Nolan Dalla

Past Mistakes and Modern Consequences

 

 

PAST MISTAKES AND MODERN CONSEQUENCES:  A SHORT ESSAY ON HOW AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY A GENERATION AGO CREATED TODAY’S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHAOS

 

When we discuss “illegal immigration” and the state of “border security” in the United States, the glaring omission that bothers me most is our failure to recognize America’s IRREFUTABLE DUPLICITY in the very long and sad history of economic chaos and political instability throughout many parts of Latin America.

This has caused people in those countries to flee their troubled homelands.

Today, we are paying for the dirty deeds of the Cold War era and the catastrophically misguided foreign policy of previous generations circa 1950-1990 that might otherwise have prevented the problems we now face today. Actions do have consequences. Let’s also note that the real victims are often children, who have no guilt. We owe them a commitment to try and make things better.

Ask yourself why so many Latino migrants are fleeing acute poverty and orchestrated terror, particularly from Central America?  What created the terrible conditions inside many of those countries?

Here’s a theory: Perhaps it’s the many American-backed and fully-funded right-wing military dictatorships, the death squads, and the enslavement of working-class people by economic interests largely controlled by multi-national corporations. Could that have played ANY role in creating chaos, ya’ think?

Perhaps it’s the United States for decades backing brutal despots who murdered their own people, shut down the free press, suppressed and outlawed labor unions, and blocked agrarian land reforms that would have given property to peasants. Gee, maybe had the working-class people in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and other countries been able to create a MIDDLE CLASS and build a FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY, they wouldn’t be stuck living in poverty and terror today. Gee, maybe the CIA’s secret plots to overthrow and destroy “leftists” in the region — all a matter of record — which even included the attempted subversion of entire economies including blockades and plots to create crop failures ruined the foundations of what could have been stable societies.

The evidence on all of this is overwhelming and damning. Yet, it’s NEVER discussed. I have yet to see any significant media outlet (let alone individual) CONNECT THE DOTS between THEN and NOW which are so obvious.

I’m not sure exactly how to solve many of the problems related to mass migration and caravans and other aspects of border security. There are no easy solutions. But a good start in the current debate might be recognizing reality and acknowledging our own history and role in contributing to the discord.

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