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The “Most Outlandish” Empire Semantics
The government of the Unites States (GDP US$ 16,768,100 million) declares that the situation in Venezuela (GDP US$ 371,339 million):
… constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States
This, the White House says, requires to:
… declare a national emergency to deal with that threat
“Why,” ask the Venezuelans, including the U.S. sponsored opposition, “do you think we are an unusual and extraordinary threat which requires you to declare a national emergency?
“We do not believe for a moment that you are an unusual and extraordinary threat which requires us to declare a national emergency“, is the answer:
Officials in Washington said that declaring Venezuela a national security threat was largely a formality.
“A formality?” ask Venezuelans. “Why is it a formality to see us as an unusual and extraordinary threat to your national security? That does not make sense. What’s next? Will it be a simply a formality to kill us?”
“It is formality needed to be able to sanction some of your government officials,” an anonymous U.S. senior official explains. “To do so the law requires that we declare you to be an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security which requires us to declare a national emergency.”
“But we ain’t no such threat. You yourself says so. So why would you sanction our officials when you yourself say that there is no real basis for this? On what legal grounds are you acting? Why these sanctions?”
“Because the the situation in Venezuela … constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States which requires us to declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.“
“That is like declaring war on us. That does not make sense”.
“Well, it’s just a formality.”
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On might have hoped that the above would be the “most outlandish” nonsense the U.S. government could produce. But that is not yet the case.
The Venezuelan President Maduro responded in the National Assembly:
“The aggression and the threat of the government of the United States is the greatest threat that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, our country, has ever received,” he said to applause, […] “Let’s close ranks like a single fist of men and women. We want peace.”
He spoke of past American military interventions in Latin America and warned that the United States was preparing an invasion and a naval blockade of Venezuela.
“For human rights, they are preparing to invade us,” he said, …
During the last 125 years the U.S. intervened in South America at least 56 times through military or intelligence operations. This ever intervening country is the same country that just declared Venezuela to be an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States that requires to declare a national emergency.
It is certainly not outlandish for Maduro to believe that such a declaration will be followed by one of those continued interventions. Especially not when disguised U.S. officials travel around Venezuela and distribute money to opposition parties. Maduro is not alone in seeing the threat of another U.S. intervention. All South American nations have condemned the U.S. declaration and even pro-American opposition politicians in Venezuela were outraged about it.
But for the ever anonymous U.S. officials it is the victim of their outlandish exaggerations that doth protest too much:
“It’s remarkable that the [Venezuelan] government can say the most outlandish things about the U.S. government — what is this, the 16th or 17th coup attempt that we’re doing? And now we’re invading?” the official said. “The shelf life of all of these accusations is what, a day or two? Even the dullest of media consumers is going to see that there is no invasion.”
Noting the U.S. doublespeak in this whole affair it advise to be very careful in believing that “there is no invasion” claim.
The threats being made against Venezuela are horrendous but to be expected. Latin America will be under tremendous threat as the US Empire collapses in its outer regions. The vultures will turn to their traditional areas. But it won’t be so easy. The changes in Venezuela are massive. Millions have been educated. Millions have been trained. Millions have become invested in the state. If the US couldn’t win its coup in 2002, I seriously doubt the US can win one today. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try.
If I remember one thing about the Venezuela, it was the simple people working together, proud of what they had managed to achieve during their revolution. We visited a cooperative farm where the tractors made under a joint effort between Venezuela and Iran were being driven by farmers. These were once landless peasants and now proud farming families, working their small plots (about 15 acres each) with their kids, their dogs and their cats. These people have been organized (and armed) and won’t give that land back to the latifundistas. Never.
I travelled during the Iraq War, and – Venezuela being similar in size to that nation – I was revolted by the thoughts of the United States doing to Venezuela what it had done to Iraq so recently. The mass murder. The internal conflict. That’s what that little snake Miriam Kornblith represents. The murder of children. The arrival of the Empire and its killers.
