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Started by readnthink
Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: readnthink
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Why Americans should care about East Timor
by Noam Chomsky
There are three good reasons why Americans should
care about East Timor. First, since the Indonesian
invasion of December 1975, East Timor has been the site of some
of the worst atrocities of the modern era -- atrocities
which are mounting again right now. Second, the US government
has played a decisive role in escalating these
atrocities and can easily act to mitigate or terminate them. It is not
necessary to bomb Jakarta or impose economic sanctions.
Throughout, it would have sufficed for Washington to withdraw
support and to inform its Indonesian client that the game was
over. That remains true as the situation reaches a crucial
turning point -- the third reason.
President Clinton needs no instructions on how to
proceed. In May 1998, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
called upon Indonesian President Suharto to resign and
provide for "a democratic transition." A few hours later,
Suharto transferred authority to his handpicked vice
president. Though not simple cause and effect, the events illustrate
the relations that prevail. Ending the torture in East Timor would
have been no more difficult than dismissing Indonesia's
dictator in May 1998.
Not long before, the Clinton administration
welcomed Suharto as "our kind of guy," following the
precedent established in 1965 when the general took power,
presiding over army-led massacres that wiped out the country's
only mass-based political party (the PKI, a popularly
supported communist party) and devastated its popular base in
"one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century."
According to a CIA report, these massacres were comparable to those
of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao; hundreds of thousands were
killed, most of them landless peasants. The achievement
was greeted with unrestrained euphoria in the West. The
"staggering mass slaughter" was "a gleam of light in Asia," according
to two commentaries in The New York Times, both typical of
the general western media reaction. Corporations flocked
to what many called Suharto's "paradise for investors,"
impeded only by the rapacity of the ruling family. For more than
20 years, Vietnamese leadership, as well as "the tactics employed
by the Contras" in Nicaragua, following lessons taught
by their CIA mentors that it should be unnecessary to review.
The state terrorists "are not simply going after the
most radical pro-independence people but going after the
moderates, the people who have influence in their community."
'It's Phoenix' ... notes a well-placed source in
Jakarta," Jenkins writes. That source adds that the aim is
"'to terrorize everyone' -- the NGOs, the [Red Cross], the UN, the
journalists."
The goal is being pursued with no little success.
Since April, the Indonesian-run militias have been conducting a
wave of atrocities and murder, killing hundreds of people --
many in churches to which they fled for shelter -- burning
down towns, driving tens of thousands into concentration
camps or the mountains, where, it is reported, thousands have
been virtually enslaved to harvest coffee crops. "They
call them 'internally displaced persons,'" an Australian nun
and aid worker said, "but they are hostages to the militias.
They have been told that if they vote for independence, they
will be killed." The number of the displaced is estimated at
50,000 or more.
Health conditions are abysmal. One of the few
doctors in the territory, American volunteer Dan Murphy, reported
that 50 to 100 Timorese are dying daily from curable
diseases while Indonesia "has a deliberate policy not to allow
medical supplies into East Timor." In the Australian media,
he has detailed atrocious crimes from his personal
experience, and Australian journalists and aid workers have compiled
a shocking record.
The referendum has been delayed twice by the UN
because of the terror, which has even targeted UN offices
and UN convoys carrying sick people for treatment. Citing
diplomatic, church, and militia sources, the Australian press
reports "that hundreds of modern assault rifles, grenades, and
mortars are being stockpiled, ready for use if the autonomy
option is rejected at the ballot box," and warns that the
TNI-run militias may be planning a violent takeover of much of the
territory if, despite the terror, the popular will is expressed.
Murphy and others report that TNI has been
emboldened by the lack of interest in the West. "A senior US
diplomat summarized the issue neatly: 'East Timor is
Australia's Haiti'" -- in other words, it's not a problem for the United
States, which helped create and sustain the humanitarian
disaster in East Timor and could readily end it. (Those who know
the truth about the United States in Haiti will fully
appreciate the cynicism.)
Reporting on the terror from the scene, Nobel
Laureate Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo called for "an
international military force" to protect the population from
Indonesian terror and permit the referendum to proceed. Nothing
doing. The "international community" -- meaning Western
powers -- prefers that the Indonesian army provide "security."
A small number of unarmed UN monitors have been authorized
-- but subsequently delayed -- by the Clinton administration.
The picture in the past few months is particularly
ugly against the background of the self-righteous posturing in
the "enlightened states." But it simply illustrates,
once again, what should be obvious: Nothing substantial has changed,
either in the actions of the powerful or the performance of
their flatterers. The Timorese are "unworthy victims." No
power interest is served by attending to their suffering
or taking even simple steps to end it. Without a significant
popular reaction, the long-familiar story will continue, in East Timor
and throughout the world.
