The New World Order

Hi all,

As I noted in my last post, many Brazilians are wary of the US and its current overtures. Some Brazilians take an even harder stance, denouncing US “imperialism”. I witnessed such a protest on Sunday a few blocks from my home.

Before US citizens shrug off such protests as baseless and irrelevant, they might want to do a quick review of contemporary history. (Hey guys, it’s easy to do with the internet!) Just a few items to consider:

Vietnam. We had no business being there. Even most Americans acknowledge that now. Thousands of Americans lost their lives for nothing. Many more Vietnamese died.

Chile. The US backed the military, who deposed Salvador Allende, whom the US government deemed too leftist. He was replaced by Augusto Pinochet, whom the US supported. If you don’t remember Pinochet, watch the movie Missing, which is based on actual events which occurred during his regime. Pinochet was later tried under the principle of international law termed “universal jurisdiction”, because his crimes were deemed to be crimes against all.

Iran-Contra. What a plan! Let’s publicly support Iraq, while secretly selling arms to Iran to use in their war against Iraq, and then use the proceeds to topple the democratically-elected government in Nicaragua that we don’t like. Did the CIA really think no one would uncover this little peccadillo? Saddam Hussein did, and it turned him from an American ally into a rabid enemy.

Panama. The CIA backed dictator Manuel Noriega (dictator-backing seemingly being a favorite CIA pastime) until it became just too hard to hide that he was smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants, not to mention killing off several dozen of his countryman. He had to go, so we invaded his country to arrest him.

And then there is the case of Brazil. The CIA (busy guys, the CIA) supported the toppling of the democratically elected João Goulart in 1964, leading to a 21-year period of dictatorship. 1985 is not all that long ago, people.

Before you pooh-pooh this assertion of CIA involvement, waving it off as another whacko conspiracy theory, do just a bit of research. A cursory search yields:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qjzLoWOwVw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d’état#American_Involvement

Declassified audio tapes reveal then-President Johnson’s support for the military coup in Brazil against what he viewed as a “leftist” government.

Now let’s fast-forward. Here’s where things get really interesting:

The current president of Brazil is Dilma Rousseff. As it happens, she was jailed by Brazil’s military regime in the early ‘70s, and was tortured for 22 days.

So I found it exceedingly interesting that Obama, usually so skillful and diplomatic, spoke more than once during his visit here of Brazil’s successful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Given the US role in fostering that dictatorship, I myself would have avoided mention of the word.

Americans have exceedingly short memories. (Had you forgotten Iran-Contra?) It’s even easier to forget facts that you never knew to begin with.
Other peoples, including Brazilians, have longer memories.

The US has a long way to go to repair foreign relations, with Brazil and across the globe. It showed little respect for developing countries through the end of the 20th century. Many of those same countries are now growing more powerful (Brazil would have to be near the top of that list), and many more would like to see the US taken down a peg; that is basically the goal of the BRIC nations after all. Recall too that the euro was created to compete head-to-head with the US dollar, so we aren’t talking about just “third-world” countries wanting to challenge US hegemony.

I realize that I must sound rabidly anti-American, when that’s not the case. I still believe that the US Constitution may be the greatest political document ever created. The Constitution was a model for many other such documents around the world – and in fact was one major sources used in the crafting of Brazil’s Constitution.

However, the careless disregard for the rights of others, which US leaders displayed for so long, can’t be excused.

And I, like so many people around the world – more than your average American would want to believe – am disgusted with the all-too-frequent arrogant chest thumping attitude of Americans who have never taken time to investigate why so many other countries dislike the US.

Let’s be honest: simple jealousy plays a part.

But to discount world opinion as just jealousy alone is to ignore a lot of facts – or to display gross ignorance of those facts.

And in looking at the new world order, that’s a risky position to take. The US is still the single most powerful nation on earth, and it is blessed with abundant natural resources, but it can’t go it alone. It can’t continue to ignore the needs, rights, and desires of other nations.

The US needs to try to be a better neighbor, and not just by throwing around foreign aid with strings attached. It needs truly to respect the rights of others, and to start addressing some of its own problems – such as its massive per-capita consumption of resources, as just one pertinent example.

I’ll stop now, adding only that the average American hasn’t fully realized the shift which is taking place in world power.

But he will.

Let’s hope that realization is the first step toward positive change.

John, from  a Brazil on the rise and learning to assert itself

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