The thing is, Venezuela still has very powerful oligarchs, and big business thrives. There was never the wholesale conversion to a planned, socialist system, there was only a spreading of the oil wealth, a new constitution, expanded voting rights – things like that. No one is losing anything. The oil still flows to the US. But that is not enough – because its never enough for the USA except total submission. The ONLY reason the US wants to attack the country is because of the advances it has made in bringing real democracy to a poor country. Because of the real example it has provided all over South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
It’s a bit long (even as cut down as I’ve made it), so apologies for that, but let me post again part of a speech by a Venezuelan Member of the National Assembly who was kind enough to speak to the group I was with. It’s very good, and covers a lot of the dynamics we see at work today.
The war here is between those without power – without rights, those without presence in the world, whose dignity is permanently eliminated – and those who want to exert power only to divide society and maintain a system of domination of a few over a very immense and unhappy lot. We don’t like that. So we want to apply politics, real politics – democracy, what democracy is about – into changing the status of that big majority. And for that small, very small minority, to understand that when you simply want to divide society, oppress a part of society, take human rights away from a big part of it – you’re not a democrat. You cannot be called a democrat, you cannot be called a republican, you’re not a civilizer, you’re not a society constructor, you’re not a development contributor. You are but a fascist. And fascism is at work right now against the populations of Latin America. You’ve know that for many years. I’m not telling you anything new.
There is a term in use at the moment, it is “fourth generation war”. Fourth generation war is not fought with rifles, with tanks, or with bombs. Fourth generation war, like the one in Iraq, or like the one that started in Iraq and in other parts of the world, is fought in the minds of people. And your enemy seeks to control all of your territory by telling your soldiers, your people, that you are their enemy. If my people, my army, my interests, my culture, are here and I am a part of them, my enemy tells my people here that “hey, your enemy is that guy there in front of you.” If my enemy convinces my people that I am their enemy, who will they kill? They won’t kill their enemy, their real true enemy, they’ll kill me. So that is a fourth generation war. The one that is fought here with psychological warfare. We are not anymore calling them means of communication anymore, because they are not means of communication, they are a means of mass destruction. They are means of conscience destruction. They are means of political propaganda spreading. They are not means of communication. They do not communicate. They impose, terrorize, control.
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The right wing, the oligarchy, that exists. It’s true, it exists. And politically, they are very good at organizing themselves. They are very effective in using their power, economic and otherwise, against their social and political enemies. And they are deploying their power here in Venezuela, right now. For example, 80% of the radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers are private, and are, largely, immensely, anti-Chávez. They are undemocratic, they don’t believe in complying with the rule, with the law. And they don’t respect public opinion. It’s absurd what you can watch on these TV stations, you listen to people calling for rebellion, calling for an overthrow of the government. I mean, you do that in a TV station in the United States or in Spain or the United Kingdom or so on, you end up in prison. But they say that this is a dictatorship. And that itself is the best proof that our enemies are simply fascist and undemocratic is that. There is never an objective or balanced opinion about Chávez.
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See, we want to do everything, always, of course lawfully, and “the constitution”…alright, so “Here’s the constitution…” [mimics shooting a machinegun at the holder of the constitution] “pow pow pow pow” “Here’s the constitution”. I do it with a little laughter because this is…we talk about this every day. But it’s sad. Well that’s the truth but we’ve got to know that. And also we believe in internationalism. We are brothers and sisters, and we love each other. But they kill…they kill us all. We, in fact, on the contrary, rely on principles, rely on ethics, rely on morals. For us, things are good or are bad. You do not do things if they are unjust. You do not do things if they are, um, inhuman. They don’t care about that. They don’t give a fuck about that. They kill us. They kill us. They kill people. There are people here in Venezuela – the army is ours, the president is ours, we have the power, but they kill every month, peasants. Because peasants are very well organized. And are organizing themselves. So out in the land, in the plains, Agribusiness organizes their small armies and kill the guys that are getting organized. They would like the same war here that has been happening in Colombia for the past 40 years.
In Colombia, peasants, trade unionists, student leaders, human rights groups leaders are killed by the hundreds. They never get to see the sunset. Never. they are always killed mid-morning, early morning. Every single week.
Posted by: guest77 | Mar 13 2015 2:31 utc | 26
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