What Nonsense! Colombians Plot to Kill Bush

The New York Times has a story this morning quoting Colombian Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe (no relation to President Uribe) as saying that Marxist rebels were planning to assassinate President Bush last Monday during his little touchdown stopover in Colombia to meet President Alvaro Uribe. No details, no proof. Did your bullshit detector go off? Yeah...mine too. First, anyone who read anything about the Bushmaton visit to the country that produces three-quarters of the world’s cocaine supply, knows that he was in an armored SUV, that helicopters constantly circled overhead and that the security precautions were so excessive that the Prez could not have been safer in his own bedroom. Over the past 15 years the US has poured more than $25 billion into Colombia to eradicate cocaine production and to oust the drug lords and it hasn’t eradicated anything outside of food crops desperately needed by the hungry. The small arms used by the drug lords are weapons the US sent to Latin America to arm paramilitary groups. The drug lords have put on paramilitary uniforms and are now parading around as soldiers who fight the drug wars. But in fact, they are still drug lords producing and trafficking in drugs, only now they are dressed up in military costumes. Bush has just asked Congress to give $566 million to Colombia for the coming year. Three-quarters of the money will be used for military assistance and police training. Colombia has received $3.3 billion since 2000. Most of the money has gone toward military assistance. And our government knows the assistance goes to paramilitary groups who actually are the drug traffickers. So bullshit me not. We are arming paramilitary groups who are protecting the drug trade in not only Colombia but all of Latin America. And why would we do this? To look as though we are stamping out drug trafficking when in fact the US has no interest in stamping out the drug trade anywhere. Not in Afghanistan, not in Burma, not in Latin America and not in the US. We do have an interest in shoring up the oil industry in Colombia now that the situation in Iraq is going from bad to worse. But the US letting drug producers off the hook is just an ongoing quid pro quo. We set up puppet governments around the world who protect our business interests and the US benefits enormously from drug money spent at home. What we are doing in Latin America is what we have been doing for 40 years. We are arming paramilitary groups who protect US business interests. And that crappola about an assassination attempt on the Bushmaton, what does that accomplish? It makes Bush look like a hero. He’s not. It makes the US look serious about stamping out drugs. We’re not. It makes it appear that the fearless Prez is in danger because of his tireless opposition to sin. He’s isn’t and he’s not. But seriously, folks, who would benefit from an assassination attempt on Bush if it were successful? The White House. Cheney could finally come out of the closet and be the real President of the United States. Nobody else cares.