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: Tom Gauldin
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Actually, we don't give a sh*t about East Timor or any other version of Timor. Please, go away and stop trying to get the US involved in something we don't care about. -- Tom Gauldin, Raleigh NC ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/pub/users/scoundrl/gauldin.htm Here's to the land of the Longleaf Pine, The Summerland, where the sun doth shine. Where the weak grow strong, and the strong grow great, Here's to Downhome, the Old North State. <readnthink@southernanomaly.net> wrote in message news:37D6523B.F4B010D6@southernanomaly.net... > Why Americans should care about East Timor > by Noam Chomsky > > There are three good reasons why
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: collardboy
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Tom Gauldin: >Actually, we don't give a sh*t about East Timor or any other version >of Timor. Please, go away and stop trying to get the US involved in >something we don't care about. Jesus would care. You don't speak for me. Duncan
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: Tom Wilson
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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In article <7r5pm6$so5$1@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net>,
Tom Gauldin <scoundrl@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Actually, we don't give a sh*t about East Timor or any other version
>of Timor. Please, go away and stop trying to get the US involved in
>something we don't care about.
Don't read for comprehension, do you? We're already involved, and have
been, for decades. You should also note that Chomsky stated his belief
that we should drop our support for this regime. It's just another
example of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" line of thinking(?)
in US policy that goes back much further than Clinton.
I don't like the idea of sending troops, but we did encourage the
current regime with the way we've done business with them.
>Tom Gauldin, Raleigh NC
>ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/pub/users/scoundrl/gauldin.htm
>Here's to the land of the Longleaf Pine,
>The Summerland, where the sun doth shine.
>Where the weak grow strong, and the strong grow great,
>Here's to Downhome, the Old North State.
>
><readnthink@southernanomaly.net> wrote in message
>news:37D6523B.F4B010D6@southernanomaly.net...
>> Why Americans should care about East Timor
>> by Noam Chomsky
>>
>> There are three good reasons why
>
>
--
Tom Wilson | Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to
SAS Institute Inc. | reinvent it, poorly.
sasctw@unx.sas.com | -- Henry Spencer
Opinions are mine, not of SAS Institute Inc.
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: collardboy
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Tom Gauldin wrote: >Then, you and Jesus invest your own time, money and efforts to save >humanity. Leave the rest of us alone. It's one thing to question the investment of time and money and military personnel on stopping the violence in East Timor. It's quite another thing to say that "we don't give a sh*t" and "we don't care." Regarding the use of our military: When I was in the Marines, I would have been much happier to risk my life for a moral good than for the strategic-economic goals we always were sent off to defend. On the way back from the Gulf, my battalion stopped off to provide humanitarian assistance to a country that had suffered a natural disaster, and the common remark among the Marines was that we were "finally doing something worth something." Throughout our training, we all were prepared to give our lives in service, which is a hard concept to get your mind around. It made it easier to accept when I thought I would be doing something, fighting for something, that God would approve. And stopping people from killing each other, as Jesus stopped the Pharisees from stoning the woman caught in adultery, is something God would approve, I think. What is your money, anyway? The concern of a man and his world. "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world." John 8:23 Duncan
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: Tom Malone
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Unless you're being sarcastic and I'm not seeing it, I guess I'm a little bit shocked. Are you so insular that you can separate "the rest of us" from all of us? Do you mean to say that non-white folks aren't part of us but just aren't brave enough to really say it? Or am I really missing the point and you mean that you do care about humanity but you don't believe that the U.S. government should become financially or militarily involved? Tom Malone Tom Gauldin wrote: > Then, you and Jesus invest your own time, money and efforts to save > humanity. Leave the rest of us alone. > > and > > > > >Actually, we don't give a sh*t about East Timor or any other > version > > >of Timor. Please, go away and stop trying to get the US involved > in > > >something we don't care about.
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: Tom Gauldin
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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You go ahead and work things out for yourself with Jesus and God. That's entirely up to you. I don't care what you do as long as it doesn't cost me money or bother me or my family. You can take up a collection, mount a private military offensive, paint your rump blue and tap dance until you fall down. None of those activities affects me. What DOES affect me is using a single tax penny to save some bunch of foreign idiots from themselves. To heck with them. Let someone who cares be the policeman for the world- just leave the USA out of it. -- Tom Gauldin, Raleigh NC ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/pub/users/scoundrl/gauldin.htm Here's to the land of the Longleaf Pine, The Summerland, where the sun doth shine. Where the weak grow strong, and the strong grow great, Here's to Downhome, the Old North State. collardboy <duncan@algonquin.com> wrote in message news:080919991607276510%duncan@algonquin.com... > Tom Gauldin wrote: > > >Then, you and Jesus invest your own time, money and efforts to save > >humanity. Leave the rest of us alone. > > It's one thing to question the investment of time and money and > military personnel on stopping the violence in East Timor. It's quite > another thing to say that "we don't give a sh*t" and "we don't care." > > Regarding the use of our military: > > When I was in the Marines, I would have been much happier to risk my > life for a moral good than for the strategic-economic goals we always > were sent off to defend. On the way back from the Gulf, my battalion > stopped off to provide humanitarian assistance to a country that had > suffered a natural disaster, and the common remark among the Marines > was that we were "finally doing something worth something." Throughout > our training, we all were prepared to give our lives in service, which > is a hard concept to get your mind around. It made it easier to accept > when I thought I would be doing something, fighting for something, that > God would approve. And stopping people from killing each other, as > Jesus stopped the Pharisees from stoning the woman caught in adultery, > is something God would approve, I think. What is your money, anyway? > The concern of a man and his world. > > "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not > of this world." John 8:23 > > Duncan
