CAFTA: A New Front in the War on Terror?
CAFTA: A New Front in the War on Terror?
Strange things happened two nights ago before the House passed the CAFTA trade agreement. And even if one ignores the coercive way in which Republicans kept the vote open more than an hour, or the backroom bargains the administration made to get wavering representative on board, there is still something bizarre about the way President Bush himself promoted the bill. In a personal appearance before the vote began, the president stressed a novel point: CAFTA is a front in the war on terror. As the Washington Post put it:
Underscoring the importance that Bush attaches to the pact, he put his prestige on the line by making a rare appearance with Vice President Cheney at the weekly closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference. Bush spoke for an hour, lawmakers said, stressing the national security implications of CAFTA, which are rooted in the concern that growing anti-American sentiment in Latin America would flourish if the United States refused to open its markets wider to the nations that negotiated the pact.
“Mothers and fathers in El Salvador love their children as much as we love our children here,” Bush said, stressing the need to look out for the young democracies in “our neighborhood,” according to lawmakers. He also noted that four of the six countries — the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua — have assisted the U.S. military effort in Iraq.
Setting aside the dubious claim that open markets lead to better relations (after all, isn’t the highly visible presence of US economic interests in the Middle East one of the things that Islamic fundamentalists have a problem with?), there is something very troubling about the last line in the above quote. Is the moral of the story, “put your lives on the line, and then reap the economic benefits”? Do we trade only with the nations that fall in line with our military interests?
– Conor Clarke
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I think that explains at least in part why Dubya was rubbing elbows “up on the hill” on the day of the vote…..but loyalty is too abstract for it to be the only reason. It’s all about the benjamins, Republicans luuuuuv the benjamins. Cha-ching!
July 29th, 2005 at 11:02 amBig companies donate to the GOP, and the ethically-challenged Congress magically decides to pass legislation favorable to them, things like tax breaks and bailing out polluters, and don’t forget making it tougher for mere mortals to declare bankruptcy because the billions of dollars of profit that credit card companies already make just isn’t enough for them. I don’t see why they would limit themselves to only making sketchy deals within this country. When you are in the business of war profiteering, you might as well go global.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:11 amThe agreement had lost by several votes and the vote was strangely held open for nearly an hour so w and his boys could bribe, twist arms etc. Magically it worked ,it passed by 1 vote,what a shocker. Love to know who the 4 or 5 twistees were.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:18 amWorld domination is the new front on terrah.
CAFTA will destabilise those democracies, because I think most of the Central American nations know that the US does not look out for them, except as cheap workers. Make no mistake, the US system of corporations and trade is an arm of US national policy as much as the armed forces are. As long as they are winning, the ‘market’ will decide how it will be. When they are losing (as in if the Chinese want to buy Unocal), then they will take their toys off the table.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:18 amThe 4 or 5 twistees seem to be New York Demos. http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/7/28/183018/505 You can see if your congressperson sold you down the river or not there too. Why is that even the Demos you people elect, vote against your interests? Is there an opposition party in the US?
July 29th, 2005 at 11:25 amI think the moral is “Never give a sucker an even break.”
July 29th, 2005 at 11:58 amI understand that not all who changed their vote at the last minute were Dems.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:01 pmOverall though, it’s good to see that the trade debate has shifted dramatically. Traditional free trade Democrats such as Jim Davis (D-Fla.) and Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) voted NO. The Repubs had to arm-twist their OWN to pass this bill. It’s clear to EVERYONE that most Americans oppose CAFTA.
Guatemalan top brass may love the deal, but their military had to fire on protestors (and kill one guy) to get it passed in their congress… A gallup poll says that 65% Guatemalans say CAFTA will HURT their country..
