[Peace-discuss] Clinton's speeches

Thu Sep 6 18:23:14 UTC 2012

Hillarious it is.

On 9/7/2012 12:06 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Neither Clinton nor Obama seem to want to talk about how they kill 
> people for the profits of the American elite.
>
> More than a dozen years ago, then-President Clinton attacked 
> Yugoslavia for that purpose - not to deter Serbian attacks against 
> Kosovo, as he said. (As the bombing campaign began, U.S.-NATO 
> Commanding General Wesley Clark informed the press that it was 
> “entirely predictable” that Serb terror would intensify as a result.) 
> The real purpose of the bombing campaign, months in the planning, was 
> to curb Serbia's economic independence. At the war’s end, the business 
> press described “the real winners” as Western military industry, 
> meaning high-tech industry generally.
>
> Here's Clinton's typically mendacious speech from March 1999 in 
> defense of his killing spree, most of the victims of which were 
> civilians. Since the historical events have receded from memory, I've 
> tried to make Clinton's argument clearer by substituting Japan for the 
> United Staes, New Mexico for Kosovo, etc. --CGE
>
> =========================
> JAPAN BOMBS NEW MEXICO
>
> TOKYO, JAPAN: March 24, 1999 - The following is a translation of last 
> night's speech by the Prime Minister of Japan, explaining why the 
> Japanese air force bombed military bases and command-and-control 
> installations in the American Southwest:
>
> "My fellow citizens:
>
> Today our armed forces joined our allies in the Pacific Rim 
> Organization for National Treaty Observance in air strikes against 
> American forces responsible for the brutality in New Mexico. We have 
> acted with resolve for several reasons. We act to protect thousands of 
> innocent people in New Mexico from a mounting military offensive by 
> the 'border patrol.' We act to defuse a powder keg at the heart of 
> North America that has exploded twice before in the last century and a 
> half with catastrophic results, when the US invaded Mexico in 1846 and 
> 1916. We act to stand united with our allies for peace. By acting now, 
> we are upholding our values, protecting our interests, and 
> advancing the cause of peace.
>
> Tonight I want to speak with you about the tragedy in New Mexico and 
> why it matters to Japan that we work with our allies New Mexicoto end 
> it. First, let me explain what it is we are responding to. New Mexico 
> is a state of the United States, in the middle of southwestern North 
> America, about 1500 miles west of Cuba -- that's less than the 
> distance from Hokkaido to Okinawa -- and only about 1000 miles north 
> of Mexico City. Its people are mostly ethnic Latino and mostly 
> Catholic. In recent years America's leader, Bill Clinton, the same 
> leader who started the wars in Iraq and Colombia and attacked Sudan 
> and Afghanistan in the last decade, increased the authority of the 
> federal secret police, the "INS"; Mexicans are denied their right 
> to speak their language, run their schools, shape their daily lives. 
> For years, Latinos struggled peacefully to get their rights back. When 
> President Clinton sent his troops and police to crush them, the 
> struggle grew violent. The American leaders refuse even to discuss key 
> elements of the Japanese peace proposal.
>
> America has stationed Marines along the border in preparation for a 
> major offensive. We've seen innocent people taken from their homes, 
> forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets; Mexican men 
> dragged from their families, fathers and sons together lined up and 
> shot in cold blood. This is not war in the traditional sense. It is 
> an attack by armored vehicles and high-tech weapons on a largely 
> defenseless people whose leaders speak only of peace.
>
> Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important to 
> Japan's national interests. Take a look at the map. New Mexico is a 
> small place, but it sits on a major fault line between North America, 
> Latin America, and the Pacific, at the meeting place of Catholicism 
> and both the liberal and evangelical branches of Protestantism. To 
> the South are our allies, Peru (whose president is of Japanese 
> descent) and Venezuela (which produces oil); to the north our 
> increasingly important trading partner, Canada.
>
> And all around New Mexico there are other states struggling with their 
> own economic and political challenges, states that could be 
> overwhelmed by a large new wave of refugees from New Mexico -- 
> California, Texas, Arizona. All the ingredients for a major war are 
> there: ancient grievances, struggling democracies, and in the center 
> of it all, a president in America of highly questionable personal 
> character who has done nothing since the Cold War ended but start new 
> wars and pour gasoline on the flames of ethnic and religious division.
>
> In neighboring Guatemala President Clinton recently acknowledged that 
> American support for torture and murder cost 200,000 lives. Earlier, 
> World War II engulfed the Pacific. In both wars, the world was slow to 
> recognize the dangers, and Japan held back from entering these 
> conflicts. Just imagine if leaders back then had acted wisely 
> and early enough. How many lives could have been saved? How many 
> Japanese would not have had to die?
>
> We learned some of the same lessons in Nicaragua and El Salvador a 
> decade ago. The world did not act early enough to stop those wars, 
> either. And let's not forget what happened: innocent people herded 
> into concentration camps; children gunned down by snipers on their way 
> to school; soccer fields and parks turned into cemeteries; a quarter 
> of a million people killed not because of anything they had done but 
> because of who they were. Two million Central Americans became 
