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Re: TV Nation



On Tue, 8 Aug 1995, Kenneth Bullock wrote:

> In article <405tup$1cfr@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>,
> Nate Florin <spooky@email.unc.edu> wrote:
> 
> >Well, I didn't watch the show, but I know the School of the Americas has
> >graduated tons and tons of people who have helped overthrow democratically
> >elected governments and run death squads in lots of Latin American
> >nations. Every coup and massacre you've heard about there led by someone
> >on the right probably had a School graduate or ten involved in it
> >somewhere. I believe the Guatemalan military guy recently causing scandals
> >by being paid by the CIA and killing Americans at the same time was a
> >graduate, for example. This ain't Columbia film school, it's Colombia
> >human rights abuser school. 
> 
> There's a huge logical flaw here.  Your argument goes: "Many graduates
> of the School later commit human rights abuses, and therefore, the school
> must be teaching them how."  In any group of soldiers from authoritarian
> Latin American nations, there are going to be some human rights abusers.  
> They were probably committing abuses before they came to the School, and
> therefore it's not surprising that they continue to commit abuses after
> they go home.  What does the School have to do with it?

I think Nate's logic is perfect. If the School of the Americas actively
recruits anticommunist zealots from Latin American countries and trains
them in the wide spectrum of counterinsurgency and terrorist guerilla
tactics, they must have an inkling about what purpose these little skills are
going to be employed for. 

The whole raison-d'etre of the School is to provide a viable military
presence in Latin America which can act as (a) a counterforce for
communist-backed fighters and (b) a support for U.S.-dominated businesses
like United Fruit. Ever since the Eisenhower administration's CIA schemes,
the US has done all it can to prop up anticommunist forces in Latin
America, through military advisory positions and financial backing. The
Bay of Pigs fiasco didn't end this practice, it merely drove it further
underground.

The School of the Americas may not have as its express purpose the
military education of would-be totalitarian dictators or cartel henchmen,
but that doesn't mean it is any less true. To paint the School as a
nonpartisan military camp is ridiculous. It is thoroughly and completely
anticommunist. No matter how rightist or utterly antidemocratic the
School's "students" may be, the School doesn't care -- as long as they'll
just say no to communism.

The School might not be teaching "Human Rights Abuses 101," but it's
definitely guiving its clientele a proficiency in the art of terrorism.
There's no way anyone can say that what the School graduates do with that
knowledge is not our responsibility. That would be tantamount to
delivering nuclear devices to a dictator and then claiming that we're not
responsible for the outcome.

Otherwise, let me just say "what Nate said."

Ummm.. go see Tractor Hips tonight at Papagayo. It'll be enough good
rockin' to choke an average-sized mule.

Kevin Kruse


> 
> >I know I'm conveniently ignoring the "no politics here" thing, 
> 
> The person who started this thread took that risk.  You can't discuss 
> TV Nation without discussing politics.  
> 
> but I spent
> >a good part of the late 80s chanting "US Out of Nicaragua" as loud as my
> >teenage lungs would scream, so I'm caught up in it. 
> 
> I'm glad that you had fun in the late 80s, but that has no bearing on 
> whether the School of the Americas is a bad thing, and it certainly has
> no bearing on whether this TV Nation segment was funny.  
> 
> >I believe that running
> >the school is worse than the CIA mining Nicaraguan harbors. 
> 
> Why?  You haven't mentioned a shred of proof that anything improper goes
> on at this school.  
>   
> The US record
> >when it comes to Latin America is shameful, heartless, stupid, and
> >downright criminal. 
> 
> You can find shameful, heartless, stupid, and criminal actions throughout
> our history, and in the conduct of our foreign policy throughout the world.  
> That doesn't mean that our government is responsible for every bad thing
> that goes on in Latin America.  It's been a rough part of the world, whether
> the U.S. is involved or not.  
> 
> 
> >Uhhhh... has anyone heard of defunct (I think) Raleigh (I think) band (I
> >think) Yummy? Comments? 
> 
> Nope, but I did pick up the new Polvo reissue.  When are they coming home
> to play?  I couldn't make their show this spring, and I'd really like
> to see them.  
> 
> 
> 					Ken  kbullock@acpub.duke.edu