| This story revealed that the most notorious macoute organization, FRAPH, was funded by the United States government and headed by an employee of the United States government.On November 14, 1993, another New York Times front page story, CIA Formed Haitian Unit Later Tied to Narcotics Trade, revealed that two army officers who directed the torture of three popular political activists whose bodies were displayed on television after the torture were employees of the United States government.The United States has been arming and supporting government by macoute since the Tonton Macoutes were founded in the 1950s.Haiti is but a single example of a disgraceful pattern.The United States government has supported, and continues to support, institutional violence around the world. Its clients in Indonesia have killed hundreds of thousands of Timorese; in Guatemala, hundreds of thousands of indigenous people.For full documentation, see the books of Noam Chomsky, especially The Year 501 .Criticism of crimes committed by one's own government is often rejected out of hand, and condemned as disloyal. But to love one's country does not mean to be blind to repugnant truths. Were Soviet dissidents disloyal? Are Slavs who oppose Milosevic disloyal? Were Germans who opposed Hitler disloyal? There are very significant differences between the crimes of Stalin, Milosevic, and Hitler, and the crimes of Washington, but the latter are crimes nonetheless. Unlike Soviet, German, or Yugoslavian dissidents, American dissidents do not risk our lives by working for change. |