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<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; BACKGROUND: white"
class=ecxMsoNormalCxSpFirst><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Why Is Henry Kissinger Walking Around
Free?</SPAN></B><SPAN style="COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; BACKGROUND: white"
class=ecxMsoNormalCxSpMiddle><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><SPAN>
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><SPAN> </SPAN>by Andy
Piascik</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><IMG hspace=12 align=left src="" width=228
height=425><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><SPAN>
</SPAN>This past September, hundreds of thousands of Chileans solemnly marked
the 40<SUP>th</SUP> anniversary of their nation’s 9/11 terrorist event. It was
on that date in 1973 that the Chilean military, armed with a generous supply of
funds and weapons from the United States, and assisted by the CIA and other
operatives, overthrew the democratically-elected government of the moderate
socialist Salvador Allende. Sixteen years of repression, torture and death
followed under the fascist Augusto Pinochet, while the flow of hefty profits to
US multinationals – IT&T, Anaconda Copper and the like - resumed. Profits,
along with concern that people in other nations might get ideas about
independence, were the very reason for the coup and even the partial moves
toward nationalization instituted by Allende could not be tolerated by the US
business class. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>Henry Kissinger was national security advisor and one of the principal
architects – perhaps <I>the </I>principal architect – of the coup in Chile.
US-instigated coups were nothing new in 1973, certainly not in Latin America,
and Kissinger and his boss Richard Nixon were carrying on a violent tradition
that spanned the breadth of the 20<SUP>th</SUP> century and continues in the
21<SUP>st</SUP> – see, for example, Venezuela in 2002 (failed) and Honduras in
2009 (successful). Where possible, such as in Guatemala in 1954 and Brazil in
1964, coups were the preferred method for dealing with popular insurgencies. In
other instances, direct invasion by US forces such as happened on numerous
occasions in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and many other places, was the
fallback option.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>The coup in Santiago occurred as US aggression in Indochina was finally
winding down after more than a decade. From 1969 through 1973, it was Kissinger
again, along with Nixon, who oversaw the slaughter in Vietnam, Cambodia and
Laos. It is impossible to know with precision how many were killed during those
four years; all the victims were considered enemies, including the vast majority
who were non-combatants, and the US has never been much interested in
calculating the deaths of enemies. Estimates of Indochinese killed by the US for
the war as a whole start at four million and are likely more, perhaps far more.
It can thus be<SPAN> </SPAN>reasonably extrapolated that probably more
than a million, and certainly hundreds of thousands, were killed while Kissinger
and Nixon were in power.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>In addition, countless thousands of Indochinese have died in the years
since from the affects of the massive doses of Agent Orange and other Chemical
Weapons of Mass Destruction unleashed by the US. Many of us here know (or,
sadly, knew) soldiers who suffered from exposure to such chemicals; multiply
their numbers by 1,000 or 10,000 or 50,000 – again, it’s impossible to know with
accuracy – and we can begin to understand the impact on those who live in and on
the land that was so thoroughly poisoned as a matter of US
policy.<SPAN>
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>Studies by a variety of organizations including the United Nations also
indicate that at least 25,000 people have died in Indochina since war’s end from
unexploded US bombs that pocket the countryside, with an equivalent number
maimed. As with Agent Orange, deaths and ruined lives from such explosions
continue to this day. So 40 years on, the war quite literally goes on for the
people of Indochina, and it is likely it will go on for decades more.
</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>Near the end of his time in office, Kissinger and his new boss Gerald
Ford pre-approved the Indonesian dictator Suharto’s invasion of East Timor in
1975, an illegal act of aggression again carried out with weapons made in and
furnished by the US. Suharto had a long history as a bagman for US business
interests; he ascended to power in a 1965 coup, also with decisive support and
weapons from Washington, and undertook a year-long reign of terror in which
security forces and the army killed more than a million people (Amnesty
International, which rarely has much to say about the crimes of US imperialism,
put the number at 1.5
million).<SPAN>
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>In addition to providing the essential on-the-ground support, Kissinger
and Ford blocked efforts by the global community to stop the bloodshed when the
terrible scale of Indonesian violence became known, something UN ambassador
Daniel Patrick Moynihan openly bragged about. Again, the guiding principle of
empire, one that Kissinger and his kind accept as naturally as breathing, is
that independence cannot be allowed. That’s true even in a country as small as
East Timor where investment opportunities are slight, for independence is
contagious and can spread to places where far more is at stake, like
resource-rich Indonesia. By the time the Indonesian occupation finally ended in
1999, 200,000 Timorese – 30 percent of the population – had been wiped out. Such
is Kissinger’s legacy and it is a legacy well understood by residents of the
global South no matter the denial, ignorance or obfuscation of the
intelligentsia here.<SPAN>
</SPAN><SPAN>
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman">If
the United States is ever to become a democratic society, and if we are ever to
enter the international community as a responsible party willing to wage peace
instead of war, to foster cooperation and mutual aid rather than domination, we
will have to account for the crimes of those who claim to act in our names like
Kissinger. Our outrage at the crimes of murderous thugs who are official enemies
like Pol Pot is not enough. A cabal of American mis-leaders from Kennedy on
caused for far more Indochinese deaths than the Khmer Rouge, after all, and
those responsible should be judged and treated accordingly. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>The urgency of the task is underscored as US aggression proliferates at
an alarming rate. Millions of people around the world, most notably in an
invigorated Latin America, are working to end the “might makes right” ethos the
US has lived by since its inception. The 99 percent of us here who have no
vested interest in empire would do well to join them.<SPAN>
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN>
</SPAN>There are recent encouraging signs along those lines, with the successful
prevention of a US attack on Syria particularly noteworthy. In addition,
individuals from various levels of empire have had their lives disrupted to
varying degrees. David Petraeus, for example, has been hounded by demonstrators
since being hired by CUNY earlier this year to teach an honors course; in 2010,
Dick Cheney had to cancel a planned trip to Canada because the clamor for his
arrest had grown quite loud; long after his reign ended, Pinochet was arrested
by order of a Spanish magistrate for human right violations and held in England
for 18 months before being released because of health problems; and earlier this
year, Efrain Rios Montt, one of Washington’s past henchmen in Guatemala, was
convicted of genocide, though accomplices of his still in power have since
intervened on his behalf to obstruct justice. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman">More
pressure is needed, and allies of the US engaged in war crimes like Paul Kagame
should be dealt with as Pinochet was. More important perhaps for those of in the
US is that we hound Rumsfeld, both Clintons, Rice, Albright and Powell, to name
a few, for their crimes against humanity every time they show themselves in
public just as Petraeus has been. That holds especially for our two most recent
War-Criminals-in-Chief, Barack Bush and George W. Obama.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><I><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Andy Piascik is a long-time
activist and award-winning author who writes for </SPAN></I><SPAN
style="COLOR: black">Z, Counterpunch<I> </I><SPAN> </SPAN><I>and many other
publications and websites. He can be reached at
andypiascik@yahoo.com.</I></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Rockwell>This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and read
by the NSA which violates our freedoms using the justification of immoral,
illegal wars absurdly described as being somehow for freedom.</FONT></DIV>
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