Bush's
False Analogies
Between Vietnam And Iraq
By Brian McAfee
08 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
With
President Bush recently bringing up the killing fields of South East
Asia as justification for the US continuing the war in Iraq [1], I could
not help but think of John Pilger's 1991 film "Cambodia: The Betrayal."
This documentary investigates and outlines the West's, particularly
the US's, behind the scenes and ongoing support for Pol Pot and the
Khmer Rouge. Indeed, this backing began during the Carter administration
and it continued throughout both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.
After Pol Pot's incursions
into Vietnam and the slaughter of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in
villages just over the border from Cambodia, Vietnam retaliated and
managed to expel the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh. Hanoi then put in
place a government in Cambodia that was no longer a threat to the Vietnamese.
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge then retreated back into the rural areas
and, subsequently, carried out actions over the western border into
Thailand.
Pilger, who was in Cambodia
in 1979 just after the Khmer Rouge were beaten backby the Vietnamese,
noted in his documentary that the humanitarian needs of the Cambodian
people could not be addressed by the UN at the time because the US and
Britain were actively blocking aid from reaching the civilian population.
Instead of providing help,
the US was funneling weapons and other supplies to the KR. This warmongering
activity apparently went on for over ten years in duration. According
to Pilger, the CIA had fifty people assigned to their project to assist
Pol Pot. Rather than assisting the Cambodian people in recovering from
the nightmare that was Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the US sided with
the mass murderers and gave them aid. In addition, Reagan demanded that
the KR represent Cambodia in the UN. Indeed, he insisted upon this ratification
despite his full knowledge of all the carnage that this regime had carried
out during its three and a half years in power.
At the same time, the US
also strong armed Thailand in defense of the KR when Thailand attempted
to expel its members from Thai bases of operation. Furthermore, the
US threatened cutting off trade with Thailand if the Thai government
did not agree to allow KR groups to be located inside the borders of
Thailand. All considered, Pilger, in his documentary and numerous article
on the subject, can be credited for blowing the lid off of the US criminal
support of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. As for the KR, any revolutionary
movement that knowingly targets civilians for death or "punishment,"
immediately and totally, loses all credibility as a socialist or communist
movement. Meanwhile, groups like RK has become or always were fake socialists
or communists. While their counterparts include Mao and the Chinese
Communist Party and Peru's Shining Path, they all together represent
abominations of the worst sorts, especially when in collusion with Western
imperialist governments.
All considered, Bush's misreading of history, whether deliberately done
or undertaken out of ignorance, provides an opportunity to investigate
and clarify. At the same time, the truth must be exposed in order to
again bring rightfully earned credibility to the authentic socialist
and communist movements. In a similar vein, the truth concerning brutal
US government activities, especially when behind the scenes, must be
always bared! For this reason, Pilger has done a great service and his
works deserve credit for bringing the genuine facts to light.
[1] To see Bush's views,
please refer to: Bush to invoke Vietnam in arguing against Iraq pul...
(www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/21/bush.iraq).
[2] Information concerning
this film can be accessed at: ITV - John
Pilger - Films / DVDs (www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=4).
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