Tending Our Gardens

THE ATTACK of Venezuela is perfectly in keeping with United States foreign policy towards Latin America since the earliest days of the American plutocratic republic. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 made it "perfectly clear", as Nixon might say, that the United States would henceforth and forevermore regard all areas south of its southern border as de facto subject to American control, as a purely American sphere of influence. No other nations, especially European nations, would be allowed to exert any sort of influence or control of any kind in the western hemisphere. This ambitious, imperialistic declaration of continental suzzerainty by a rather fledgling United States has from its inception been largely ignored and disrespected by not only European powers, but in particualr by China, whose influence we see today. The Chinese are engaged in the construction of infrastructure and trading relations in Latin America, none of it with the approval of the powerless United States, powerless, that is, to enforce the breast thumping early 19th century declaration of imperialist intent. Since 1823 the United States has invaded Latin American countries regularly, dozens of times, early and often. A simple list of American invasions can easily be googled; the list is long and impressive, and includes something like twenty two separate occupations of Haiti.A seminal if slightly outdated monograph by historiam=n William Appleman Williams, titled "The Traddgy of American Diplomacy" details this history from the early nineteenth century to the nineteen sixties. Consider teh arrogance,let alone the aggressive underlying attitude, of a nation willing to prolcaim that the door to China is "open" in the "Open Door Policy" of 1900, without consulting China, and no less willing to consider itself the rightful overlord of the entire western hemishpere from the early 19th century until....today. Ther is absolutely no moral imperative or justification behind this attitude, only raw economic and military power, and the willingness and even latent desire to exploit it for the enhancement of the pwrsonal wealth and power of the plutocrats who govern the Unoted States, and always have. Ironic, in a way, that this latest American violation of international law and moral decency took place thirty six years to the day after a simliar exploit in Panama, with another of those third world petty dictators our neighbors to the south seem so adept at producing.Latin Ameria is a good lesson for lovesr of demoracy everywhere: you can expand voting rights as far and wide as you choose, but there is never any guarantee that we the people will not willingly elect a "atrong leader" who will, upon gaining power, soon morph into the sort of brutal, cruel dictator we now see so many of, staining the fabric of human civilization with their culturally suffocating suppression. In Latin America voters elect strong leaders who become dictators. In the United States we have elected a demagogue who is attempting to become a dictator, by governing by decree rather than by legislative and executive due process. Ultimately it is the people of any nation who must keep and defend their freedom and democracy, not some foreign power. We Americans can talk about the necessity of defending and supporting democracy all over the world all we want, even while supporting the petty tyrants of our choice but while doing so. It might not hurt us to think carefully about the current, evident threat to our own democratic system here at home, currently holding power. As Voltaire said: "We must tend our gardens."