March 2, 2005

I don't have anything in particular to rant about tonight but a few things that I find interesting and irritating at the same time.

Cambodia: On the way home tonight I was listening to NPR and they had on the author of a book on Cambodia. In particular the Khmer Rouge when Pol Pot was in power. I'm a Viet Nam vet so I remembered much about this. The Khmer Rouge took power in April of 1975 and between 1.5 and 3 million people were executed, worked to death or starved over the next 3 years. This is where the term "killing fields" comes from. I'm coming to the point so stay with me.

Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 removing the Khmer Rouge from power. Guess what the U.S. did in response? We started supporting the Khmer Rouge in a guerilla war against the Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge main weapon was land mines and they literally planted millions of them in Cambodia provided by the U.S., China and some other "advanced" nations. Land mines kill more children in Cambodia to day than any other cause.

I knew about the killing fields. I didn't know that you and I, through our representative government, supported the people the killers of millions of people through the 1980s. This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. Congresses and Presidents of both parties sent money and gave support to them. Children are dying today because of it.

Vermont: On that happy note, I get home, turn on my window to the world and find out that, as expected, Vermont's unique brand of democracy produced 52 communities who introduced, debated and passed anti-war resolutions in town hall community meetings. Three cheers for Vermont!!

Uruguay: Yesterday Tabare Vazquez the newly elected President of Uruguay took office. He's a socialist and his first official act was to restore relations with Cuba. "I'm praying this means we will eventually have a better Uruguay," said President Vazquez. "One where there is better public health, better public education and work opportunities for everyone." Let's see, we have Vazquez in Uruguay, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Ricardo Lagos in Chile, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and our old buddy Castro still giving 4 hour speeches in Cuba. This is what happens when you let people vote.

When people are poor and hungry without a future, and all the wealth of a country is controlled by a very small elite group of people, they turn to populist leaders who are socialist or worse (communist). They elect governments who promise to take the wealth from the 1% who have it and redistribute it. These democratically elected socialist leaning governments are coming to power all over South America. Start paying attention to what the administration says about them and what we do to destabilize them.

Written by Steve Larson