Devine notes: >>The [Washington Post] runs a fine Walter Pincus story inside on a woefully >underreported topic, that of U.S. military sales to foreign governments. It >seems that the current Pentagon budget has created a perverse incentive: >the more surplus ships are sold overseas, the more extra weapons the >Pentagon can purchase. Under the arrangement, the DOD gets an additional >$600 million in goodies while near-state-of-the-art ships are going to >sworn enemies Turkey (14 vessels) and Greece (11). < > >This, plus the similar incentives in the Drug War, suggest that the >government is sliding toward being capitalist in its day-to-day practices >(rather than simply its committment). Yup. And since Helms had a deadlock on State Deaprtment appointments for so long, and Clinton was devoid of ideas/energy, policy towards latin america has become a mish mash derivative of drug war/miltary sales/commercial opening policies. There IS NO substantive Latin America policy; in it's place military-to-miltary contacts are filling the void. Another legacy of this Democratic administration, I sugest, will be the re-militarization of latin american politics/society. In yesterdays' paper, we read president and former dictator Gen. Banzer just proudly gave the Bolivian military $860,000 worth of new vehicles to help "combat poverty". Right. Tom Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
