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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> <FONT COLOR="#000099">Make Money Online Auctions! Make $500.00 or We Will Give You Thirty Dollars for Trying! </FONT><A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/yMx78A/fNtFAA/46VHAA/zgSolB/TM";><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------~->Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com Patience By Mickey Z. Online Journal Contributing Writer "The cup of forbearance has been exhausted." - President James K. Polk, 1846 "This business about, you know, more time, how much time do we need to see clearly that he's not disarming? As I said, this looks like a rerun of a bad movie and I'm not interested in watching it." - President-Select George W. Bush, 2003 March 13, 2003 - When it comes to running out of patience, Dubya Bush is no K. Polk. When Polk was elected in 1844, he had every intention of creating a pretext to stir Americans into action against Mexico. One of the issues of the 1844 election was the annexation or Texas- or "reannexation," as Polk called it. Apparently, no one bothered to remind him that Texas was not part of the original Louisiana Purchase. When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the territory of Texas (along with what are now New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, and part of Colorado) was Mexican territory. Fifteen years later, Texas claimed its independence as the Lone Star Republic. In Washington, it was viewed as U.S. property. "Even before Polk's inauguration, Congress adopted a joint resolution on his proposal to annex Texas," explains historian Kenneth C. Davis. "When Mexico heard of this action in March 1845, it severed diplomatic relations with the United States." Undeterred, Polk sent an ambassador, James Slidell, to negotiate a purchase of Texas and California. Slidell was rebuffed. Polk took a new tack and ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead his troops all the way to the Rio Grande, thus testing the defined borders. "Mexico claimed that the boundary was the Nueces River, northeast of the Rio Grande, and considered the advance of Taylor's troops an act of aggression," says Davis. Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, said of this move, "It looks as if the government sent a small force on purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a pretext for taking California and as much of this country as it chooses." The pretext arrived on cue when Polk ordered Taylor and his 3,500- member "Army of observation" to cross the Rio Grande. Taylor's quartermaster, Colonel Cross went missing, his body found 11 days later with his skull crushed. The day after Cross' high-profile public funeral, a patrol of Taylor's soldiers was attacked by Mexicans. Sixteen were killed. Taylor sent a dispatch to Polk: "Hostilities may now be considered as commenced." Declaring "the cup of forbearance" to have been exhausted, Polk announced to Congress, "War exists." "An agreeable Democratic majority in the House and Senate quickly voted - with little dissent from the Whig opposition - to expand the army by an additional 50,000 men. America's most naked war of territorial aggression was under way," Davis explains. The peace-loving American nation had been goaded and now had no choice but to grudgingly commence what Ulysses S. Grant later called "one of the most unjust [wars] ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation." Speaking of unjust wars waged by the strong on the weak, Saddam Hussein has some experience with diplomatic impatience. On July 25, 1990, Hussein entertained a guest at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie, who told the Iraqi dictator: "I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your confrontation with Kuwait." Glaspie then asked, point blank: "Why are your troops massed so very close to Kuwait's borders?" "As you know, for years now I have made every effort to reach a settlement on our dispute with Kuwait," replied Hussein, deploying his own rendition of U.S. spin. "There is to be a meeting in two days; I am prepared to give negotiations only this one more brief chance." Do Ari Fleischer and Saddam Hussein share a speechwriter? On March 10, 2003, when discussing yet another unjust war waged by the strong on the weak, Fleischer told the press: "There is room for diplomacy here. Not much room and not much time." Back at the Iraqi presidential palace, when asked by Glaspie what solutions would be acceptable," Hussein was forthright: "If we could keep the whole of the Shatt al Arab - our strategic goal in our war with Iran - we will make concessions. But, if we are forced to choose between keeping half of the Shatt and the whole of Iraq (MZ: Hussein views Kuwait as part of Iraq) then we will give up all of the Shatt to defend our claims on Kuwait to keep the whole of Iraq in the shape we wish it to be. What is the United States' opinion on this?" "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait," Glaspie answered. "Secretary [of State James] Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960's that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America." Eight days later, Iraq invaded Kuwait and provided President George H.W. Bush with his own cup of forbearance. When will we run out of patience with the same re-runs? ***** Regime Change: 1973 and 2003 Mickey Z. On Monday, March 10, I was invited by the MIT Western Hemisphere Project (http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/mz-kc.shtml) to give a talk entitled, "The Other 9/11: Henry Kissinger and U.S.