The Liberty Letter – Of The People, For The People

“Foreign Policy” is a catch-all phrase that describes the way the United States deals with other countries. In cases like Israel, the US provides billions of dollars in “foreign aid” and then Israel spends a good portion of it on US-designed and built weaponry. Foreign aid can also come in the form of loans to countries to upgrade their infrastructure or other projects that promote “US interests”. Many, if not most, of these deals are made via private corporations that obtain exclusive rights to the engineering project or banking servicing aspect of the project so that they retain most of the profits from the deal. When the country cannot pay back the loans, which happens most of the time, the US uses that leverage politically to get what it needs, again, to promote “US interests”. The US prefers to deal with dictatorial leadership because they don’t need much effort for regime change. Examples are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Argentina, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and, presently, Syria and Iran (again).

This practice of loan-sharking is only slightly more sophisticated than the outright pillaging that was done in Central and Southern America by Spain and England in the 15th Century. Armadas of gold-, silver- and sugar-laden ships — billions of dollars in 15th Century valuation — passed across the Atlantic Ocean to the cathedrals, palaces, vaults and dinner tables of Spanish and English aristocracy while the natives were put in slavery to mine the ore, cut the sugar cane or, in general, harvest the natural resources of that country. The US does it now with Economic Hit Men (EHM), which are men and women that embed themselves in the country of interest, provide mostly false information for infrastructure projects, negotiate the terms of the project (including the “guaranteed financing”), and then go on their merry way to the next project/country. The US is very good at it and this process can be found in pretty much every regime change scenario in the last 50 years.

One last tidbit of information: In 2009, the US had provided $739B to foreign countries in the forms of military, agricultural, cultural (USAID), and State Department and “other agency” support and that doesn’t include “black” programs, such as the CIA, NSA, FBI or other conveniently classified funded efforts. We could sure use that money domestically, couldn’t we? (Ref.: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html)

For more information, check out the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, by John Perkins.