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: Tom Gauldin
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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I don't give a whizz about what happens in East Timor, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, New Jersey or any other foreign country. Let THEM police THEMSELVES. If you care about it, take up a collection or do something that only involves the folks who care. The idea is to leave the US taxpayers and our military people out of it. -- Tom Gauldin, Raleigh NC ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/pub/users/scoundrl/gauldin.htm Here's to the land of the Longleaf Pine, The Summerland, where the sun doth shine. Where the weak grow strong, and the strong grow great, Here's to Downhome, the Old North State. Tom Malone <tfmalone@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:37D6C303.2C218A5F@bellsouth.net... > Unless you're being sarcastic and I'm not seeing it, I guess I'm a > little bit shocked. Are you so insular that you can separate "the rest > of us" from all of us? Do you mean to say that non-white folks aren't > part of us but just aren't brave enough to really say it? Or am I really > missing the point and you mean that you do care about humanity but you > don't believe that the U.S. government should become financially or > militarily involved? > > Tom Malone > > Tom Gauldin wrote: > > > Then, you and Jesus invest your own time, money and efforts to save > > humanity. Leave the rest of us alone. > > > > and > > > > > > >Actually, we don't give a sh*t about East Timor or any other > > version > > > >of Timor. Please, go away and stop trying to get the US involved > > in > > > >something we don't care about. > > >
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: James Hepler
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Tom Gauldin wrote: > I don't give a whizz about what happens in East Timor, Kosovo, > Yugoslavia, New Jersey or any other foreign country. Let THEM police > THEMSELVES. If you care about it, take up a collection or do > something that only involves the folks who care. > > The idea is to leave the US taxpayers and our military people out of > it. Who's idea? Since when? James Hepler -- "I've learned there's nothing quite as pressing as those doing the pressing want you to believe". -Bright Eyes
Re: East Timor
Author: Ray Ubinger
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Tom Gauldin writes: > The idea is to leave the US taxpayers and our military people out of it. I agree; IMO it's even legally mandatory to remain officially neutral unless we ourselves get attacked. `In order to provide for the common defense OF us the people of the UNITED STATES, we do ordain and establish that Congress shall have power to raise and support armed forces.' East Timorans aren't covered. They can be covered in the future, though. If you want the government to spend lives and treasure to provide for East Timorans' defense, all you have to do to make it legal is amend the Constitution. Or admit East Timor into the taxpaying Union. 'Til then, everyone should at least be able to agree you've a right to defend non-U.S. people and territory at your own private expense. Ray Ubinger Durham NC "Your Life, Your Way"
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: collardboy
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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Tom Gauldin wrote:
>You go ahead and work things out for yourself with Jesus and God.
>That's entirely up to you. I don't care what you do as long as it
>doesn't cost me money or bother me or my family. You can take up a
>collection, mount a private military offensive, paint your rump blue
>and tap dance until you fall down. None of those activities affects
>me.
>
>What DOES affect me is using a single tax penny to save some bunch of
>foreign idiots from themselves. To heck with them. Let someone who
>cares be the policeman for the world- just leave the USA out of it.
Why do you constantly speak as if you are an island unto yourself
("None of those activities affects me"), but then you feel free to
speak on behalf of the whole United States.
Duncan
Re: East Timor and U.S. Policy
Author: Thomas Disque
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:00
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In article <080919991607276510%duncan@algonquin.com>, collardboy <duncan@algonquin.com> writes: |> Tom Gauldin wrote: |> |> >Then, you and Jesus invest your own time, money and efforts to save |> >humanity. Leave the rest of us alone. |> |> It's one thing to question the investment of time and money and |> military personnel on stopping the violence in East Timor. It's quite |> another thing to say that "we don't give a sh*t" and "we don't care." |> |> Regarding the use of our military: |> |> When I was in the Marines, I would have been much happier to risk my |> life for a moral good than for the strategic-economic goals we always |> were sent off to defend. On the way back from the Gulf, my battalion |> stopped off to provide humanitarian assistance to a country that had |> suffered a natural disaster, and the common remark among the Marines |> was that we were "finally doing something worth something." Throughout |> our training, we all were prepared to give our lives in service, which |> is a hard concept to get your mind around. It made it easier to accept |> when I thought I would be doing something, fighting for something, that |> God would approve. And stopping people from killing each other, as |> Jesus stopped the Pharisees from stoning the woman caught in adultery, |> is something God would approve, I think. What is your money, anyway? Why? Read your bible, and see how many killings God *did* approve of, then ask yourself on what basis you make this assumption. BTW, you're wasting your time with Tom Gauldin. He's a former mortgage banker and, as such, a servant of the devil already. :-) |> The concern of a man and his world. |> |> "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not |> of this world." John 8:23 |> |> Duncan Tom Disque "My opinions, not SAS Institute's"
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