John “blood? What blood?” Negroponte

G Dubya appointed Mr. Negroponte as the new National Intelligence chief. Just a few months ago [feels like yesterday] he was made ambassador to Iraq. Why this sudden change?
Well let’s trace back to the somber and sinister past of Mr. Negroponte. This is no usual “career diplomat” as the BBC disappointingly claims. Theirs is much blood on Negroponte’s hands.
After the Vietnam War, there was a lot of embarrassment in the USA. The pretender to the title of champion of the free world became an explicit symbol of imperialism and of tyranny, given the ease with which it committed itself to a conflict that was none of its business, but also the ease with which it made use of sick chemical weapons, in mass [napalm].
In case it isn’t obvious, to me, the USA should have been punished for crimes against humanity in Vietnam. People are still born deformed, and still live ill lives and eventually die miserably because of Agent Orange, and the extent of its use. Mr. Negroponte was officer in charge of the National Security Council in Vietnam from 1971 to 1973.

After Vietnam, the USA took a break from midsized opponents and decided to stick to bullying its little South American neighbors. Mr. Negroponte thus became in 1981, the ambassador to Honduras, until 1985. Those were the early days, you might recall, of the Iran-Contras affair, in which US arms were sold to Iran and the proceeds were diverted to support the contra rebels in Nicaragua, fighting to remove the Sandinista regime, allegedly pro-Soviet and non-democratic. Mr. Negroponte also clearly had a role in ensuring that the dictatorial regime in Honduras stayed in power and supported the USA’s initiatives against popular movements in the entire region.

Later on after a bogus job related to the environment and some embassy postings, in 1996, he didn’t do much, oh well, the odd mass grave cover up at a US Army base in Panama, and so on. This and more is from
http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=John_Negroponte , absolutely great stuff.

Not so dramatic conclusion: Negroponte is more of a career spook and neo-con rather than a diplomat. So it is not surprising to see him now as Chief of National Intelligence. But I’ll tell you one thing. When one reads about the mess people like him have made in the world, one wonders what’s ahead. These are people that fit into one of the following categories, but unfortunately most likely, the second one:

1- In securing their interests, they don’t realize the damage they’re doing, and the hatred they’re causing
2- In securing their interests, they very much realize the damage and hatred generated by their outrageous actions but simply don’t care; and they trust that worse comes to worse, the USA can always bomb the heck out of any would-be trouble makers.
Some people think there’s a third category, but I don’t think it exists. Here it is:
3- In securing their interests, they believe their actions are inherently good and make the world better, but simply don’t realize their way is wrong.

These are people who see and witness the horror that other people have to endure because of their actions, and do nothing. These are people who then see the cost of that disregard in terms of violent hatred and acts against Americans, and still do nothing. If anything, this is probably all good for them. It is, after all, because of 9-11 that the USA finally got rid of the Taliban… a regime it helped create not so long ago.

Sad world we live in…