Colombia: State Terror in the Name of Peace
By James Petras
May 05, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The first casualty of state terror is the corruption of language, the invention of euphemisms, where words mean their opposite and slogans cover great crimes: There is no longer a world consensus that condemns crimes against humanity. This is because mass murder and assassinations
secure investor ‘confidence’, because Indians are dispossessed so the
mines can be exploited; oil workers disappear so the
petroleum will flow;
and the international financial press praises the success of el Presidente for
“pacifying the country”.When narco-presidents are embraced by the leaders of North America and Europe, it is evident that criminals have become respectable the respectable have become criminals.
But other voices from other regions have put the past and present war criminals on trial. In Argentina, the Generals of the disappeared are spending their last years behind bars. Arrest warrants against Israeli military commanders have been issued in Spain, Dubai and elsewhere. Tony Blair, complicit in Bush’s genocidal war in Iraq runs from a citizens’ arrest in Malaysia for his war crimes. Colombia, the US and Israel, the epicenters of state terror, stand alone in the General Assembly of Nations, condemned but not yet on trial. Their days of impunity are ending. Unending wars, rampant corruption, massive financial swindles – the inner rot – are eroding the outward facades of military power.
Writers and intellectuals have a role to play in hastening this process by exposing the lies that sustain the killing machines. Let us proceed:
Lies of Our Times
Democratic Security Doctrine (neither democratic nor for personal safety):
The corruption of language accompanies every great political crime. The notion of “Democratic Security” is no exception. In the current Colombian context, murdering leaders of social movements to secure the re-election of a party of political assassins is democratic. “Security” is the euphemism for hidden cemeteries of unmarked graves of unnamed persons. “Freedom of the Media” exists when it solemnly announces another “major military triumph”… the killing of unarmed peasants cultivating their fields.
Economists are “experts” when they proclaim that the economy is growing … only the people are suffering. Politicians are “statesmen” when they declare they are “one with the people” – except for the 4 million forcibly dispossessed and the 300,000 family members of the dead and disappeared; the dead and dispossessed have yet to appreciate the One who affirms he is “with the People”.
When el Presidente states that war is peace, militarization is security, inequalities are social justice: only those who fail to understand these Official Truths need fear a midnight knock on the door.
More:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25391.htm
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