Saying no to slaughter
Hehir, J. Bryan
WORLD WATCH J. Bryan Hehir SAYING NO TO SLAUGHTER CONGRESSMAN OBEY'S MODEST VICTORIES It would appear that neither American public opinion nor the U.S. political process has any time for...
...policy toward Central America deserve support...
...And some of what is transpiring is cause for at least modest optimism...
...involvement in Central America...
...did was misguided and counterproductive...
...but reconstruction is not possible in El Salvador without outside assistance...
...One estimate is that $2 billion is needed to provide the possibility for life beyond war in a country which lost 75,000 lives over the last decade...
...policy...
...The fact that the new economic reality facing the country is tied to wider international economic relationships is acknowledged but the debate is domestically focused...
...policy, and he used the crucial if limited role of his chairmanship to oppose escalation of U.S...
...The critique fails on two grounds: (1) the votes to simply cut off military aid were—to the best of my knowledge—not there...
...aid to the contras in Nicaragua...
...Each year at this time—often, ironically, during Holy Week—the appropriations battles would be fought in congressional committees about military and economic aid to El Salvador and/or U.S...
...In Cambodia, Afghanistan, Southern Africa, and the Middle East, long-standing, intractable problems began to yield to negotiation and mediation...
...These regional wars have all had local roots and causes—a fact not always recognized by U.S...
...Congress...
...the precarious state of the economy—experienced for millions of Americans through unemployment or the threat of it—the Savings and Loan debacle, and the widespread public reaction to a series of congressional selfinflicted wounds, have driven the rest of the world from American political discourse...
...policy of the 1980s incurred a moral obligation for the future...
...A cease-fire has been in effect since February, a complex series of internal reforms is being negotiated, and proposals for both local and international efforts to rebuild a ravaged economy are being formulated...
...The election will be contested on the grounds of economic security and stability in a country trying to adapt to new patterns of economic competition...
...He used his committee hearings to debate the substantive issues of U.S...
...Much of what the U.S...
...The end of the cold war, in turn, has had a dramatic effect on regional conflicts...
...This year, he and others have shaped an appropriation which will: (1) limit military aid to nonlethal items and use such aid to reduce and restructure the role of the Salvadoran armed forces...
...and (2), the present legislation gives the U.S...
...In addition to the specific provisions on military aid, Obey's efforts to fashion a long-term U.S...
...It is useful to contrast this pattern which consumed the 1980s with the reality of the 1990s...
...The peace process must include the reconstruction dimension...
...But the U.S.-Soviet competition escalated the local conflict to a qualitatively different level of violence...
...But the cold-war competition invariably made the regional wars more intense, more destructive, and very resistant to resolution...
...The presidential campaigns are devoid of foreign policy questions...
...In this new context it is important to attend to the Foreign Aid Appropriation which has just passed the U.S...
...policy, to refocus it from military to political and economic measures, owe Obey a debt of gratitude...
...For a full decade, 1979-1989, the war in Central America reached from the killing fields of El Salvador and Nicaragua to the halls of the U.S...
...As the church in Central America said often, the roots of conflict in the 1980s were sunk in the soil of economic injustice, political oppression, and gross violations of human rights...
...auspices...
...The El Salvador section was fashioned in the House Appropriations Committee under the leadership of Congressman David Obey (D-Wis...
...To some degree the old superpowers have contributed to the shift from war to diplomacy, but the dominant institution has been the United States...
...From Central America, to Southern Africa, to the Middle East the last twenty years have been a time of war, insurgency, brutal devastation of the civilian population, and economic catastrophe...
...The new legislation is a first step, but other steps of larger proportion will be needed...
...Central America is the principal example of this phenomenon...
...In concert with a core group of House and Senate members, Obey fought the trench warfare in congressional committees to refashion U.S...
...Obey is a veteran of the Central America debate, and those who tried for the past decade to contain U.S...
...Congress some continued leverage in pushing ahead the reduction of the Salvadoran military...
...The world, however, is with us whether we pay attention to it or not...
...the chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations...
...Congress...
...Year in and year out congressional hearings would be pitched battles, often between the church communities and the Reagan administration over aid to Central America...
...Those who believe that of the 1980s have both the opportunity and the obligation to shape a different kind of engagement in the 1990s...
...Archbishop Rivera y Commonweal 24 April 1992: 9 Damas of San Salvador captured the reality when he said that outsiders supplied the guns and Salvadorans provided the casualties...
...Obey and his colleagues need and deserve on-going public support...
...The end of the cold war and the exhaustion—physically and ideologically— of the parties in El Salvador has produced a peace process under U.N...
...and (2) transfer over $63 million from military aid to the task of reconstruction of the Salvadoran economy and retraining of former combatants for civil life...
...political process has any time for issues of foreign policy...
...Precisely because the U.S...
...The end of the cold war has been judged in the United States principally in terms of the declining nuclear danger to both superpowers, and in terms of what the postSoviet Union will finally look like...
...It is highly unlikely that the dominance of domestic issues will change even after the parties have decided on their candidates...
...Obey met resistance from some Central American support groups in the United States because his provisions did not simply cut off all military aid...
...policy throughout the 1980s...
...q...
...political debate is focused so heavily on domestic issues, there is a real possibility Central America will be just forgotten here...
...But a different consequence of the collapse of the cold war has been its effect on a number of regional conflicts throughout the world...
Vol. 119 • April 1992 • No. 8
