From Volume 4, Issue Number 48 of EIR Online, Published Nov. 29, 2005

LaRouche Says Cheney's 'Shared Sovereignty' Plan Means Fascism
by Gretchen Small

Nov. 25 (EIRNS)—General Bantz Craddock, head of the U.S. military's Southern Command, is on a rampage in South America, insisting that the war on terrorism has made the classic concept of sovereignty outmoded, and therefore U.S. neighbors must accept a new doctrine of so-called "cooperative sovereignty."

The doctrine espoused by Craddock is the latest euphemism invented to push the end-of-the-nation-state policy of the Cheney-Rumsfeld gang. It is fascism and imperialism, U.S. statesman Lyndon LaRouche stated bluntly in a recent discussion of the Americas. Craddock does not represent the United States, but something else, he said. It is the duty of the U.S. to assist the independence and sovereignty of the nations and people of Central and South America, LaRouche emphasized. Anything else is against the United States' own national interest.

- Running Amok -

Craddock insisted this so-called "cooperative sovereignty" doctrine be the central issue at a Nov. 15-16 Andean Region security conference hosted by Ecuador, but organized by the U.S. Southern Command. The meeting brought together top military officers of all the Andean countries except for Venezuela (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), Craddock and his team, and Brazilian officers (as observers).

Craddock declared at the meeting that drugs, terrorism, and the other so-called "new threats" could never be defeated in South America on an individual-country basis, and therefore the idea of "cooperative sovereignty" had to prevail, whereby "the forces of each nation unite to improve and perfect processes and systems of multilateral focus."

Craddock is known to be a crony of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who for the last three years has been demanding a supranational regional force be established in the Americas to secure the reign of free trade. Rumsfeld first proposed this publicly in November 2002, when he told a meeting of the Defense Minsters of the Americas that a standing regional force was required to intervene in so-called failed states and "ungovernable areas"—in the name of defending "democracy" and "free trade," even as the "free trade" policy is the single greatest cause of ungovernability across the region.

Briefed on Craddock's focussed attack on the concept of national sovereignty in Ecuador, LaRouche responded: This is fascism and imperialism. He asked: does the Bush Administration know what Craddock is preaching? Craddock's comments give the impression that the U.S. is pushing fascism. President Bush talks about democracy, which is a very nice word, but then Craddock is promoting universal fascism like that of Chile's former dictator, Augusto Pinochet. So either Bush is lying when he talks about democracy, or he doesn't know what's going on, LaRouche said.

- Target Bolivia -

This was not the first time Gen. Craddock pushed this line. Reliable sources recently informed this news service that in an off-the-record discussion at the end of October at a Washington, D.C. defense institution, Craddock had singled out Bolivia as a likely target of the drive to eliminate "sovereignty."

Echoing Rumsfeld, Craddock spoke of how social conflict and "weak democracies" constitute a threat to regional security, as he put up a map of Bolivia to illustrate his point. Securing stability in Bolivia is complicated, and may take years, he went on. He labelled Bolivia a "high-risk" country, as he showed a picture of Evo Morales, the George Soros asset coca-producer who may well win Bolivia's Dec. 18 Presidential elections. It was then that Craddock stated directly that when countries face problems of this magnitude, the classical concept of sovereignty must be replaced by "cooperative sovereignty."

The message was taken by those present to be that the U.S. and/or other nations in the region will have to intervene to secure stability in Bolivia, because the Bolivians can't.

The Cheney crowd at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) set out to make Bolivia a test case for such doctrines in June 2004, when they forecast that Bolivia would split into two countries: a highlands ruled by the drug trade, and the oil-and-gas-rich western lowlands which would be run by the multinationals. The AEI's "forecast," now playing out around the December elections, is a recipe for civil war and regional intervention.

This AEI offensive against Bolivia is one and the same thing as Craddock's remarks, LaRouche emphasized in his discussion of the Ecuador meeting. This is an operation run by the U.S. right-wing to destroy the sovereignty of our neighbors to the south. We have had enough of such designs coming out of the Pinochet factory. This little fascist project is jeopardizing the sovereignty which is vital to the United States itself—and it must stop.

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