-sponsored Terror in Chile." Thirty years after the September 11, 1973 coup in Chile, I discussed information made available in some 5000 documents declassified in 1999. While the evening focused, for the most part, on Chile, it was necessary to place the toppling of Salvador Allende within the context of today's struggles. After all, what the U.S. did by replacing Allende with General Augusto Pinochet would today be termed a "regime hange." While activists in the mid-70s were prevented from knowing all the sordid details of the Chilean coup until 1999, can the same be said of us in 2003? Would Bush and Powell follow the same path Nixon and Kissinger did in 1973 if Allende were elected this year? What would be different? Would the U.S. bother denying any knowledge of or complicity in the coup as they did in 1973? Ten days after the Allende government was overthrown, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jack Kubisch told the House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs: "Gentlemen, I wish to state as flatly and as categorically as I possibly can that we did not have advance knowledge of the coup." The documents declassified in 1999, of course, told a different story. A CIA document from the day before the coup stated bluntly, "The coup attempt will begin September 11." Ten days later, the Agency announced, "severe repression is planned." A Sept. 26 CIA document noted that, "twenty-seven cadavers were recovered from the Mapocho River in Santiago, some of which showed signs of torture and mutilation. The victims were low-ranking and working-class members of Popular Unity parties." Opponents of the new regime who were not killed were gathered in soccer stadiums. A Sept. 28 State Department document detailed a request from Chile's new defense minister for Washington to send an expert advisor on detention centers because Chile was planning to hold 3000 people for at least a year. That was Nixon and Kissinger behind closed doors in 1973. But, again, what if Allende were elected in 2003? Based on their public posturing vis-�-vis Iraq, one might safely assume that Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the rest would impose sanctions and announce the need for a "regime change" in Chile while brazenly threatening to "shock and awe" Santiago with 3000 cruise missiles in the first two or three days. The people of Chile would be told, candidly, that America was acting in their interests. Every man, woman, and child paying attention would be aware of the U.S. plan to occupy Chile with General Tommy Franks as de facto ruler. Finally, a $900 million US government contract for the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed by US bombs and missiles will set American construction firms into furious competition. In other words, the era of classified documents is over. In today's heavily conditioned American society, our ruthless leaders needn't worry about something they say in private one day coming back to haunt them. Today's architects of war would merely paint Allende as the "next Stalin," Pinochet would hire a PR firm, and CNN would design a nifty "Showdown with Salvador" logo. A new moniker would be needed for The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Cartoon character Chilly Willy might become Free Willy. In 2003, the policies of the U.S. government (and the corporations that own it) are carried out overtly, in plain sight... complete with press releases. At my MIT lecture, I talked about the 1973 coup in Chile, an event cloaked in secrecy and obscured by Cold War paranoia. In 30 years, will others be holding meetings in an attempt to comprehend how we in 2003 tolerated a society that made the Freedom of Information Act superfluous? Mickey Z. is the author of The Murdering of My Years: Artists and Activists Making Ends Meet (www.murderingofmyyears.com) and an editor at Wide Angle (www.wideangleny.com). He can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Konformist must make a request for donations via Paypal, at Paypal.com. If you can and desire, please feel free to send money to help The Konformist through the following email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/konformist Or, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject: "I NEED 2 KONFORM!!!" (Okay, you can use something else, but it's a kool catch phrase.) Visit the Klub Konformist at Yahoo!: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/klubkonformist Your use of Yahoo! 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