We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Cambodia and Western Fabrication of History

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek posted at The Greanville Post.

Vltchek has traveled to Cambodia many times to uncover the true history of that region during the tragic years of the 1970s. Like an excellent journalist that he is, he not only interviews people in Phnom Penh, the capital, but travels into the rural regions to interview numerous people, both ordinary peasants and local leaders, to tease out the truth of those years. 

There are many inconsistent stories, but most of these are between city dwellers in Phnom Penh and those in the countryside. It is clear that the stories from the capital have been very much influenced by US authorities who have always framed events their to suit their imperial aims in southeast Asia, especially the heavily promoted stories about "The Killing Fields" of the Khmer Rouge. One theme is consistent: Cambodia was subject to concentrated carpet bombing that created chaos and rage in the countryside.  (See also this, this, and this.)

During this time (late 1960s and 1970s) I was aware of the fact of the illegal carpet bombing by following independent journalists of that time. One I remember well--Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett whose reports I read in I. F. Stone's Weekly; meanwhile Western authorities tried every means to discredit his reporting as is evident even today in Wikipedia's entry. In the 1980s Western mainstream media began cranking out reports which constructed there own Empire-serving myth (similar to the Rwanda Massacre) about the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields while omitting any coverage of the horrendous war crimes committed by US leaders against that country.  

What has never ceased to amaze me over the past 60 years is the gullibility of my fellow Americans. They have been lied to so often, but most of them still swallow every lie told to them today.