> refugees. This was genocide in the heart of the Americas, not in 1945 
> but in 1985, not in some grainy newsreel from our parents' and 
> grandparents' time, but in our own time, testing our humanity and our 
> resolve. At the time, many people believed nothing could be done to 
> end the bloodshed in Central America: they said, 'Well, that's just 
> the way those people in the Americas are.' But when we and our allies 
> in the UN joined with courageous Central Americans to stand up to the 
> aggressors, we helped end the wars. We learned that in the Americas 
> inaction in the face of brutality simply invites more brutality, but 
> firmness can stop armies and save lives. We must apply that lesson in 
> New Mexico, before what happened in Central America happens there too.
>
> Today we and our PRONTO allies agreed to do what we must do to restore 
> the peace. Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness of 
> PRONTO's purpose so that the American leaders understand the 
> imperative of reversing course; to deter an even bloodier offensive 
> against innocent civilians in New Mexico; and if necessary, to 
> seriously damage the American military's capacity to harm the people 
> of New Mexico. In short, if President Clinton will not make peace, we 
> will limit his ability to make war.
>
> Now, I want to be clear with you, there are risks in this military 
> action -- risk to our pilots and the people on the ground. America's 
> air defenses are strong. It could decide to intensify its assault on 
> New Mexico or to seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere. If it does, 
> we will deliver a forceful response. Hopefully Mr. Clinton will 
> realize his present course is self-destructive and unsustainable.
>
> If he decides to accept our peace proposal and demilitarize New 
> Mexico, PRONTO has agreed to help to implement it with a peacekeeping 
> force. If PRONTO is invited to do so, our troops should take part in 
> that mission to keep the peace. But I do not intend to put our troops 
> in New Mexico to fight a war.
>
> Do our interests in New Mexico justify the dangers to our armed 
> forces? I thought long and hard about that question. I am convinced 
> that the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not 
> acting -- dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests. 
> If we and our allies were to allow this war to continue with 
> no response, President Clinton would read our hesitation as a license 
> to kill. There would be many more massacres -- tens of thousands more 
> refugees, more victims crying out for revenge. Right now our firmness 
> is the only hope the people of New Mexico have to be able to live in 
> their own country without having to fear for their own lives.
>
> Imagine what would happen if we and our allies decided just to look 
> the other way as these people were massacred on PRONTO's doorstep. 
> That would discredit PRONTO, the cornerstone on which our Pacific 
> security rests.
>
> We must also remember that this is a conflict with no natural national 
> boundaries. Let me ask you to look again at a map. The arrows show the 
> movement of refugees -- north, east, and west. Already this movement 
> is threatening the unstable democracy in Texas, which has its own 
> Mexican minority and an Indian minority. Already American forces have 
> made forays into Mexico, from which New Mexicans have drawn support. 
> Mexico has a Mayan minority. Let a fire burn here in this area, and 
> the flames will spread. Eventually key Japanese allies could be drawn 
> into a wider conflict, which we would be forced to confront later only 
> at far greater risk and greater cost.
>
> I have a responsibility as Prime Minister to deal with problems such 
> as this before they do permanent harm to out national interests. Japan 
> has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying to 
> save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom, and stability in 
> North America. That is what we are doing in New Mexico.
>
> If we have learned anything form the century drawing to a close, it is 
> that if Japan is going to be prosperous and secure we need a North 
> America that is prosperous, secure, united, and free. We need a North 
> America that is coming together, not falling apart, a North America 
> that shares our values and shares the burdens of leadership. That is 
> the foundation on which the security or our children will depend. That 
> is why I have supported NAFTA and the economic unification of North 
> America. Now, what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, 
> secure, united, stable North America? The challenge of strengthening a 
> three-way partnership with the EU, that despite our disagreements is a 
> constructive partner in the work of building peace. The challenge of 
> resolving the tension between Latin and indigenous peoples, and 
> building bridges with the Christian world. And finally the challenge 
> of ending instability in the United States so that these bitter ethnic 
> problems are resolved by the force of argument, not the force of arms, 
> so that future generations of Japanese do not have to cross the 
> Pacific to fight another terrible war. It is this challenge that we 
> and our allies are facing in New Mexico. That is why we have acted 
> now, because we care about saving innocent lives, because we have an 
> interest in avoiding an even crueler and costlier war, and because our 
> children need and deserve a peaceful, stable, free North America.
>
> Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of our 
> armed forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our 
> values and our children's future. May God bless them, and may God 
> bless Japan."
>
> [Cf. <http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3932>.]
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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