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The cartoon awfulness of the Bush crime
syndicate's foreign policy is enough to make Americans nostalgic
for almost anything that came before. And as Bill Clinton parades
around the country and the world associating himself with "good"
causes, it's enough to evoke yearnings in many people on the
left who should know better. So here's a little reminder of what
Clinton's foreign policy was composed of. Hold on to it in case
Lady Macbeth runs in 2008 and tries to capitalize on lover boy's
record.
Yugoslavia: The United States played the principal
role during the 1990s in the destruction of this nation, republic
by republic, the low point of which was 78 consecutive days of
terrible bombing of the population in 1999. No, it was not an
act of "humanitarianism". It was pure imperialism,
corporate globalization, getting rid of "the last communist
government in Europe", keeping NATO alive by giving it a
function after the end of the Cold War. There was no moral issue
behind US policy. The ousted Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic,
is routinely labeled "authoritarian" (Compared to whom?
To the Busheviks?), but that had nothing to do with it. The great
exodus of the people of Kosovo resulted from the bombing, not
Serbian "ethnic cleansing"; and while saving Kosovars
the Clinton administration was servicing the Turkish massacre
of Kurds. NATO admitted (sic) to repeatedly and deliberately
targeting civilians; amongst other war crimes.
Somalia: The 1993 intervention was presented
as a mission to help feed the starving masses. But the US soon
started taking sides in the clan-based civil war and tried to
rearrange the country's political map by eliminating the dominant
warlord, Mohamed Aidid, and his power base. On many occasions,
US helicopters strafed groups of Aidid's supporters or fired
missiles at them; missiles were fired into a hospital because
of the belief that Aidid's forces had taken refuge there; also
a private home, where members of Aidid's political movement were
holding a meeting; finally, an attempt by American forces to
kidnap two leaders of Aidid's clan resulted in a horrendous bloody
battle. This last action alone cost the lives of more than a
thousand Somalis, with many more wounded.
It's questionable that getting
food to hungry people was as important as the fact that four
American oil giants held exploratory rights to large areas of
Somali land and were hoping that US troops would put an end to
the prevailing chaos which threatened their highly expensive
investments.
Ecuador: In 2000, downtrodden Indian peasants
rose up once again against the hardships of US/IMF globalization
policies, such as privatization. The Indians were joined by labor
unions and some junior military officers and their coalition
forced the president to resign. Washington was alarmed. American
officials in Quito and Washington unleashed a blitz of threats
against Ecuadorian government and military officials. And that
was the end of the Ecuadorian revolution.
Sudan: The US deliberately bombed and destroyed a pharmaceutical
plant in Khartoum in 1998 in the stated belief that it was a
plant for making chemical weapons for terrorists. In actuality,
the plant produced about 90 percent of the drugs used to treat
the most deadly illnesses in that desperately poor country; it
was reportedly one of the biggest and best of its kind in Africa.
And had no connection to chemical weapons.
Sierra Leone: In 1998, Clinton sent Jesse Jackson
as his special envoy to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the latter
being in the midst of one of the great horrors of the 20th century
-- an army of mostly young boys, the Revolutionary United Front
(RUF), going around raping and chopping off people's arms and
legs. African and world opinion was enraged against the RUF,
which was committed to protecting the diamond mines they controlled.
Liberian president Charles Taylor was an indispensable ally and
supporter of the RUF and Jackson was an old friend of his. Jesse
was not sent to the region to try to curtail the RUF's atrocities,
nor to hound Taylor about his widespread human rights violations,
but instead, in June 1999, Jackson and other American officials
drafted entire sections of an accord that made RUF leader, Foday
Sankoh, the vice president of Sierra Leone, and gave him official
control over the diamond mines, the country's major source of
wealth.
Iraq: Eight more years of the economic sanctions which
Clinton's National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, called "the
most pervasive sanctions every imposed on a nation in the history
of mankind", absolutely devastating every aspect of the
lives of the Iraqi people, particularly their health; truly a
weapon of mass destruction.
Cuba: Eight more years of economic sanctions, political
hostility, and giving haven to anti-Castro terrorists in Florida.
In 1999, Cuba filed a suit against the United States for $181.1
billion in compensation for economic losses and loss of life
during the first forty years of this aggression. The suit holds
Washington responsible for the death of 3,478 Cubans and the
wounding and disabling of 2,099 others.
Only the imperialist powers
have the ability to enforce sanctions and are therefore always
exempt from them.
As to Clinton's domestic policies,
keep in mind those two beauties: The "Effective death penalty
Act" and the "Welfare Reform Act".
CounterPunch
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