International Terrorism: Born in the USA

If you are like me you love your country, believe it has done amazing things in and for the world, and want to ensure that whatever it is doing and continues to do, it will be along the lines of serving justice, spreading freedom and contributing to the well being of the planet and human kind. One of the great evils we all recognize in our time, an evil we must understand and resist, is terrorism. If you are like me, at least in this regard, you would expect your government to work to ensure that terrorism is lessened and the last thing you would accept is living in a country that supports and exports terrorism, systematically and institutionally.  This being said, if you are like me, you will be sickened when you learn that not only does the US, our country, support terrorism, it has a long history of doing so, well known by the world, it is systematic, most US administrations have supported this dynamic, and we continue to do so.

Google “School of the Americas” if you have any interest in knowing about this country’s extensive activities in support of repressive regimes that are guilty of some of last centuries most horrific atrocities…of genocide. If you want a quick synopsis, check out this page: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/SOA.html

There are many options we can take as citizens of this country relative to participating in its evolution.  One option, is to run on default mode, accepting whatever is going on with our policies, national or international, as long as we can get our favorite programs on the flat screen at night, get our kids through school and make a comfortable living.  I call this “the head in the sand” mode and I say so because the fact is our life styles are very much tied to the manner in which this country is run. It’s the mode of children living a comfortable lifestyle and partaking of its advantages, not knowing that their father is making his money as a hit man for the mafia….except…we are not children. Children are not responsible for their parent’s actions but in a democracy, each of us are part of what goes on in the name of our country. Each of us are responsible to the degree we can have effect.

A second option is to decide that a responsible adult should have some working knowledge of significant matters that are conducted by our government. Education is the first step on this path. Fortunately, anyone with access to a computer or smart phone can open a world of information in nanoseconds on any topic of interest. By choosing a few of the hundreds of links that pop up for any search request or by following links at the bottom of articles, it is ridiculously easy to gather a significant amount of input, from which you may begin to form an opinion based on more than whim or wish. 

As we educate ourselves, when particular issues resonate deeply for us, it is equally simple to find organizations that are engaged in working on these issues. If we are horrified by the history we learn of the School of the Americas, for instance, we can click on SOA Watch… and research that organization to see if we want to join or lend support. I am not advocating for SOA Watch here…I am giving an example.

I think that supporting like-minded organizations is a minimum action we can take. Sending 25 bucks to Human Rights International is a good thing to do if you like their activities but it is also just past knee jerk. Small donations can lull us into imagining we are “active”… or have done something to speak out.. and then we can retire to our recliners, figuratively speaking. 

As we become aware, and as we feel motivated to become proactive, to try to do something significant to work towards positive change, past clicking “like” on an article that we think is important or sending some money to get the tote bag for an organization we want to feel a part of… we can choose to expand our actions significantly…to make response to this issue or issues we are conscious of one of the important parts of our lives. This doesn’t require quitting your job, leaving your family, living on the streets or joining groups of dangerous radicals. What it does require is intention, effort and the courage required to stand up for things that you strongly believe. But supposedly… standing for freedom of thought, being able to speak freely, and working for truth are elemental features of what the founders of this country intended.

I challenge anyone reading this blog to read up on the School of the Americas, now “hidden” from its own legacy behind the acronym WHINSEC, and defend that institution once informed as to its effects in broadcasting graduates that became integral to if not leaders of many of the worst regimes of last century.  The argument that our enemies are also guilty of similar terrorist acts or have similar systems of education will not hold water for me…  matching heinous action with heinous action is simply being what you supposedly detest.  It is gross hypocrisy to claim you are waging a war on terror by supporting terrorism. To support the SOA/WHINSEC is simply and clearly to acknowledge that you support training despotic terrorists and an institution that is immersed in its own bloody history of gross human rights abuse.

I invite your thoughts as always. I believe that if you or I are really against terrorism, we must be willing to look with open eyes at what terrorism is, where it occurs and to be willing to clean our house first before pointing fingers at other countries engaged in or otherwise supporting terrorism.  I must add that the default mode, option one, is to decide that you accept terrorism as “something that must be done,” in order to sustain your relatively pleasant lifestyle. Defaulting to allow the “adults” or “experts” to run the country is tacitly lending your support to all that happens. This is my opinion of course. What is yours?

Here are a few snippets relative to SOA and its history.

Graduates of the SOA have been among the most repressive tyrants in Latin America, and their actions have been some of the most cruel and violent. In El Salvador, in 1989, a Salvadoran army patrol executed six Jesuit priests as they lay face-down on the ground at Central America University. According to the United Nation's Truth Commission Report on El Salvador in 1993, 19 of the 27 officers who took part in the executions were trained at the SOA. 

In 1990, in El Salvador, populist Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated. Three-quarters of the Salvadoran officers implicated in the killing were trained at the SOA. Roberto D'Aubuison, the late leader of El Salvador's Death Squad, was implicated in the plot to assassinate Archbishop Romero. He also participated in numerous murders, including a massacre in the village of El Mazote, where more than 900 men, women, and children were killed. He graduated from SOA as well….