How can the Bush crime family look at these two UN-democratic examples, and say “we’re spreading democracy” with a straight face? Unbelievable.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:07 pmPresident Bush is the greatest president we ever had. He will make sure that we go back to the days where there was a ruling class and the rest of humanity. This makes so much sense, since there will be an ever shrinking middle class – forcing consumption of resources down. Less buying power – less strain on resources. The working poor will die off – but there is so many the ruling class can take full advantange of them. There is no difference in paying a pittance or outright slavery. As the middle class in America disappears, the wealth will continue to accumilate upwards. People here in the US will be forced to accept Wal-Mart wages and accept lack of health care as part of being in the lower class. The corperations which are multinational and could give a damn about America – will exploit the cheaper labor and the environment for the short term bottom dollar/euro gain. And the masses will be happy to be “saved”. Because they have spoken and it is not important that they can provide themselves and their families a dignified way of life. No. It is more important that gays not marry, that unwanted pregnancies are not terminated, that they can keep their 50 caliber weapon (if they can afford one). Yes if you are very wealthy – if you are a corperation, if you are a dumb ass – President Bush is the greatest of all presidents.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:50 pmGeneric drugs will no longer be available in C. American countries(part of agreement). All those with limted $ who are barely able to afford generic drugs are out of luck.Aids patients,cancer patiets etc.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:00 pmHas anyone seen the details of how this passed? It initially lost,wrong votes posted, accidently on purpose missing reps that would have voted against, electronic voting problems(ha!), wrong vote totals, vote held open for 61 min.,open dealing(bribery) on the floor, no one checking the vote postings, negative info on the deal witheld, and those who were undeclared holding out for a good deal. DEMOCRACY in action.
I’m going back to the negative my attitude of my teenage days working in fast food joints; “I just work here” Now “I just live here”
July 29th, 2005 at 1:14 pmComment by Dicky,
July 29th, 2005 at 1:14 pmYour summary is right on target. Isn’t this the type of government that brought on the French Revolution and the beheadings of the King and Marie Antoinette and their group in the public square?
It was so cynical for Bush to talk about parents and children in El Salvador, as if he cared. This was the Central American country where, twenty years ago, Bush’s hero Reagan supported a despotic regime that murdered its opposition, priests and labor organizers. Now people are organizing on a low level (their level) and we have a more sophisticated way to povertize and marginalize them — free trade. Wal-mart has destroyed the small farmers in Mexico.
The corpocrat party is still able to deliver the votes in Washington.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:35 pmBeheading the king in the public square……don’t tease us Marie. On second thought…..who cares, I just live here. (nice one T. Wax).
July 29th, 2005 at 1:36 pmthe reason that governments “disappear” people, torture people (does not work for info extraction) is that these methods are great for squashing descent. The rich and powerful have always been able to get their way, and a-holes like Richard Mellon Scaife, Grover Norquist really honestly want to go back to the robber baron days. In the past 40 years they have bought up the media and the politicians (mostly Rebublicans but many Dems as well).
July 29th, 2005 at 2:29 pmIt is about greed, and what makes greed “greed” is that you cannot satisfy this most evil of human traits. So that when they demand that the new energy bill include tax “relief” for energy companies allready flush in billions of profit – the Tom Delays of the world are only too happy to give away our money. It was/is the same greed that fascilitated Ws obsession with being a war president. Het gets to strut around as if he was a brave warrier, and Halliburton gets to make billions, while hundreds of thousands die. Democrats need to reject corperate money – make sure voting is honest – and get the message out. Yes as a matter of fact this is a class war.
Yes, backflush, we know.
#15, Dicky,
You had me hollerin and stampin in the stands until you wrote: “Democrats need to reject corperate money – make sure voting is honest – and get the message out.”
And then I’m sayin: Well, exactly how are those going to happen?
Reject corporate money when greed is “a basic human trait?” Howard Dean was able to raise a lot of non-corporate money (some of it from me, sad to say) so why don’t some other Dems go that route? Well, I guess because Clinton moved the party to the center (where Dean is now), a sort of Repub-lite, and that’s where it sits as another branch of the Corpocrat party, really. “Write me a check, ______ corporation, I’m in the race.” It’s so much easier to do, as long as the candidate subsequently ‘takes care of’ the donors. And they have no fear from the left because they’ve made it impossible for progressives to get on the ballot and run.
“Make sure voting is honest.” –Yeah, right, the Dems as champions of honest voting, chuckle, chuckle.
“And get the message out.” –What message? Kerry was down the line (or AWOL) with Bush — Iraq, Patriot Act, corporate support, health care, drug war, free trade, education testing, Palestine, military spending and global warming. Plus he took Nader/Conejo, whose campaign had progressive positions on all of these issues, to court in every state to try to keep them off the ballot.
So for this “class war” we have no generals — better strap on the vests. (I won’t go further — remember the Patriot Act.)
July 30th, 2005 at 12:12 pmTerry the turtle’s #4 is right again. Why do the lemmings who adore the Bushies fail so see what is so plainly before their eyes. How far do we all have to fall before they realize we’ve been shoved off a cliff?
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October 17th, 2005 at 4:21 am