"My country can boast that we produce 53.4% of the world's weapons ... perhaps (Americans) believe that McNamara was more rational than President Jimmy Carter, who in 1976 said, 'We cannot have it both ways. We can't be both the world's leading champion for peace and the world's leading supplier of arms.' It gets worse. In 2003, 80% of the top buyers of US weapons (twenty of the top twenty-five clients) were countries that our State Department labeled undemocratic or countries known for their failure to uphold human rights, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In 1999, the US weapons industry supplied arms to 92% of the conflicts in process anywhere on the planet, and in a stroke of elegant fairness, often supplied both sides in conflict. Perhaps most shocking and awful of all: between 1998 and 2001, the United States, Great Britain, and France earned more income from selling weapons to developing countries than they gave those developing countries in aid."
John Perkins in Justice For All
John Perkins in Justice For All
I lost my patriotic virginity two years ago when I first visited El Salvador. My age of innocence was forever gone, left on the Holy Grounds of El Mozote and the UCA. I swore loyal opposition to any unjust policy of my country. After studying for two months in Latin America, I understood the legacy of the Cold War; that in reality, it was a hot conflict that burned its way through Latin America, exposing the connections between human rights perpetrators and the United States government. I was disgusted by our hypocritical human rights abuses and shocked when I discovered the chronic mistakes of our foreign policy. We waged war to impose peace. Few know that President Reagan broke international and federal law by continuing to fund the Contras after the House of Representatives voted unanimously 411-0 to stop aid. A pattern emerged of US involvement: the torture case of the American nun, Diana Ortiz, the Atlactal Battalion, the paramilitary death squads trained on US soil, and coups supported and sometimes orchestrated by the US.
I feel like I have cheated in my political activism; just as I was learning of the grave mistakes of the United States, Change took his place in the White House. I only had time to be horrified, write a few research papers on torture policy, and then feel profound relief and hope when Obama was elected. I came to Sarajevo prepared to showcase my mature understanding of the real United States. I knew why the world hates us, I can even give you statistics. I was ready for Srebrenica because I had been to a massacre sites before. I knew what to look for and who to ask questions about. We continue to echo "Never Again" from the end of the Holocaust to the start of another genocide in Darfur; we watched as Rwanda unfolded and waited to act in Bosnia, but we finally sent help and brought a swift end to the war. For that, I was surprised and humbled when I arrived because the United States is a positive force in the Balkans.
My ignorant bliss will never return, it ran away somewhere between El Salvador and Guatemala, but it seems pride for my country may finally start to rebuild itself. I am slowly picking up the pieces. I love and respect my country, more now as an outsider. By living in the Balkans, I am again able to recognize the diversity and freedom in my country.
The fence at the School of the Americas/WHINSEC - Each cross represents a victim
El Salvador: A Crucified People
The Stations of the Cross in the chapel of the UCA
Each station depicts just one of the 75, 000 Salvadorans who were tortured and killed by the paramilitary death squads
The shirt Archbishop Oscar Romero was wearing when he was shot during Mass for hisbelief in a "preferential option for the poor"
"Presente"
Sara Walker and I standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Latin America.
We were two of 20, 000 at the gates of Fort Benning on November 21, 2008.
"One wonders what would happen if good-hearted Americans realized that a mere 10% of the US military budget, if reinvested in foreign aid and development, could care for the basic needs of the entire world's poor. Or if they realized that one-half of 1% of the US military budget would cut hunger in Africa in half by 2015. Would there be marches in the streets calling for budgetary reform?"
Everything Must Change by Brian D. McLaren
Sara Walker and I standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Latin America.
We were two of 20, 000 at the gates of Fort Benning on November 21, 2008.
"One wonders what would happen if good-hearted Americans realized that a mere 10% of the US military budget, if reinvested in foreign aid and development, could care for the basic needs of the entire world's poor. Or if they realized that one-half of 1% of the US military budget would cut hunger in Africa in half by 2015. Would there be marches in the streets calling for budgetary reform?"
Everything Must Change by Brian D. McLaren
