Bush unveils plans for US colonial office

Bush unveils plans for US colonial office (WSWS)
By Bill Van Auken
21 May 2005

The US government is creating a permanent agency tasked with the rapid consolidation of US control in countries targeted by Washington for military aggression. That was President George W. Bush’s essential message in a speech delivered Wednesday to a Republican audience in Washington.

He announced that his administration is proposing $100 million in funding in next year’s budget for a new “conflict response” fund and $24 million for a new Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization within the State Department. This office is to include an “Active Response Corps” made up of government foreign affairs specialists, as well as private consultants and contractors.

Bush wrapped this new initiative in the mantle of democracy. “We are seeing a rise of a new generation whose hearts burn for freedom—and they will have it,” he declared. What they will really have, however, and what the US administration is preparing, is more war. The president picked a sympathetic audience for unveiling his plan: the International Republican Institute, a constituent part of the National Endowment for Democracy. The NED was created more than 20 years ago to use the Republican Party, the Democrats, big business and the AFL-CIO labor bureaucracy as conduits for funding that previously was provided covertly by the CIA to destabilize foreign governments or promote US-backed movements.

The title of the new agency, “Reconstruction and Stabilization,” obviously presupposes acts of destruction and destabilization, which are to be carried out by its counterparts in the Pentagon and American intelligence.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/bush-m21.shtml

...The Onion. But no, this shit's for real. What level of bush* hell are we in now?

I think they must send the people who write for them to classes in old-timey 1930's-style left-wing rhetoric. Sometimes they get just too doctrinaire to stand, but a lot of the time their comments are right on, and they often can be very funny.

Beyond that, the International Republican Institute, to whom the speech was delivered, is a story in itself. They've been playing games of do-it-yourself regime change for years in places like Cambodia and Serbia. See, for example:

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2004/0404iricambodia.php

http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2003/s910824.htm

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2000m11.4/msg00219.htm

Kind of like what the CIA used to do, back in the good old days before outsourcing.

and I read a lot of news there that doesn't show up anywhere else. I've never heard of the International Republican Institute until this article.

Edit: Thanks for the links. :thumbsup:

Freedom from his fascism. Free from corporate rule. Many of our hearts do. Freedom from the heartless.

Than freaking Winston Churchill himself!!!!! It's unbelievable, these people have never under any circumstances been conservative.


Oh yes, Darth Cheney, who must we control now and take over under the guise of democracy?

:eyes: :crazy: :crazy:

I guess they didn't understand the value of PR in duping their own citizens.

The Berliner Zeitung blasts Bush's plan. the paper argues that the Active Response Corps can be understood on three levels
. First, in addition to the US military, there will now be a "political invading force -- intelligent colonizers who are educated in the art of safeguarding the country's prey." The force is merely intended to ensure that each country will follow the political interests of the US.

Second, the force will ensure American influence in the creation of new governments following a regime change.

And third : "The next time you hear about the kidnapping of allegedly innocent American civilians in crisis regions, don't forget Bush's special corps."

I thought Halliburton already had that contract...

he will announce the establishment of the Republican East India Company.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: