The
U.S. government may pretend to respect a “rules-based” global
order, but the only rule Washington seems to follow is “might makes
right” — and the CIA has long served as a chief instigator and
enforcer.
by
Nicolas J.S. Davies
Part
5 - The Three Scapegoats
In
Trump’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly, he named North Korea,
Iran and Venezuela as his prime targets for destabilization, economic
warfare and, ultimately, the overthrow of their governments, whether
by coup d’etat or the mass destruction of their civilian population
and infrastructure. But Trump’s choice of scapegoats for America’s
failures was obviously not based on a rational reassessment of
foreign policy priorities by the new administration. It was only a
tired rehashing of the CIA’s unfinished business with two-thirds of
Bush’s “axis of evil” and Bush White House official Elliott
Abrams’ failed 2002 coup in Caracas, now laced with explicit and
illegal threats of aggression.
How
Trump and the CIA plan to sacrifice their three scapegoats for
America’s failures remains to be seen. This is not 2001, when the
world stood silent at the U.S. bombardment and invasion of
Afghanistan after September 11th. It is more like 2003, when the U.S.
destruction of Iraq split the Atlantic alliance and alienated most of
the world. It is certainly not 2011, after Obama’s global charm
offensive had rebuilt U.S. alliances and provided cover for French
President Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Cameron, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and the Arab royals to destroy Libya, once ranked by
the U.N. as the most developed country in Africa, now mired in
intractable chaos.
In
2017, a U.S. attack on any one of Trump’s scapegoats would isolate
the United States from many of its allies and undermine its standing
in the world in far-reaching ways that might be more permanent and
harder to repair than the invasion and destruction of Iraq.
In
Venezuela, the CIA and the right-wing opposition are following the
same strategy that President Nixon ordered the CIA to inflict on
Chile, to “make the economy scream” in preparation for the 1973
coup. But the solid victory of Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party
in recent nationwide gubernatorial elections, despite a long and deep
economic crisis, reveals little public support for the CIA’s
puppets in Venezuela.
The
CIA has successfully discredited the Venezuelan government through
economic warfare, increasingly violent right-wing street protests and
a global propaganda campaign. But the CIA has stupidly hitched its
wagon to an extreme right-wing, upper-class opposition that has no
credibility with most of the Venezuelan public, who still turn out
for the Socialists at the polls. A CIA coup or U.S. military
intervention would meet fierce public resistance and damage U.S.
relations all over Latin America.
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