answer -- and there's no magic answer on this.>>
<<In the case of Sri
Lanka, you know, you gotta start by telling -- letting people know that
it's not in Central Africa or in Antarctica, or something like that.
And if you ask around, those are probably the -- you know, anything
with a funny name, people will say, "probably in Africa."
So -- in fact, that's where people thought Timor was, until pretty recently.
The -- so the first thing you gotta do is bring about a level of awareness.
And then you have to get people to see that they've a reason for caring
about it. And then they have to try to do something about it. And that's
all there is. There's no other answer. >>
<<It's -- you know
-- the look -- the search for magic solutions and the -- even worse
-- the conclusion, "OK, if you can't give me a magic solution,
I'm gonna go home and watch television," -- that's just a way of
guaranteeing that these things go on. And that's true across the board.>>
QUESTIONER
<<[first words missing from tape]...something that might be related
to East Timor, I'm not sure, but I was reading a book called -- by Professor
Alfred McCoy, called The Politics of Heroin. And I wanted to know if
you guys -- I've read books similar to that and want to know if you
knew about how much heroin and drugs, in general, of that area played
in the U.S. involvement in that area, in the Vietnam War and maybe today.
And I'm not sure if East Timor falls anywhere within the Golden Triangle
or any of those politics. But could you comment on that?>>
NOAM CHOMSKY
<<Yeah. Well, in the case of Indonesia, I don't think it was much.
But in Southeast Asia it was very substantial. Al McCoy's book is a
very good book -- especially if you read the new edition of it. It's
a very good and important book. He starts by talking about how the drug
racket was reconstituted after World War II.>>
<<The basic story is
that -- I mean, the fascists, whatever you thought about 'em, they ran
a very tight ship, you know. And they don't have any competition. So
they wiped out the Mafia, basically, 'cause they don't fool -- you don't
fool around. When the Americans moved in, first in Sicily and, then,
in southern France and so on, it was basically reconstituted.>>
<<[unclear] reconstituted largely as a weapon against the resistance
-- the anti-fascist resistance -- and against the labor movement. 'Cause
there was the same problem in Europe that there was in Indonesia and
Vietnam and everywhere else. There were mass popular movements that
were radical democratic and were not committed to "the welfare
of the world capitalist system." They wanted it to change. And
the traditional conservatives -- you know, institution had been discredited
by their association with fascism. So, all over the world, first step
after World War II was destroy the resistance and reinstate the supporters
of the fascist system. That's basically chapter one of the postwar world.>>
<<In France and Italy
it involved reconstituting the Mafia. That was the way -- you know,
you needed strikebreakers to work on the Marseilles docks and so on
and who's going to do it for you? Who are going to be the goons? Well,
you know, these guys. And they don't do it for free. So you give 'em
the heroin racket in exchange. And, from then on, the trail of drugs
has followed clandestine activities pretty closely. So, France -- that's
the famous "French connection" -- got started that way. Then
it goes to Southeast Asia where big U.S. operations are going on, but
not in Indonesia, as far as I know. Only around the Golden Triangle,
as it's called -- you know, Burma, Laos, so on and, yeah, that became
the big center of the drug traffic and, of course, the U.S. was up to
its neck in it. They -- what was called the clandestine army -- the
highlands army -- in Laos was financed by opium production, quite openly.
And, of course, that -- and then huge explosion of drugs. >>
<<Afghanistan has recently
been the -- a major center of the drug trade for exactly the same reasons.
And, in fact -- you know, it's not perfect -- but it goes this way pretty
closely and for quite good reasons. You have to -- if you're involved
in clandestine operations, first of all, you need a lot of thugs and
gangsters and they got to be paid. And they have to be paid with untraceable
money, which means you got to have a lot of money around that's going
to get these guys to do what you want, and there aren't a lot of choices.
Drugs is the natural one. So it's not in the least surprising that in
-- what McCoy describes is true -- that the trail of drugs follows pretty
closely the major trail of underground clandestine operations. However,
as far as I know, that was not the case in Indonesia. >>*
Notes:
[1] SL Time; 15 March 2007.
[2] Also see recent Chomsky
comments:http://www.countercurrents.org/sl-alexander260207.htm
*Quotes from Noam Chomsky taken from: Transcription by Eliot Hoffman
for East Timor Action Network (ETAN). Ending 20 Years of Occupation:
East Timor and U.S. Foreign Policy December 9, 1995. Miller Theater,
Columbia University, New York City
?Fr.Chandi Sinnathurai is
a landless-peasant. He is passionate about Life, Liberation, Freedom
and Liberty to All.
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