The Debate: "America's Foreign Policy does MORE HARM than Good"

The debate was held on October 9, 2003 at venerable Trinity College in Dublin. Organized by the University Philosophical Society.

Speakers for the Proposition:

William Blum, American author;

David Barsamian, American radio journalist and author; and

Tom Hanahoe, Irish author.

Against the Proposition:

John Bruton, former Irish prime minister;

Bill Rammell, British MP and minister in the Foreign Office; and

Gideon Rose, Managing Editor of "Foreign Affairs", the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former member of the Clinton National Security Council.

Excerpts from William Blum's presentation during the Debate ie American foreign policy does MORE HARM

United States' engagement with the world from the end of World War II to the present:

1. Attempting to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments.
   
   
2. Unprovoked military invasion of some 20 sovereign nations.
   
   
3. Working to crush more than 30 populist movements which were fighting against dictatorial regimes.
   
   
4. Providing indispensable support to a small army of brutal dictatorships:
   
   • Mobutu of Zaire,
     
   • Pinochet of Chile,
     
   • Duvalier of Haiti,
     
   • Somoza of Nicaragua,
     
   • the Greek junta,
     
   • Marcos of the Philippines,
     
   • Rhee of Korea,
     
   • the Shah of Iran,
     
   • 40 years of military dictators in Guatemala,
     
   • Suharto of Indonesia,
     
   • Hussein of Iraq,
     
   • the Brazilian junta,
     
   • Trujillo of the Dominican Republic,
     
   • the Taliban of Afghanistan,
     
   • and others.
   
   
5. Dropping powerful bombs on the people of about 25 countries, including:
   
   • 40 consecutive days and nights in Iraq,
     
   • 78 days and nights in Yugoslavia, and
     
   • several months in Afghanistan,
   
   All these three of these countries having met the first requirement as an American bombing target -- being completely defenseless.
   
   And not once ever has the United States come even close to repairing the great damage caused by its bombings. Afghanistan and Iraq are of course the latest examples.
   
   
6. Increasing use of depleted uranium, one of the most despicable weapons ever designed by mankind, which produces grossly deformed babies amongst its many endearing qualities, and which, in a civilized world not intimidated by the United States, would be categorically banned.
   
   
7. Repeated use of cluster bombs, another fiendish device designed by a mad scientist, which has robbed numerous young people of one or more limbs, and some of their eyesight, and continues to do so every day in many countries as the bombs remain on the ground.
   
   
8. Assassination attempts on the lives of some 40 foreign political leaders.
   
   
9. Crude interference in dozens of foreign democratic elections.
   
   
10. Gross manipulation of labor movements.
    
    
11. Shameless manufacture of "news", the disinformation effect of which is multiplied when CIA assets in other countries pick up the same stories.
    
    
12. Providing handbooks, materials and encouragement for the practice of torture.
    
    
13. Chemical or biological warfare or the testing of such weapons, and the use of powerful herbicides, all causing terrible effects to the people and environments of
    • China,
    • Korea,
    • Vietnam,
    • Laos,
    • Panama,
    • Cuba,
    • Iraq,
    • Afghanistan,
    • Serbia and
    • elsewhere.
    
    
14. Encouragement of drug trafficking in various parts of the world when it served the CIA's purposes.
    
    
15. Supporting death squads, especially in Latin America.
    
    
16. Causing grievous harm to the health and well-being of the world's masses by turning the screws of the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and other international financial institutions, as well as by imposing unmerciful sanctions and embargoes.
    
    
17. Much of the above has led to millions of refugees wandering homeless over the earth.

And what do those who champion the mystique of "America" offer in defense of this record?

Well, denial is the first line of defense -- Well-known and respected foreign policy analysts in the United States write entire books on American foreign policy with scarcely a hint of what I've just mentioned.

When all else fails, they fall back on the argument that "The United States means well." It may sometimes blunder, even occasionally do a bit more harm than good as things turn out ... but the intention is always benevolent.

AFGHANISTAN

Let us look at a recent example of what some people would say was evidence of US foreign policy being a force for good -- Afghanistan, where the awful Taliban were overthrown.

How can one argue against that?

• Well, in the past the past two years, US bombings and ground combat have taken the lives of many thousands of innocent civilians in addition to killing many so-called combatants, who are simply anyone defending against the US invasion;
  
• countless homes and other buildings have been demolished;
  
• depleted uranium has begun to show its ugly face;
  
• the warlords have returned to extensive power;
  
• opium cultivation is booming anew;
  
• crime and violence have once again become a daily fact of life;
  
• the (Afghan) president is nothing less than an American puppet;
  
• and the country is occupied by foreign troops (i.e., American) who often treat the population badly, including the use of torture;

Afghanistan has become a protectorate of the US and NATO.

The awful Taliban regime would never have come to power in the first place if the United States, in the 1980s and 90s, had not played an essential role in the overthrow of a secular and fairly progressive government, which allowed women much more freedom than they'll ever have under the current government.

Washington's agenda in this case are secure oil and gas pipelines, military bases, and, if and when security can be instituted, the forces of globalization will march in.

Meanwhile in Iraq, what the US bombing, invasion and occupation have brought to the people there is every bit as appalling.

William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir. He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com

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