My Country Is Called Earth (7 page)

In 1953 the CIA directed a coup that overthrew the government of Mossadegh in Iran and restored the Shah to power. The Eisenhower administration was not happy with Mossadegh because he had nationalized the foreign dominated Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

Soon afterwards the U.S. government began to train the Iranian police in the techniques of torture. According to State Department documents, the police are able to “first detect discontent among the people” and “should serve as one of the major means by which the government assures itself of acceptance by the majority.” The U.S. trained police in torture in many other Third World nations, including Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and supplied them with cattle prods and other tools.

In 1954 the CIA backed a military coup in Guatemala that overthrew the democratically elected government, after that government had confiscated the land of the United Fruit Company. In 1964 the U.S. gave its blessing to the Brazilian military before the military staged a coup that overthrew the popular liberal government. In 1965, after democratic forces in the Dominican Republic had removed a government set up by the army, President Johnson sent American troops to that nation to reinstall the dictatorship. In 1973 the Nixon administration gave its support to the military junta in Chile that ousted the socialist government of President Allende.

During the 1980s the United States spent more than six billion dollars financing ruthless military regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala. Right wing death squads operating under the protection of the military tortured, mutilated, and killed tens of thousands of civilians in these two nations. Finally in 1992 the U.S. told the military rulers to end the war in El Salvador. Almost immediately, the military agreed to a cease-fire and to share power with the leftist forces. If we had denied support to the military from the beginning, tens of thousands of people would not have died, and the environmental degradation of much of the countryside would not have occurred. It will take a long time for El Salvador to recover from this American adventure. The suffering of the Guatemalan people is not yet over.

Aware of the American people’s confusion of independent, nationalist, and socialist governments with Communism, dictators in the Third World learned to play and win a game with the U.S. To win, to gain American support, all they had to do was to declare they were anti-Communists and imprison, torture, and murder anyone who opposed them. In Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Zaire, Iran under the Shah, Iraq, Israel, and many other nations, the United States gave diplomatic recognition and sent money and military equipment to governments that imprisoned, tortured, and killed people struggling for some of the same rights our patriots won for us over two hundred years ago.

I hope I have made it clear that the real motivation behind America’s interventions in the Third World has not been to support democracy or human rights, or because of any genuine Soviet or Chinese military threat. In most cases, the incentive has been the promotion of capitalism. As further proof, consider the following two horror stories from the post-Cold War era. (A note: Since the end of the Cold War, the most common justification for or against foreign actions has been “national interest,” as in “It was in our national interest to go to war with Panama and Iraq,” and “It would not be in our national interest to help the people in Bosnia and Haiti.” “National interest” is political doublespeak for “whatever increases the profits of American businessmen, corporations, and investors.”)

On a December night in 1989, 20,000 American troops invaded the nation of Panama. The stated goal of this invasion was to capture General Manuel Noriega, a military dictator who had been on the CIA payroll since the 1970s. When Noriega refused to do as he was told, the Bush administration “discovered” that he was trafficking in narcotics. This fact was well-known to the CIA when he was useful to them.

The war went far beyond any effort to capture General Noriega. New laser weapons were tested on the civilian population. Massive firepower was directed on poor neighborhoods. Hundreds of homes were deliberately burned to the ground. Individuals stopped at military roadblocks were executed on the spot. Eyewitnesses said that American soldiers shot everything that moved; they reported that a U.S. tank destroyed a bus, killing twenty-six people. They also said that American soldiers fired on an ambulance, and bayoneted the wounded inside. In the weeks that followed the invasion, men between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five were rounded up and taken to detention centers by the American troops. Thousands of university professors and cultural, labor, and political leaders were also arrested.

While the Pentagon said that Panamanian casualties were no higher than 550, the estimates from the U.N. and human rights’ organizations ranged from 2500 to 4000 killed. In his speech proclaiming victory, President Bush said, “Every human life is precious.” After the war hundreds of bodies were found in mass graves, including those of women, children, the old, and the disabled.

It appears that the goal of the Bush administration was to install a government that would be friendly to U.S. business interests and that would allow American troops to remain in Panama beyond the year 2000, when by treaty, the U.S. is required to turn the Canal Zone over to the Panamanian people. How else can the murders, arrests, and detentions of civilians who might be critical of U.S. domination of Panama be explained?

In the summer of 1990 President Bush sent American troops to the Middle East to protect the West’s oil pipeline on the Arabian Peninsula. Suddenly our ally Saddam Hussein had become the new Hitler—an example of how those in power can twist facts to fit their purposes. (It has been said that many of Saddam Hussein’s weapons were purchased with money from U.S. loans.) Bush rejected all offers to negotiate; a peaceful settlement could have resulted in an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait without the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

During the Gulf War allied planes devastated the infrastructure of Iraq. A U.N. embargo on trade with Iraq is still in effect, as I write these words in 1994. The consequence of the destruction of the infrastructure and the embargo will be the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, mostly children, from malnutrition, diseases related to unsanitary living conditions, and lack of medical care. And for what reason will these children die? Because President Bus drew a line in the sand, and so that his friends in the Kuwaiti monarchy (Bush had American troops rebuild the palace) could return to rule a nation the British carved out of Iraq.

