<blockquote>Other cultures deal with a legacy of torture by declaring "Never again!" Why do so many Americans insist on dealing with the current torture crisis by crying "Never Before"? I suspect it has to do with a sincere desire to convey the seriousness of this Administration's crimes. And the Bush Administration's open embrace of torture is indeed unprecedented--but let's be clear about what is unprecedented about it: not the torture but the openness. Past administrations tactfully kept their "black ops" secret; the crimes were sanctioned but they were practiced in the shadows, officially denied and condemned. The Bush Administration has broken this deal: Post-9/11, it demanded the right to torture without shame, legitimized by new definitions and new laws.
^^^ CB: Indeed, _open_ terrorism, _open_ terrorist rule ,is a definitive characteristic of bourgeois fascist vs democraticrepublican rule. In part, fascism is distinguished from democratic republican rule, not by use of terror rather than use of "democratic" means, but rather by the openness of the use of terror in fascism. Fascism is "in your face" bourgeois rule.
The most alarming aspect of the Bush administration is that they come right out and say that they are going to ignore the world's laws against illegal wars and war crimes such as torture of prisoners. Openly _ultra vires_ conduct of this type is fascist.
As Yoshie says, the Bushites are blowing the cover for the liberal imperialists. Similarly, the Nazis blew the cover for the paleo-liberal imperialists of that day. They got carried away and conquered France , started bombing England, etc.
The result of that WWII "worst-the-better" dialectic was "half" of Europe became socialist and the imperialist paleo-colonialist system was destroyed by national liberation movements bulwarked by the Soviet Union.
Maybe Bushism will take Neo-liberalism so far that it turns into its opposite: Neo-Socialism !
Socialism Before, Socialism Again ! ( See Chile ; socialism before; fascism; now socialism again; a cardboard Hegelian triad :>) )
^^^^^
Despite all the talk of outsourced torture, the Bush Administration's real innovation has been its in-sourcing, with prisoners being abused by US citizens in US-run prisons and transported to third countries in US planes. It is this departure from clandestine etiquette, more than the actual crimes, that has so much of the military and intelligence community up in arms: By daring to torture unapologetically and out in the open, Bush has robbed everyone of plausible deniability.
(Naomi Klein, "'Never Before!' Our Amnesiac Torture Debate," <http:// www.thenation.com/doc/20051226/klein>)</blockquote>
Yoshie Furuhashi
^^^^^^
(Reviva, Allendismo !)
THE AMERICAS
Chile Could Move Further to the Left as Well By JAMES R. WHELAN WSJ December 9, 2005; Page A15
SANTIAGO, Chile -- This is the most successful country in Latin America, politically, economically and socially. But you would never know that listening to the four candidates vying in the Dec. 11 elections to become its next president. They mainly have campaigned against the free-market model which made Chile the success story it is. ( Music to my ears -CB)
The problem is, as Hermógenes Perez de Arce, the country's best-read classical-liberal columnist put it recently, "the right in Chile is clinically dead." ( May it go straight to Hell like Franco did- CB)The only question is how far from the wealth-producing ideals of limited government and the rule of law will the next president stray.
The front-runner is Michelle Bachelet, a 54-year-old pediatrician with a past as an implacable opponent of the military government that rescued Chile from the chaos created by the elders of her then-violence-prone Socialist Party.
( "the military government that rescued Chile from the chaos created by the elders of her then-violence-prone Socialist Party. " Yea , right. That's a real whopper . -CB)
Her leading challenger is a rambunctious billionaire businessman named Sebastián Piñera, who has few ideological anchors. As Mr. Perez de Arce commented, "he is not one of us, and he never has been one of us." Mr. Piñera, though he heads a nominally rightist party, describes himself as a centrist.
Joaquin Lavín, who came within a whisker in 1999 of defeating the moderate Socialist Ricardo Lagos, is running third in the polls. In this campaign the Chicago-trained economist has abandoned his commitment to the free market he once championed, going so far as to attack key elements of the privatized pension system.
( Sounds like the jig is up. The Chicago trained guy _in Chile_ is attacking privatization ! Symbolically , isn't that the beginning of the end of Neo-liberalism ? Looks like the right has gone left. We can put an X over Pinochet's face on the front of David Harvey's book. -CB)
He had the center-right field all to himself until May 14 when Mr. Piñera strong-armed his party leadership into violating their pact with Mr. Lavín's party, and was able to insert himself as a candidate.
The fourth candidate, Tomás Hirsch, heads a small, Communist-dominated coalition called "Together We Can." Since he hovers around 7% in the polls and has nothing to lose, Mr. Hirsch has been able to run the most flamboyant campaign.
The ultimate winner most probably won't be known until the Jan. 15 run-off elections, inasmuch as none of the four stands much of a chance on Dec. 11 of polling the absolute majority needed to win in the first round.
If, as it now appears, Ms. Bachelet prevails in January, the big question is whether she would govern as the moderate Socialist she purports to be, or as the hard-line leftist she was for so long. As has been widely noted in the Chilean press, she was on good terms with armed revolutionaries most of the 33 years she has belonged to the Socialist Party. Many of her most influential advisers come out of the radical wing of that party. To compound the puzzle, Ms. Bachelet herself, a newcomer to electoral politics, has evaded clear and decisive policy definitions. Her service in the Lagos cabinet as health minister and later defense minister was forgettable.
