The images are searing. Helicopters ferrying diplomatic personnel from the U.S. Embassy while plumes of black smoke billow from the building. Taliban fighters with heavy artillery parade through the thoroughfares of provincial capitals. The International Airport, still under U.S. control, is in chaos as collaborators try storm planes to flee the country. In the space of a few weeks the puppet government collapsed, and its figureheads have vanished. The decades of occupation have come to an end. Those that fought to end it now sit at the former president’s desk.
El mismo día que George W. Bush declaró, “He ganado capital político en la campaña electoral, y voy a gastarlo,” oficiales de alto rango dijeron que en el segundo mandato de su presidencia Bush reenfoquaría su energía en América Latina. En el primer año de su segundo mandato, Bush quiere aprobar el Tratado de Libre Comercio con los países centroamericanos y la República Dominicana (TLC – conocido como “CAFTA” en inglés), como primer paso para lograr el Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA) para toda Latinoamérica en 2006.
Make no mistake about it: the Bush administration is waging a war at home and abroad. While bombs rain down on Afghanistan, destroying homes, hospitals and mosques, the White House is presiding over an assault on the rights and on the standard of living of working and oppressed peoples at home.
La propuesta del Presidente Bush sobre inmigración no busca solucionar los problemas verdaderos de los más de 10 millones de trabajadores indocumentados en este país. Es nada más una repetición de programas anteriores para ‘trabajadores temporales’ que deja a los inmigrantes en pobreza, sin ninguna garantía de seguridad, residencia y justicia.
President Bush embarked on a Latin American tour March 8-14 that included stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. The tour was billed in the mainstream media as an opportunity to ‘bolster relations with our neighbors to the south’ and to ‘remind Latin Americans that Bush hasn’t forgotten about them,’ but people who know better recognized Bush’s true motives: to strengthen free trade agreements that maximize corporate profits through the exploitation of resources and workers and to minimize the influence of Hugo Chavez, the widely popular president of Venezuela.
Calcutta, India – Thousands marched through the streets of Calcutta, March 1, to protest Bush’s visit to India. Organized by the Socialist Unity Center of India, the chant of, “Butcher Bush – go back!” rang across the city.
The Bush proposal on immigration does not address the real problems of the more than ten million undocumented workers in this country. It is simply a recycled version of past ‘guest worker’ programs which lock immigrant workers into poverty, without providing any real path for toward security, residency and justice.
President George Bush has made his long-awaited speech on the situation in Palestine. He said no more than a few sentences about the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and the continued theft of more land to build more Jewish-only settlements. Nothing was said about Israel's war plans or the escalation of Israeli violence that has included a wave of assassinations, 24-hour curfews, checkpoints, massive arrests and the destruction of all equipment and buildings needed in the major cities of the West Bank, such as Nablus, Jenin and Ramallah.
