When I began thinking about this topic and doing my research, I
realized that I should be discussing not only about war and health but,
more importantly, on the war against the people’s right and access to
health.
The two wars against the people’s right and access to health occurred
simultaneously during the last decade of the previous century: the war
of globalization and the war against “terrorist states,” “rogue
states,” “the axis of evil,” and eventually the war on terror. The war
on terror did not begin with the World Trade Center attacks in September
11, 2001. If began after the change in the political landscape in
Eastern Europe and the USSR and the conception of the Defense Policy
Guidelines in 1992 by then Defense Sec. Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz,
and the 2000 policy paper “Rebuilding America’s Defenses – Strategy,
Forces, and Resources for a New Century” of the conservative think tank
Project for a New American Century, which, by the way, is comprised of
the very same group of people: Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb
Bush, I. Lewis Libby, and Donald Rumsfeld, who became the Defense
secretary of Bush Jr.
The change in political landscape in the Eastern bloc during the
latter part of the 1980s provided both an opportunity and a challenge to
the US. The communist bogey no longer exists while at the same time,
it provided the US with the opportunity to use its political and
military dominance to push for its own economic interests and agenda.
Thus, even as there was no longer any serious challenge to its hegemony,
it refused to downscale its military spending. It even increased it by
creating a hype about a supposed new specter: Islamic fundamentalism.
That is why even before the September 2011 attacks, the US, in its
defense policy paper “Rebuilding America’s Defense – Strategy, Forces,
and Resources for a New Century,” was already able to underline the
principles that would shape its global “defense” policy. The 9-11
attacks merely gave the US the perfect excuse to launch its war on
terror.
What were these principles guiding US defense policy and global positioning?
• we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to
carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed
forces for the future;
• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;
• we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad;
• we need to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in
preserving and extending an international order friendly to our
security, our prosperity, and our principles
Those countries that were included in the list of “terrorist,”
“rogue,” or “evil,” states are those that “stridently oppose US presence
and influence in their regions” and those that oppose “economic
freedom” or the “free market ideology” of globalization.
Globalization, as we experienced it during the last two decades is
about “downplaying government intervention” in the economy, of
controlling budget deficits, and deep cuts in government social
spending. It is, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz, about
“austerity packages and privatization.” And among the most hit by these
measures are the budgets for health and education. And the countries
that refuse these measures, as well as US power projections run the risk
of being targets of the US war on terror.....
MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL:
http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/09/24/benjie-oliveros-war-and-health/
