The CIA’s always-useful World Fact book says that a staggering 6.3 million Colombians have been internally displaced (IDP) since 1985, with ‘about 300,000 new IDPs each year since 2000,’ the year Bill Clinton enacted Plan Colombia. Added up, that’s 2.4 million people during Clinton’s eight-year presidency. Greg Grandin Read Quote
If you search for Colombia on The Nation’s website, you will see how key the country has been in regional politics. Greg Grandin Read Quote
According to some tallies, since 1776, the United States has been at war 93 percent of its existence, passing through a mere 21 years of peace. Greg Grandin Read Quote
America is exceptional, it is asserted, because, with the exception of the abolition of slavery, it has been able to extend the promise of liberal reform mostly peacefully, through its democratic institutions. Greg Grandin Read Quote
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, heavy-handedly provoked South American governments on any number of issues, including a rush to endorse the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela, which only worked to steel resistance and build solidarity. Greg Grandin Read Quote
Honduras in 2009 and Paraguay in 2012 were low-hanging fruit, small countries with outsized oligarchies, where mild reformers were easily dispatched. Greg Grandin Read Quote
Without U.S. input, the countries of South America joined forces in 2008 to shut down a coup attempt in Bolivia and prevented a war between Ecuador and Colombia. Greg Grandin Read Quote
Toughness’ and ‘credibility’ are leitmotifs that run through both Trumpian and Kissingerian deal-making. Both men insist that war and diplomacy are inseparable and that, to be effective, diplomats need to be able to wield threats and offer incentives in equal, unrestricted measure. Greg Grandin Read Quote
Kissinger celebrants inevitably point to two things to justify their admiration: an opening to China – ‘rapprochement’ – and improved relations with the Soviet Union – detente – which included SALT, a historic arms-limitation treaty. Greg Grandin Read Quote
Endorsing Ronald Reagan in 1980, Kissinger threw in with America’s new militarists, who would jump-start a revived Cold War and drive to retake the Third World. Greg Grandin Read Quote