----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Pugliese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Communist Internet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2000 2:27 AM
Subject: Re: The Reason Behind the $1.6 Billion Colombian Aid Package
Michael T. Klare has been writing since the early 70's, since after he
was a New Left activist in SDS, explicitly anti-imperialist analysis. Not a
Leninist, in a Party sense, but as an examination of the below that I found
at bn.com, should dispel any suspicion that Klare is some wilting moderate!
Michael Pugliese
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/mklare.htm
US Aims to Win on All Fronts
By Michael T. Klare
Le Monde Diplomatique
May, 1999
Supplying Repression: U. S. Support for Authoritarian Regimes Abroad
Michael T. Klare Cynthia Arnson Delia Miller Daniel Volman
Beyond the "Vietnam Syndrome": U. S. Interventionism in the 1980's
Michael T. Klare
LOW INTENSITY WARFARE: COUNTERINSURGENCY, PROINSURGENCY, AND ANTITERRORISM
IN THE EIGHTIES
Klare, Michael T., and Peter Kornbluh (Editors).
War Without End American Planning for the Next Vietnams
Klare, Michael T. (Gabriel Kolko, Foreword)
----- Original Message -----
From: Communist Internet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 4:04 PM
Subject: Fw: The Reason Behind the $1.6 Billion Colombian Aid Package
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Pakito Arriaran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 1:50 PM
> Subject: MLL: The Reason Behind the $1.6 Billion Colombian Aid Package
>
>
> The Reason Behind the $1.6 Billion Colombian Aid Package
>
> By Michael T.Klare - Pacific News Service
>
> In the biggest step-up in US military aid to Latin America since
the
> Reagan era, the Clinton Administration is preparing to provide Colombia
with
> a $1.6 billion in all sorts of helicopters, communications gear, combat
> training, and other forms of assistance.
> 'All this aid is supposed to strengthen Colombia's capacity to fight
> narcotic traffickers and the leftist guerrillas. But there is another,
> hidden objective - to protect US access to the largest untapped pool of
> petroleum in the Western Hemisphere.
>
> US interest in Colombia's drug production is well known. Government
sources
> claim that Colombian drug traffickers supply as much as 90 per cent of the
> cocaine flowing into the United States, plus a large proportion of the
> heroin sold in the US Eastern third of the country.
>
> Far less known is the Colombia's role in satisfying America's vast and
> growing petroleum habit. According to the US Department of Energy (DOE),
US
> oil consumption rose by over 15 per cent between 1990 and 1999, rising
from
> 17 to 19.5 million barrels per day.
> During the same period, Colombia's oil production rose by about 78 per
> cent, with most of the added amount going to the United States, making it
> today,
> the seventh largest supplier of oil to the USA. But the US strategic
> calculations are more concerned with the future US consumption which is
> expected to rise by another 5 million barrels per day over the next twenty
> years, and most of this oil will have to come from foreign sources.
>
> These quantities could easily be provided by the Persian Gulf countries,
> especially such petro giants as Iran, Iraq and also Saudi Arabia.
> However, the US strategists are reluctant to increase America's
dependence
> on the unstable (and very increasingly unfriendly) states of the Middle
> East - and so seek more accessible suppliers. This is now where Colombia
and
> neighboring Venezuela enter the picture.
>
> Although Colombia's current oil production is dwarfed by the petro
giants,
> the country is believed to possess 2.6 billion barrels of untapped
petroleum
> and perhaps ten times this amount in possible reserves.
>
> Since the Gulf War of 1991, US leaders have moved to increase the
> importance of Western Hemisphere. "We are undergoing a fundamental shift
in
> our reliance on imported oil away from the Middle East," the White House
> noted in a May 1997 report on national security policy.
>
> Noting that Venezuela is the number one foreign supplier and that "..
> Venezuela and Colombia are each undertaking new oil production ventures,"
> the report called access to these supplies is a "vital interest" to the
> United States.
>
> This has significant security implications. Once a source of oil is
> designated a "vital interest" it becomes incumbent on Washington to assure
> the long-term safety of these supplies.
>
> In the past this has entailed direct intervention by US forces or
providing
> large military aid to friendly governments. In calling now for stepped-up
> aid to Colombian military, US officials have stressed the need to go after
> Leftist guerrillas.
>
> Rarely mentioned, however, is the fact that the guerrillas are attacking
US
> oil interests in Colombia, especially pipelines in 1999, for example the
> pipeline from the Cano Limon field - operated by US based Occidental;
> Petroleum Co. and Royal Dutch Shell - was bombed 70 times.
>
> In fact the key point in guerrillas stated program is to expel foreign
> interests and use future oil profits to improve the lot of Colombia's
> extremely impoverished masses. All this raises important questions about
the
> aims of the aid program. The $1.6 billion is described as a one-time
> "emergency" measure, intended to tip the scales on the narcotic
battlefield
> in the (Ed Note: Narco-) government's favor.
> But it is very doubtful that this amount - five times the amount of
> previous allotments - will make a lasting difference, and additional
> infusions of US aid will be needed in the future.
> When we add Colombian oil supplies to the strategic equation, it appears
> that we are now talking about a very extended future indeed.
>
> Given the risk this military package will lead to protracted and
> ever-expanding involvement in Colombia's messy conflicts, it is essential
> that the administration and the various pro-aid factions in Congress be
more
> forthcoming about America'($)s long-term interests in Colombia.
> If increasing our dependence on Colombian oil means expanding our
> involvement in that country's internal wars, we may be better off looking
> elsewhere for our future oil requirements."
>
> COMMENT
>
> An excellent expose of US imperialism, but the author lacks the needed
step
> to call US what it really is - an Imperialist bully, trampling the
interests
> of all humanity for its own greedy profits and exploting everyone in its
> path. That is why the wars in Chechniya and Kosovo... not for "human
rights"
> but for "oil and gas" riches which USA has no longer adequate supplies.
The
> need for a unified force to fight American imperialism (akin to Fascism)
is
> desperately needed now, not in the future, but as soon as possible!
>
>
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