The mainstream media has focused a lot of attention on Sudan (Darfur) and Zimbabwe. Mentioning these countries, this Aug. 7, 2007 Stephen Gowans article entitled "Faith in UN Intervention in Darfur Misplaced" discusses the sad fact that progressives/liberals get suckered into supporting the less than noble economic interests of the corporations and banks that dominate policy making in Western countries. Some of the points made are as follows:
• UN intervention "has typically led to the deterioration of humanitarian crises, not their amelioration." "The record of UN and NATO interventions is one in which small conflicts are
turned into humanitarian disasters."
• In order to gain control of countries not yet dominated by the US or other powers for economic exploitation, the imperialist countries create or look for "conflicts that provide pretexts for intervention."
As I see it, all progressives/liberals (I include myself) ought to have learned by now that wars are NOT the answer and that when there are conflicts, calling for resolution is the way to go.
• Since the Sudanese government’s nationalist policies have prevented US oil companies from getting at its huge oil reserves, it is "treated as an enemy." Although those who want to exploit it consider it a threat, it isn’t a threat to "the bulk of Americans."
• The Sudanese conflicts that the US and its allies can use as a pretext for sanctions and/or intervention include: "a conflict over water and land between sedentary and nomadic peoples," "a conflict between rebel groups," and "a conflict among rebel groups." The US is NOT "interested in resolving these conflicts ..."
• While it is true that the Sudanese government has responded disproportionately to attacks by rebel forces, it has not tried "to eliminate an identifiable group, the defining characteristic of a policy of genocide."
• Related to countries that the US DOES dominate, "terrible humanitarian disasters and human rights violations occur about which very little is said." For example, there is Ethiopia where "thousands of members of the opposition were imprisoned ..." and dozens were threatened with execution. Also, "there are about a half a million people displaced in Somalia as a result of an invasion by Ethiopia, undertaken at the behest of the US government." "In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), there is a conflict provoked by the former intervention of US proxies Rwanda and Uganda that has led to the deaths of 4 million people since 1997." These deaths dwarf the "200,000 deaths in Darfur (80 percent from starvation and disease; 20 percent from violence) ..."
• Then, there is Zimbabwe and it’s president, Robert Mugabe. He’s demonized "for opposing imperialist meddling" and "seeking to indigenize Zimbabwe’s economy." In addition, he has NOT treated the opposition in the way the Ethiopian government did.
• UN intervention in Darfur is NOT the solution. That’s because the "UN, in all important respects, is the UN Security Council, a small group of mainly imperialist powers who do what imperialist countries do: try to divide up the world among themselves."
• "The solution in Darfur is to STOP pressuring the US government to intervene. . ." and "START pressuring the ONE rebel group that won’t sign a peace accord to do so [the capital letters used are mine]."
As I see it, all progressives/liberals (I include myself) ought to have learned by now that wars are NOT the answer and that when there are conflicts, calling for resolution is the way to go. Gowans also indicates that if choices have to be made, then demanding the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq should have priority since it is a much larger disaster than Darfur.
Finally, Gowans says that activists have to make sure they understand just what their governments are doing around the world, not allow emotions to undermine reason and analysis, and NOT get tricked by the government/mainstream media into working on behalf of imperialist goals instead of working on "projects that are legitimately in the interests of the bulk of humanity."
