TS,
You certaintly do not have to worry about note being cited appropriately. At least by me
Here is what I have drawn up, feel free to post suggested changes/additions/removals/corrections:
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The article recently published concerning Guatemala is
disgustingly unresearched and naive. I hope the Breeze weeds
out such misguided works in the future, and Ms. Novak gains
some situational awareness.
I am cynical when I hear how America is responsible for
large amounts of suffering, thus I showed the article to US
Army Special Forces soldiers via
www.professionalsoldiers.com. Everyone on this website who has "Quiet Professional" under their screen name is a verified Special Forces soldier.
For those of you not familar with the US Army Special Forces, these soldiers are trained to become experts in foreign culture; learning langauge, history, economics...everything they can about their area of responsibility in addition to military training and learning the art of teaching.
Here is my question to them and the responses of several US
Army Special Forces soldiers. I hope these men can dispel the liberal lies so definitely stated by Ms. Novak, and encourage her and others to do their research before writing into a newspaper read by intelligent people with good situational awareness:
Quiet Professionals,
Today a girl who went on a mission trip to Guatemala
published an article in JMU's newspaper saying how horrible
the conditions were and that it was all America's fault,
someone obviously told her all this.
She stated that much of the strife there was a result
of our support and military advisorship of some Guatamalan
faction during the cold war. She states our military
training which we provided was put to ill use in Guatemala's
civil war.
Here is the article:
http://www.thebreeze.org/2007/03-
15/op3.html
I'm fairly cynical when I hear about how America is at fault
for a country's suffering. So...did America bail on
Guatemala or is this another case of some liberal
indoctrinating students with hate-america BS?
- Dub
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Response from a Green Beret:
As far as Guatemala goes, they were concerned about the spreading insurgencies and cracked down pretty hard on the dissidents, but that is not our fault, despite what the Socialist Workers Party would have us believe.
The corruption, concentration of wealth, a high indigenous (Indian) population, and lack of natural resources conspire to keep most of the country impoverished.
Again, another country seeking to blame us to divert attention from their internal problems.
And American college kids will believe anything, especially bad news about their own country.
TR
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Response from a Green Beret:
I own a home and have family in 'guate'...and speak from
both personal/professional observation of this phenomena of
self-loathing from Americans. The majority have no more than
transient experience with the LATAM regions or populations
which they later starting spouting leftist sound-bites about.
There is an entire sub-culture (industry) in LATAM that
feeds off transient US students/travelers and dominates the
areas these people are 'herded' within respective countries
and the folks they are exposed to...it's usually a function
of convenience as the groups provide the entree most
Americans lack - Language.
Many feel they are getting an 'authentic' taste of the
envronment and indigenous people when in actuality it's a
gristmill the locals have had down pat for 20+ years.
As for our QP members (most who speak the language of areas
they frequent) - we tend to avoid the above locales like the
plague, as do many of the self-respecting citizens of those
countries...while everyone loves a good conspiracy in LATAM,
when you get to the root causes of failure/success in any
given country it comes back to the inhabitants
action/inaction regarding cronyism, nepotism, and other
forms of corruption (and sheer incompetence) - not a
superpower boogeyman like USA, Russia, China....the idiots
in Cuba, Venezuela, and perhaps Nicaragua (word is Danny O.
has seen the capitalist light - but is just using old FSLN
soundbites for votes) have no one to blame but themselves.
As for Guatemala's situation...any gripes there reference
USA are throwback ploys used to sucker the same folks that
buy Che' T-shirts and attend Cindy Sheehan rallies - no
substance.
It's an easy business to get into, and there's fresh meat
every semester/summer.
salud,
1-0
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Another response from TR:
Do you know how many Guatemalans flee Guatemala every year
for the US?
I add this only to point out that it is hard for me to
accept that if the average Guatemalan actually believed that
the US had destroyed his country by training the Army to
oppress the population, that they would come here to the
source of all evil as they perceive it.
The point your friend raised about the lack of motivation
among the indig is valid and frequently observed. I have
often wondered why we were there as visitors repairing
schools, building clinics, etc. At one such event, I asked
the host nation military counterpart why we didn't just
provide the paint and brushes and let the parents who were
watching us paint their children's school do it themselves,
he explained that they would just sell the paint and gear in
the local marketplace for whatever it would bring. Curious.
I have been to every country in Latin America except for
one, and started going there in 1985. Over the years, I have
lived in Latin America for more than seven years. I have an
undergrad degree in Political Science and a Masters in
Military Arts and Sciences with a concentration in History.
I have a pretty good background in National Defense, from
Unconventional Warfare to Foreign Internal Defense. My
Spanish is rated at a 3/3 level, the highest a non-native
speaker can attain. During my time there, I have walked the
streets alone in some poor neighborhoods, interacted with
Presidents and worked directly for US Ambassadors, as well
as soldados. I have been responsible for the execution of US
military strategy in those countries. I tell you this not to
toot my horn, but to establish a basis of credibility
against being labeled as "tainted", and to say that I think
I know a little bit more about the region than your basic
tourist.
The US is not responsible for the strife in that country or
that region. The internal policies and problems of those
countries are. The training the US provided to the Latin
American nations is normally basic FM 7-8 and & 7-10 type
operations, and includes large blocks of instruction on
Human Rights.
The worst I have heard is that some personnel were taught
interrogation techniques by US Military Intelligence
personnel. I can assure you that anyone captured in the
region would MUCH rather be interrogated for months by US
personnel than being questioned for a day by the local
descendants of the Aztecs or Mayans. I am sure that
US "torture" techniques like sleep deprivation or loud music
would be very familiiar to most college students.
There is an group of semi-educated people in most foreign
countries that exists by blaming the US for all evils there,
even if they have been the recipients of large amounts of US
foreign aid. They have counterparts in the US (mostly in
academia) who make a living by doing the same. A short
overseas tour in the service of one's country to see the
world from a different perspective is usually enough to
correct the blind acceptance of that view.
Best of luck.
TR
__________________
"On a night in mid-October 2001, 11 members of an A-
detachment from the 5th SF Group dropped into a valley deep
inside Taliban territory in central Afghanistan....Gentlemen, every man on that team was carrying America's foreign policy on his shoulders, and
that's one hell of a responsibility."
- CWO3 Charles E. Simmons, U.S. Army SF
De Oppresso Liber
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Another Green Beret states:
Guatemala is a LATAM gap state - for a lot of reasons. The
US does not have a responsibility to Guatemala, we do what
is in our own interests.
- NDD
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You can read more about gap states here:
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/publi...gonsnewmap.htm
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