Photo: [www.cannabisculture.com]
Partner Abuse and War Making:
GLIMCAP's Oil War: Iraq and Colombia
This past February Ed returned to Colombia as part of a
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| Despite Colombia's oil wealth, the majority of the population remains
in poverty. Intimidation and violence by government, paramilitary, and international
forces wreak havoc on civilian populations. Photo: [www.cannabisculture.com] |
Our friend Angus is 92 years old. But age hasn't impaired in the least his
concern for the fate of the earth. Nor has it impaired Angus' understanding
of who or what most threatens the earth.
Hardly a conversation goes by without Angus invoking GLIMCAP - his acronym
for global imperialist capitalism. It's GLIMCAP that drives the war in Iraq
and Colombia. I say "war," rather than "wars," because it's
the same war in both places..
No one could mistake Iraq for Colombia. One is desert, the other jungle and
mountain. One speaks Arabic; the other Spanish. One is Islamic; the other Roman
Catholic.
One is Eastern Hemisphere; the other Western. One helped birth "Western
Civilization"; the other had Western Civilization imposed. Iraq's cities
and civilization go back thousands of years; Colombia's cities and civilization
are more or less modern transplants.
Despite their marked differences, the thing about Iraq and Colombia is their
similarity - at least the similarity of their fates. Both countries are resource-rich
but income-poor. In both the income poverty is closely linked to the resource
wealth. In both the consequences are tragic.
Both are war-torn. In both, it's primarily civilians who get it in the neck.
Civilians may be innocent bystanders caught in a crossfire; but often they're
targets. As George W. Bush, our most prominent ideologue of terrorism, put it,
"You're either with us or you're against us." Civilians can't be trusted:
they may favor the enemy.
Armed actors (the guerilla, military, paramilitary and other mercenaries) find
it easier and safer to kill or torture unarmed people. In Colombia many civilians
occupy rural land - usually without title - coveted by paramilitaries and by
corporations.
To drive the small farmers off their land, intimidation and terrorism work
just fine. So fine, in fact, that Colombia now has well over two million internally
displaced people - mostly children and women.
In recent years, the US is invading and colonizing Iraq and Colombia. In both,
sovereignty is a joke. In both, the US needs the local military to be its occupier
and enforcer. In Iraq US forces are training local proxies.
Since 2000 the US, through Plan Colombia, has provided our southern neighbor
with $3.3 billion in military aid. The US has been training the Colombian military
for years. It does so both in-country and at the army's School of the Americas
(and at many other US bases). Colombia is the SOA's best customer.
The Big Lie
Both colonizations are based on the Big Lie. Despite all the hype and innuendo
and fabricated evidence, Saddam had no connection to 9/11. Nor in recent years
were there any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The Big Lie operates just as blatantly regarding Colombia. The US corporate
media almost totally ignore our war raging there. So GLIMCAP gets away with
the myth that our intervention is all about eradicating drugs.
The phony "war on drugs" in Colombia mirrors the phony "war
on drugs" in the US. Neither is designed to genuinely reduce the demand
for, or supply of, drugs on US streets or in US suburbs. Each, in its own way,
is really a war on the poor.
The Colombian military - with the help of US military advisors and mercenaries
- does try to disrupt coca growth and the trade in the cocaine that derives
from coca. However, the real target isn't drugs, but drug revenue - specifically
the drug revenue that helps finance the guerilla.
The FARC guerilla derives much of its income from taxing coca production. (Although
its military allies tend to ignore it, the paramilitary also derives much of
its income from coca.)
Since 9/11 the so-called war on drugs has escalated and morphed into the so-called
"war on terrorism," i.e. an anti-insurgency war. It's a war targeting
those, both armed and unarmed, who oppose President Uribe and his rightwing
government. Uribe is Washington's closest ally in the region.
Why does Washington - facing a dangerous deficit, crumbling infrastructure,
and crises in health and education at home - pour tens of billions of dollars
down the hole of war?
It's a crap shoot (bankrolled by US taxpayers). If GLIMCAP wins, it wins very
big. Both Iraq and Colombia are - or rather could be - swimming in oil. Both
countries sit atop huge reserves of the stuff. And both countries have neighbors
sitting on huge reserves of the stuff. Permanent US military bases are now being
built in Iraq to make sure those neighbors don't get any crazy ideas.
Stan Goff is an outspoken critic of US foreign policy. He's also a retired
US Special Forces sergeant whose unit has trained Colombia's anti-narcotics
battalions. Goff says, "the main interest of the US is oil….We never
mentioned the words coca or narco-trafficker in our training."
Goff notes that the main purpose of Plan Colombia is "defending the operations
of Occidental, British Petroleum and Texas Petroleum and securing control of
future Colombian fields." Not only are Colombia's immense oil reserves at
stake, but also those of neighboring Ecuador and Venezuela.
"According to 1996-2000 averages, Venezuela…barely surpassed Saudi
Ara-bia…and Canada…as the number one crude [oil] exporter to the United
States. During the same period, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador together exported
the same average amount of crude to the United States as the Persian Gulf States
combined…." [WOLA, "Protecting the Pipeline: The U.S. Military
Mission Expands," May 2003]
As Mr. Bush and the oiligarchy pursue global empire, oil reserves dominate
their calculus. The world's oil supply is finite and the world's demand for oil
keeps accelerating. It's a recipe for spiking oil revenue…and deadly scarcity.
If Washington can corner the market, the US oil supply will be assured…at
least for a few more years.
But more to the point: since our entire planet is hooked on oil, GLIMCAP
- Angus' nemesis - would be fully in control.
As
we go to press Ed and several others are heading to Haiti to help accompany
members of the democracy movement there. Stay tuned.