I understand that America and her allies successfully fought for the freedom of Europe from the Nazi war machine and the freedom of Asia from Japanese militarism, and that without the U.S. presence in the world after the Second World War, the Soviet Union and China may have overrun Europe and Asia. But the defeat of Germany and Japan, and the containment of the Soviet Union and China does not justify our slaughter of the people of the Third World on the altars of anti-communist hysteria, capitalism, national interest, and secure borders.

I believe the lesson of Vietnam, Central America, the Persian Gulf, and other U.S. foreign interventions is that all life is sacred. I believe all people have the right to choose their own government. I believe the principles of the Declaration of Independence are universal: All men and women, no matter what race, religion, or nationality, are created equal.

A nation or government which kills, tortures, represses or assists in or encourages the killing, torture, and repression of citizens of foreign lands is committing international murder and other crimes, for which the political and military leaders involved should be held accountable in a world court of law.

My hands have been stained with innocent blood because I am an American, and the crimes of America are my crimes too. The abuses of the rights of people of other nations by the people and the government of the United States prove that no nation can be trusted with great power.

One Human Race, One Earth:

Guidelines For A Universal Mythology

Imagine all the people sharing all the world.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.

John Lennon

It is time for man to recognize that devotion to the earth is a superior virtue to national patriotism. If we are going to overcome the challenges of today, we must begin to give our love and allegiance to the planet and all the people on it. We need to make the same pledge that was made at a peace convention in Boston in 1838: “Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind.” When we realize that we are all citizens of a country called earth, the reasons for war and defense spending will disappear.

At the same time this manuscript is being completed, horrible atrocities are occurring in Haiti and Rwanda. Wars in Angola and Bosnia are taking a terrible toll in civilian lives. A true world government would have the power and the will to stop these murders and prosecute the murderers. A competent world government would, better still, have been able to prevent the buildup of power and the breakdown of society that preceded these human rights’ disasters. True justice and peace in the world is not possible before there is a world government with real authority to act.

I recognize that an international government could use its power to suppress human rights. The way to prevent this is to model the world government after the U.S. federal system with its checks and balances, to include a bill of rights, and to limit the world government’s functions and abilities to gather power. The world government’s role should be to keep the peace and to ensure that nature’s rights and human rights are respected; the world government should only act when national governments fail to fulfill their responsibilities. The world government should have no standing army, but should borrow its forces from local governments.

Below are some of my thoughts about world government and a mythology for the new age:

1.
Rights
: First we must recognize that God lives within all It has created; therefore, all things have rights. No one can be allowed to act publicly without regard for how the act will affect others. There are two major classes of rights:

A.
The Rights Of Nature
: Nature’s rights include the survival of species and the health of forests, waterways, wetlands, wilderness areas, rivers, lakes, and oceans. The protection of nature’s rights should be one of the primary functions of government.

B.
The Rights Of Man
: Human rights include equal opportunities for a decent life: a good job, a home, an education, and medical care. Human rights also consist of freedom of speech and religion, of assembly, press, the right to participate in government, and freedom from government interference in one’s life. The protection of human rights should be the other primary function of government.

2.
Poverty
: There is no justification for private wealth in the midst of poverty. To end poverty, men must be allowed to form self-supporting communities. These communities should be financed by a tax on the richest members of society. There is enough money to end poverty in the world if we would prohibit hoarding and waste and prosecute corruption in society and government. Remember, the greatest resource we have is not the capital of wealthy investors, but the ability of ordinary people to work hard and creatively.

3.
The Military
: Nations should eliminate military forces and rely on local militias for defense. When one nation acts aggressively towards another, the United Nations, using militias from around the world, should stop the violence quickly with a minimum of force.

4.
Love And Reason
: We have been listening to the voices of fear and hate and greed for too long. It is time to start listening to the voices of love and reason. We can’t have a peaceful, just world unless we forgive those who have wronged us, talk to those we disagree with and attempt to understand their point of view, and make an effort to cooperate with others.

5.
Law Of Compounding
: We don’t have to overcome all of our challenges immediately. A little progress today, a little more next week, a little more the following week—if we keep that up, we will have made a tremendous improvement in only a few years. That is the law of compounding, used in banking and finance. It can serve us here too—the key is that we need to keep making progress.

6.
You
: You have a right to be here. You are a unique, worthy creature. Without you the universe would be different. Being an important creature, you are given great power: the power to create your own life. In the words of Jane Roberts: “You get what you concentrate on.” Or as Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find” and “As you sow, so shall you reap.” In your interactions with others, try the Golden Rule stated in negative terms: Don’t do to others what you would not want done to you.

7.
Ideals
: The ideals of our new mythology could be these beliefs: God is all there is. Man is part of nature. All men and women are responsible for their actions.

8.
The End Does Not Justify The Means
: Often in the past people have twisted good ideals into an excuse to repress people. That will not happen in the future if we remember that the methods used to achieve a just society must never violate the principles of justice. These words of Jane Roberts should be the first commandment of the new age: “Thou shall not kill even in the pursuit of your ideals.”

9.
The Abyss
: We are standing near a great void. Every step we take closer to the edge is our decision. In the words of Abraham Lincoln: “If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and the finishers.”