24 October 2016
By Jacob G. Hornberger
Who would have ever thought that the drug war would end up producing a good
result? Yet, that is precisely what is happening before our eyes in Asia,
where Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared a separation of the
Philippines from the United States, which might mean a re-closing of U.S.
imperial bases within the country. (The U.S. military was thrown out of the
country in 1991 but later succeeded in restoring its military presence there.)
The reason for the separation? The U.S. government is upset because of the way
that Duterte is trying to ''win'' the war on drugs, one of the federal
government's favorite programs, second only to Social Security and Medicare.
Duterte's drug warriors, both public and private, have been killing drug users
and drug dealers on sight.
Why has that upset U.S. officials? It's hard to know why, since Duterte's
methods in the war on drugs mirror those of the U.S. government in its war on
terrorism. No trial by jury. No due process of law. Just quick, deadly
''justice'' in the form of executions and assassinations.
In any event, Duterte didn't like being lectured to by U.S. officials, at one
point becoming so angry and so indignant with his imperial overlords that he
referred to President Obama in extremely derogative terms.
It gets worse, at least from the perspective of a national-security statist.
Duterte has now reached out to China and offered to make friends with that
communist regime. He has even expressed a willingness to disregard an
international court's judgment in favor of the Philippines on a longstanding
dispute with China over some islands and negotiate a mutually agreeable
solution to the problem.
Needless to say, that has attracted the ire of U.S. national-security statists,
since it entails the removal of one of the principal means by which the U.S.
national-security state can gin up crises with China in that part of the
world. Don't forget, after all, President Obama's ''pivot'' to China, which
would inevitably involve ''crises'' against China, which, in turn, will mean
more fear, which in turn will mean sustained and expanding budgets and power
for the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, along with their armies of contractors
who love feeding at the public warfare trough.
It gets even worse. Duterte has expressed an interest in establishing friendly
relations with Russia. That's Russia, as in Vladimir Putin Russia! Everyone
knows what that means. In the eyes of the national security establishment and
its assets in the mainstream press, that's akin to joining up with Darth
Vader.
Keep in mind imperialist lingo. Under empire speak, there are rivals, enemies,
alliances, allies, friends, and coalitions, which are constantly shifting, as
depicted in George Orwell's 1984. Everyone is expected to shift when the
Empire shifts. Under empire speak, the Philippines has been considered an
''ally'' or a ''friend'' while China is considered a ''rival'' and Russia is
considered an ''enemy.'' Americans need to be preparing themselves to another
big shift, one that puts the Philippines in the category of ''enemy.''
We know what happened to rulers during Cold War I who expressed an interest in
establishing friendly relations with the Soviet Union, which was the U.S.
government's official enemy during Cold War I, after being an official friend
and ally in World War II. They ended up ousted from power or even dead for
being threats to ''national security.''
One example was Salvador Allende, the democratically elected president of
Chile who reached out to the Soviet Union during Cold War I. He ended up dead
during the U.S. national-security state's coup in Chile in 1973. Guatemalan
president Jacobo Arbenz survived the CIA's kill list in Guatemala but was
nonetheless violently removed from power and thrown into permanent exile. If
the CIA-Mafia partnership had gotten its way, Cuba's Fidel Castro would have
ended up assassinated as well, as Congo's democratically elected prime
minister Patrice Lamumba did.
Thus, during Cold War II Duterte might well find himself in the hereafter for
his ''treason'' and ''betrayal'' of the U.S. Empire and his befriending of
communism and authoritarianism by reaching out to the U.S. government's two
principal Cold War II rivals and enemies, China and Russia.
At the same time, more people might finally be getting a sense of the
magnitude of the war between President Kennedy and the U.S. national-security
establishment from the time of the CIA's Bay of Pigs disaster, when JFK fired
CIA Director Allen Dulles, to the time that Kennedy was assassinated. At the
moment he was murdered, Kennedy was doing what Duterte is doing and, for that
matter, what Allende, Arbenz, Castro, and Lamumba were doing: He was reaching
out to the Soviet Union and Cuba in a spirit of friendship and peaceful
coexistence. (See FFF ebook, JFK's War with the National Security
Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated'' by Douglas Horne, who served on
the staff of the Assassination Record's Review Board.)
To the ire of the national-security state and its assets within the
conservative movement, Kennedy delivered his famous Peace Speech at American
University, where he announced an end to Cold War I and his intent to
establish peaceful coexistence with the communist world. He entered into a
nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviets. Worst of all, insofar as U.S.
national-security statists were concerned, he entered into secret personal
negotiations with the Soviets and the Cubans to end Cold War I.
Given the extreme concern and animosity against Rodrigo Duterte for simply
disassociating himself from the Empire and reaching out to China and Russia,
it becomes easier for Americans to more fully understand and appreciate the
depth of the rage that Kennedy's actions engendered within the U.S.
national-security establishment and Cold War I warriors within the
conservative movement. To get a sense of the depth of that, see this
right-wing flier that was published on the eve of Kennedy's assassination:
''Wanted for Treason.''
The solution to Duterte's drug-war methods is not lectures by U.S. officials,
who are hypocritically waging their war on terrorism in the same way that
Duterte is waging the war on drugs. The solution is for the United States to
lead the world by example by ending the drug war and legalizing drugs (and
also ending its war on terrorism, together with the Duterte-like way that U.S.
officials have been waging it).
In the meantime, let's hope that more foreign regimes will follow Duterte's
lead by declaring to the U.S. government: ''Yankee, go home!'' while
establishing or maintaining friendly relations with the American people.
Helping to dismantle the U.S. national-security state's foreign empire of
military bases, alliances, rivals, enemies, and coalitions of the willing
would be the greatest gift that the world could ever give to America.
Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom
Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in
economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the
University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He
also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught
law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become
director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has
advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the
country as well as on Fox News' Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and
he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano's show
Freedom Watch. View these interviews at LewRockwell.com and from Full
Context.
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