If she does win, will she continue Chile's free-market orientation? Or, will her leftist inclinations lead her to throw in with Latin America's anti-business, anti-U.S. coalition, which Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke of as a leftist wave of the future at their Nov. 30 meeting? That grouping includes Fidel Castro, Venezuela's bombastic, U.S.-baiting Hugo Chávez, Uruguay's President Tabaré Vázquez and, if he is elected later this month, the Bolivian radical (and champion of the cocaine growers) Evo Morales. If this should happen, it would be time to bid adios to the 10-year imperium of free-market, pro-Western ideas in South America.
:>) - CB
Hernán Felipe Errázuriz, a former president of Chile's Central Bank, ambassador to the U.S., and foreign minister, expresses the concerns of many on the right. "How will Michelle Bachelet navigate in these perilous international waters? ( Whence the peril ? Terrorism from Uncle Gringo ? -CB) It is a mystery. Clearly, she does not display the stuff of her predecessors, ( I think she's got something better than "stuff"- CB) nor has she illuminated the path she would follow. In her foreign policy platform, there is only eloquent silence about Castro, Chávez and the war on terrorism."
In fact, Ms. Bachelet has been more than simply silent on Castro. She has been a consistent apologist for him -- but, then, Mr. Lavín has been soft on Castro, too ( The Chicago guy is soft on communism ? The South American revolution may be more advanced than I thought - CB) And, she has said she favors shifting the emphasis of Chilean foreign policy away from the U.S. and toward Latin America.
Finally: Might history repeat itself if there is a second round this time? In the last presidential elections, in 1999, the tiny (3%) Communist Party fielded its own candidate, vowing that should there be a second round, it would refuse to support the candidate of the center-left "Concertación," which has governed Chile since Gen. Augusto Pinochet relinquished power in 1990. But in that second round, the Communists did throw their support to the Concertación candidate, the Socialist Mr. Lagos, enabling him to carve out a slim victory over Mr. Lavín.
Mr. Hirsch, like the Communist candidate Gladys Marin in 1999, says now that his followers will vote void ballots in a run-off. Time will tell. But the aftermath of the 1999 elections might be instructive: The Lagos government rammed through
( of course , according to the Mouthpiece of Imperialism, nothing pro-working class can be democratic, even in an elected legislature- CB)
Congress a far-reaching labor law which the Communist-dominated labor federation wanted. Critics say that was the quid pro quo for their support in the runoff. So far the labor "reform" is the only significant retreat from the free-market model that the three Concertación governments inherited from the Pinochet government.
The bulk of congressional seats are also up for grabs on Dec. 11. The opposition has had sufficient seats in Congress (18 of 38 elective Senate seats, 54 of 120 Chamber of Deputies seats) to block major legislation, doubtlessly curbing some of Mr. Lagos's socialist exuberance. The present guessing is that the opposition is now likely to lose seats in both chambers.
Chile is not only the most successful country in Latin America, it is also, in many ways, the one that carries the most hope for economic progress. What happens here next Sunday really does matter.
Mr. Whelan is the author of "Out of the Ashes," a history of Chile from 1833-1988 and a former visiting professor at the University of Chile's Institute of Political Science. He lives in Santiago. ================================================================
Bachelet Wins First Round in Chile
Santiago de Chile, Dec 12 (Prensa Latina) Government candidate Michelle Bachelet easily won the elections in Chile, but without the majority required, so she will face a January runoff, confirmed the official report Monday.
The ex minister of Defense won 45.95 percent of the votes and will face multimillionaire businessman Sebastian Piñera, from the rightwing National Renewal (RN), who came in second with 25.41 percent after 99.32 percent of the valid votes were counted.
According to the information released by Home Under Secretary Jorge Correa, the favorite of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), Joaquin Lavin, obtained 23.22 and progressive Tomas Hirsh, from the Joint Podemos Mas, received 5.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the January adversaries for the runoff wished each other luck.
"I wish you the best, not so much naturally" said Piñera as a joke in a simultaneous broadcast with Bachelet on Chilean National TV.
The 54 year old socialist physician reiterated her invitation to Piñera to attend a dinner in La Moneda when she is inaugurated on March 11.
Bachelet, ex minister of health and defense is the daughter of Air Force general (Alberto) who died from torture received for opposing the military Dictator Augusto Pinochet. ( The military and democracy , in Latin America - CB)
Piñera is one of the wealthiest men in Chile, with capital estimated at over 1.4 billion dollars. He made his fortune from the privatization of state enterprises during the military regime of the 80s.
hr/ccs/abo/ apr
Chilean Candidate Rejects Support Bachelet
Santiago, Chile, Dec 12 (Prensa Latina) Tomas Hirsch, candidate of "Junto Podemos Mas" coalition, rejected this Monday any political arrangement with governing party Michelle Bachelet and right-wing candidate Sebastian Piñera during the second electoral round in Chile.
The leader of Humanist Party said this coalition is "the country's only alternative to represent ambitions of the poor and mistreated," which according to the unfair neoliberal economic model, are the majority.
The position of "Juntos Podemos Mas" put the governing party candidate and the government's coalition in a precarious situation in this second electoral round, where Bachelet got 45.87 percent of votes, Piñera 25.48 and Lavin 23.25.
The humanist leader stated he will continue working in this project with the same force he has done so far and the conviction that sooner or later we will reach the government to eliminate abuses and injustices.
Hirsch is happy with Sunday elections' results, highlighting the participation of over 400,000 women and men and Chilean youth in these polls.