who were injured. The degree of Washingtons arrogance in the whole matter was stunning, from the initial act on. Never before, observed former CIA official Milt Bearden, has a single soil sample prompted an act of war against a sovereign state. 15

Iraq

The American government and media had a lot of fun with an obvious piece of Iraqi propaganda-the claim that a biological warfare facility, bombed during the Gulf War in 1991, had actually been a baby food factory. But it turned out that the government of New Zealand, whose technicians had visited the site repeatedly, and various other business people from New Zealand who had had intimate contact with the factory, categorically confirmed that it had indeed been a baby food factory. The French contractor who had built the place said the same. But Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, insisted: It was a biological weapons facility, of that we are sure. 16 As to American compensation...this stood as much chance as a ground war with Russia in the wintertime.

China

An exception? After the United States bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May 1999, Washington apologized profusely to Beijing, blaming outdated maps and such. But this, it appears, was just a cover for the fact that the bombing wasnt actually an accident. Two reports in The Observer of London in October and November, based on NATO and US military and intelligence sources, revealed that the embassy had been targeted after NATO discovered that it was being used to transmit Yugoslav army communications. The Chinese were doing this after NATO jets had successfully silenced the Yugoslav governments own transmitters. 17

Over and above the military need, there may have been a political purpose served. China is clearly the principal barrier to US hegemony in Asia. The bombing of the embassy was perhaps Washingtons charming way of telling Beijing that this is only a small sample of what can happen to you if you have any ideas of resisting the American juggernaut. Being able to have a much better than usual plausible denial for carrying out such a bombing may have been irresistible to American leaders. The chance would never come again.

All of US/NATOs other bombing mistakes in Yugoslavia were typically followed by their spokesman telling the world: We regret the loss of life. These same words were used by the IRA in Northern Ireland on a number of occasions over the years following one of their bombings which appeared to have struck the wrong target. But their actions were invariably called terrorist .

Guatemala

On March 10, 1999, in a talk delivered in Guatemala City, President Clinton said that US support for repressive forces in Guatemala was wrong, and the United States must not repeat that mistake. But the word sorry did not cross the presidents lips, nor did the word apologize , nor the word compensation . 18 Forty years of unholy cruelty to a people for which the United States was preeminently responsible was not worth a right word or a penny.

This was the first visit by an American president to Guatemala since Lyndon Johnson went there in 1968, during the height of the oppression by Washingtons client-state government. Johnson did not of course say that the current US policy in Guatemala was wrong, when it would have meant a lot more than Clinton saying so 31 years later. LBJ did, however, inform his audience that he had heard that Guatemala was called the land of eternal spring. 19

Greece

Clintons visit to Greece in November 1999 brought out large and fiery anti-American demonstrations, protesting the recent American bombing of Yugoslavia and the indispensable US support for the torturers par excellence of the 1967-74 Greek junta. During his one-day stop, the president found time to address a private group- When the junta took over in 1967 here, he told his audience, the United States allowed its interests in prosecuting the Cold War to prevail over its interest-I should say its obligation-to support democracy, which was, after all, the cause for which we fought the Cold War. It is important that we acknowledge that. National Security Council spokesman David Leavey was quick to point out that the presidents statement about the former junta was not intended as an apology. 20 Questions arise. How can it be that the US fought the Cold War to support democracy and wound up supporting not only the Greek dictators but dozens of other tyrannies? Were they all simply wrong actions, all mistakes , like in Guatemala? At what point do we conclude that a consistent sequence of mistakes demonstrates intended actions and policy? Moreover, if US interests in the Cold War prevailed over the cause of democracy, we must ask: What are these interests that are in conflict, or at least not harmonious, with democracy, these interests which are routinely invoked by American statesmen, but never given a proper name? (Hint: follow the money.)

Finally, we have the words of President Clinton spoken in Uganda in March 1998:

During the Cold War when we were so concerned about being in competition with the Soviet Union, very often we dealt with countries in Africa and in other parts of the world based more on how they stood in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union than how they stood in the struggle for their own peoples aspirations to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities.21

What is going on here? Guatemala, Greece, Africa, other parts of the world...Is the president disowning a half-century of American foreign policy? Is he saying that the United States brought all that death, destruction, torture and suffering to the worlds multitudes for no good reason? That all we were diligently taught about the nobility of the fight against the thing called communism was a fraud?

Well never know what William Clinton really thinks about these things. He probably doesnt know himself. But we do know what he does. As discussed in the Introduction and in Interventions , we know that he has continued the very same kind of policies he now repudiates. And some day a future American president may acknowledge that what Clinton did in Iraq, Colombia, Mexico, Yugoslavia and elsewhere was wrong or mistaken . But that future president, even while the words cross his lips, will be doing the wrong thing himself in one corner of the world or another. And for the same interests .

CHAPTER 26 : The United States Invades, Bombs and Kills for It...but

Do Americans Really Believe in Free Enterprise?

Since the end of the Cold War, prominent American economists and financial specialists have been advising the governments of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on the creation and virtues of a free-enterprise system.

The US-government-financed National Endowment for Democracy is busy doing the same on a daily basis in numerous corners of the world.

The US-controlled World Bank and International Monetary Fund will not bestow their financial blessings upon any country that does not aggressively pursue a market economy.

The United States refuses to remove its embargo and end all its other punishments of Cuba unless the Cubans terminate their socialist experiment and jump on the capitalist bandwagon.

Before Washington would sanction and make possible his return to Haiti in 1994, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had to guarantee the White House that he would shed his socialist inclinations and embrace the free market.

It would, consequently, come as a shock to the peoples of many countries to realize that, in actuality, most Americans do not believe in the free-enterprise system. It would, as well, come as a shock to most Americans.

To be sure, a poll asking something like: Do you believe that our capitalist system should become more socialist? would be met with a resounding No!