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Corporate Welfare in Colombia

Published by marco on

Updated by marco on

Sometimes it’s so hard to keep track of U.S. foreign policy. Especially when trying to figure out where tax money is being spent on making war. There are so many levels of funding available:

  1. Foreign aid to oppresive regimes to “stabilize” the local government (think Saudi Arabia)
  2. Overt military aid in the form of actual hardware (think Israel)
  3. U.S. military “advisors” in the field (think CIA and who knows where they all are)
  4. U.S. Troop deployment (bases in over 100 countries, but recently, think Phillipines)
  5. U.S. Troops in combat (think Afghanistan)

Which ones should U.S. citizens be concerned about? As the Bush/Cheney administration is fond of saying, “Mind your own business”. Perhaps as long as America is kept safe, U.S. citizens should be happy that someone is willing to drop their morals and principles in order to “get the job done” in secret. If you don’t know about it, how can you be responsible for it?

AlterNet has Bush to America: Mind Yer Own Business, which talks about the value of secrecy to the Bush administration and the power seized so far beyond the checks and balances afforded by the Constitution:

“The President has deployed troops for the war on terrorism to the Philippines, Yemen and Georgia without consulting Congress. … He issued an order limiting the release of records from previous administrations … Attorney General John Ashcroft sent out a memo encouraging federal agencies to be stingy in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. … the Bush administration, without fully informing Congress, set up a so-called “shadow government” of high-level bureaucrats … but the congressional leaders who are in the line of presidential succession and who could end up in charge of this emergency government — House Speaker Denny Hastert and Senator Robert Byrd, the Senate president pro tempore — were not aware of the set-up.”

Colombia is also in line for more foreign aid and Colin Powell is seeking a lift on the restrictions of military aid to Colombia. The New York Newsday has Don&#8217;t Let U.S. Get Sucked into Colombia Quagmire, which talks about the “mission creep” of U.S. foreign policy in Colombia.

“Until now, Washington’s involvement has been expensive − nearly $2 billion − but strictly limited to supplying the government of President Andres Pastrana with economic and military help to combat the narcotics trade.”

This is ostensibly to fight the drug war, but the history of U.S. involvement in South America would say differently. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that “In practice, the military has used much of the aid for combat operations against the two left-wing guerrilla groups that finance themselves through the drug trade.” It have no doubts that if the government in Colombia were socialist-democrat that the U.S. funding would be behind the rebels, regardless of their drug-trafficking (as they did/do in Afghanistan and Nicaragua).

Regardless, the escalation of military involvement hardly serves the people of Colombia and certainly doesn’t serve the “Drug War”, since, despite the more than $2 Billion of our U.S. tax dollars pumped in already,

“The effect on drug production has been less than minimal. Coca production in Colombia actually increased sharply in the past year”

 And, what do you suppose happens if a U.S. multinational (Occidental Petroleum) builds an oil pipeline right in the middle of now-disputed territory in Colombia? The Bush Oil-igarchy’s Old Friend Oxy on AlterNet gives the answer to that question.

“Colombia’s guerrilla forces, which don’t look too kindly on foreign multinationals in their midst, have made a habit of blowing up the pipeline. Last year alone, it was bombed 170 times and was out of commission for 266 days, putting a definite downward drag on Occidental’s profits.”

If you’d bet that Occidental would have to simply suck it up as a bad business move, you would have wasted your money. It seems that there is at least $100 Million dollars slated for protecting Occidental’s interests in Colombia, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers and donated by the Bush administration.

“ … I thought the Bush administration was all about promoting the “genius of capitalism” and foursquare against the government bailing out capitalists who make bad business decisions. … And now the oil-igarchy in the White House has chosen to reward this shining example of the idiocy of capitalism with a no-strings-attached corporate welfare check.”

The Christian Science Monitor published Oil inflames Colombia’s civil war, which discusses the attacks on the pipeline in more detail.

And, speaking of welfare checks and flat-out acting against the free-trade rhetoric that helped him get elected, Bush has also agreed to enormouse increases in steel tariffs. He’s finally done something stupid enough that even George Will doesn’t agree with it. You may even find that Fox News can’t cover it because it can’t be spun the right way, no matter how hard you squint at it. Bending For Steel has quite harsh words for the policy:

“Do not read his lips, read his actions, which will incite protectionist clamors from other industries (timber and textiles, for starters) and invite retaliation from penalized nations. … Economically indefensible, these measures will destroy perhaps 10 jobs in the steel-consuming sector of American manufacturing for every steel- making job they save. Some manufacturers will move out of the country to avoid the tariffs. … Bush’s measures are new taxes on American consumers — approaching $1 billion annually just on purchasers of cars and trucks — and are purely political measures. Think of them as an $8 billion contribution coerced from manufacturers and consumers of steel products, for the benefit of about six Republican congressional candidates in steel-producing districts, and for Bush’s reelection campaign.”

Robert Reno, of the New York Newday published Bush Steel Decision Lacks an Iron Will, covering the same issue, noting:

“If every American understood how much Bush’s action will add to the cost of a refrigerator, automobile or house, they might be less sympathetic to the steelworkers.”

This just goes to show that when you’re on top, you can do pretty much what you please. Do you think George or Robert’s rantings will have any effect on Bush’s approval rating. I found Reno’s column on page 50-something of my newspaper, so the steel and its attendant betrayal of principle falls well beneath the national interest radar. With an approval rating as high as Bush’s, one can almost imagine his handlers using the points like money, cashing them in for favors to be returned at the next election. What’s 10 points off of an 85% approval rating? Still higher than most presidents have ever seen. But, those 10 points, in 1 or 2 point bundles can be “sold” by doing disagreeable things that curry favor to only special interests. Those special interests will then pay back the favor later.