Now, fascism is alive and well, in the world, thanks to nearly sixty years of American support around the globe, so why is this newsworthy, you may ask?
Well, have you noticed how the "international community" has been responding to this recent turn of events? What caught my eye was the US diplomatically isolating Austria right off the bat. This is because this is utterly atypical behavior for the US. In fact, when you look at the American track record with neo-fascist governments, you find not diplomatic isolation, but outright support.
Then much of Europe and the world proceeded to isolate Austria, causing all kinds of hoopla. Again, this is a very interesting thing to observe. Why have the nations of the world responded this way? What is different?
The difference is that this neo-fascist government has occurred in a First-World nation. That's the difference. That is, a nation that "matters" to the business elites of the world. From the US perspective, it's one thing for a Third World nation to be in the grips of a brutal, murderous regime -- say, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina, etc., etc.
Clearly, from US policy perspective, neo-fascist governments are okay in those parts of the world. But when you have one in a First World nation, the rules suddenly change. Then these same governments that have actively supported neo-fascists around the world decide that they can't stomach a government like that in Europe. No doubt, because it is a destabilizing force.
This is very interesting to observe. Don't expect this sudden commitment to opposing neo-fascism to extend south of the Equator. Instead, you'll find a continued US commitment to keeping neo-fascism alive and well into the 21st century. The recent flood of proposed US military aid to Colombia being only one example among many. The message is clear: fascism is fine for the poor nations of the world, but keep it out of Europe and I'm sure Japan, too.
I'm all for the eradication of fascism wherever it appears; if only US policymakers felt the same.
I should add a brief explanation of what I mean by neo-fascist. Basically, a fascist or neo-fascist government is one that is characterized by several things:
I may have missed a few qualities, but this captures the essence of it. All of the recipients of US foreign military aid in the Third World particularly have these qualities, to varying degrees. In fact, you can just go down the list of the regimes the US supports in Latin America alone to find dozens of examples of this.
2/29/00
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