Who Is IOZ?: Extraordinary Statement of the Day

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Extraordinary Statement of the Day

I usually oppose US intervention in Latin America. Certainly it has not gone too well in the past, to say the least. But this is a clear case of the Honduran elite class attacking democracy itself. It is not 1983 anymore and this kind of behavior is not acceptable. While Zelaya isn't such a great president, he was democratically elected and is clearly supported by a large percentage of the population. Plus, if the international community allows this coup to stand, the precedent is set that right-wing politicians and militaries can overthrow the new generation of left-leaning governments in Latin America without reprisal. Not allowing this precedent to take place is much more important than Honduras itself.

-Erik Loomis

I am not certain who this "international community" is supposed to be, nor what new "US intervention" Loomis' imagines will not "allow this coup to stand." But it is the last sentence of the above excerpt that most mystifies me. What on earth can it possibly mean? "Much more important than Honduras itself"?

34 comments:

LA Confidential Pantload said...: I think he means that the importance of allowing American war liberals to feel self-righteous is far, far greater than the impact of visiting Giant Screaming Heatdeath on a bunch of Latinos and Indians.

And if I'm not mistaken, the head military guy involved is a grad (quelle surprise!) of the School of the Americas. Which means that he's sorta our guy. Which means, yeah, it is sorta 1983 again.; 12:55 PM
Justin said...: He means that the Honduran egg needs to be smashed for the taste of the southern cone omellette.; 1:25 PM
Kafka said...: The whole thing is extraordinary- but my favorite is "I usually oppose US intervention in Latin America." When he has opposed US intervention in Latin America I wonder what form his opposition took and if it was successful for him.

I do like the header quote though from his site. "The white race cannot survive without dairy products."--Herbert Hoover
Speaking as one white man, I rank dairy products right up there with baked goods and cigarettes.; 1:29 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Honduras, you are my density... I mean, my destiny.; 1:38 PM
Gridlock said...: Nuke the site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.; 1:39 PM
Fidel said...: Viva la revolucion!; 1:58 PM
Agi said...: I'm curious about the first sentence. When does he support US intervention in Latin America?; 4:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Sometimes we need to destroy a region in order to save it.; 5:06 PM
Anonymous said...: Other times, we need to save a region in order to destroy it.; 6:30 PM
Rojo said...: Well, if you look at other posts, he claims he happened to be there when it happened.

So perhaps it means: "I pissed my pants and now I want my war on!"; 6:44 PM
Rojo said...: Which, I'll additionally note, was the reaction of nearly every one I knew to 9/l1, with the sole exception of me. Thank goodness for the intertubez back then, else I might have though I was mad.; 6:47 PM
Rachel said...: the reaction of nearly every one I knew to 9/l1

It worked on me for about a week or so. Then it wore off and I started getting into lots of arguments.; 7:55 PM
SteveB said...: Hey, it's not easy being a citizen of the Empire. "Quick! What's your take on Kosovo? On Iran? On Honduras?"

Do people in other countries feel a similar obligation to pull half-formed opinions out of their ass at the onset of every foreign crisis, or is that just an American thing?; 9:08 PM
TGGP said...: I'd link to Larison, but at this point it almost goes unsaid when such topics arise.

Hasn't the precedent of coups in Latin America already been well and truly set? I don't pay attention to the news much, but did any Congressman complain that the appointment of Sotomayor would "set a precedent" of taking political factors into account when deciding nominations? And when was the last time anyone said "I'm sure glad the international community was there to step up to the plate"?; 9:19 PM
dhex said...: "Do people in other countries feel a similar obligation to pull half-formed opinions out of their ass at the onset of every foreign crisis, or is that just an American thing?"

i am fairly confident it is a universal thang, as it were. hence blogs and bloggeurs!; 9:07 AM
Erik Loomis said...: These comments are as stupid as I was led to believe, but to give one of the few decent examples of US intervention--Haiti in 94?; 10:04 AM
IOZ said...: Yeah, Operation Uphold Democracy was a huge success, especially a decade later when we kidnapped the dude we put back in power and spirited him off to an African exile.; 10:18 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: go get `em, Erik! let us know how it goes.; 11:11 AM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Erik Loomis is one dumb motherfucker. he sounds like a neocon in his follow up. fer realz.; 11:30 AM
Anonymous said...: “This doesn´t seem too difficult to me. But then, you have bunches of people who have knee-jerk reactions to even the mildest criticism of Chavez or Castro. Given that, I should not find this surprising.”
Right. Cause arguing against yet another American intervention in Latin America is just like wearing a Che shirt.
"If the world allows the Honduran coup to succeed, then right-wingers across Latin America will be emboldened to attempt coups of their own."
Oh, well when you put it like that. You know, the old "emboldening" defense so beloved by neocons. If we don't take out Saddam the other nations in the region will be "emboldened". Well, we took Saddam out Erik, how’d that turn out?
Sorry to disagree with you Mr. Fundamental, but calling the author of the follow up “one dumb motherfucker” is insulting to dumb motherfuckers everywhere.; 11:49 AM
Robert Farley said...: This is a very odd set of comments, but then I didn't read Loomis as calling for military intervention in Honduras; I thought that he was suggesting intervention of the sort that's already happening through the OAS (diplomatic pressure, legal pressure, etc.). But then here he gets accused of being a neoconservative for expressing concern that Latin American right wingers will be emboldened by the success of a right wing coup in Honduras. It seems to me that the actual neoconservatives have come out pretty much full square in favor of this particular right wing coup...

I suppose it would help if IOZ more clearly explained what the disagreement here was.; 12:17 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: Come on, Donny, they were threatening castration!
Are you gonna split hairs?; 12:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Erik Loomis: “These comments are as stupid as I was led to believe, but to give one of the few decent examples of US intervention--Haiti in 94?”
Robert Farley: “This is a very odd set of comments, but then I didn't read Loomis as calling for military intervention in Honduras;”
Well, ok, you got us. Technically we didn’t actually get to kill any little brown people in Haiti. Almost 4000 paratroopers were in the air when Cedras had a change of heart and decided he really wasn’t that into Haitian rule after all. Still, claiming it wasn’t a military intervention seems a tad disingenuous, no?; 12:31 PM
Robert Farley said...: Anon,

Right; I hadn't seen Erik's comment on Haiti when I posted that, and now I do wonder precisely what he's calling for in terms of intervention in Haiti. For the record, I think sending in the Marines to Honduras is a terrible idea, and that Loomis is wrong if that what he's calling for. But then intervention means many things.; 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...: the leaders of the coup disregarded domestic norms to upset the established balance of power. they risk death, imprisonment, and the well-being of their family if they fail. yet, now that they have succeeded in removing the danger of domestic violence, we expect them to back down bc of some terse words and the threat of sanctions from the OAS (or, "the international community")?

the only "international pressure" that ever matters in these instances is the amount of domestic pressure the leader of (insert local military leader here) feels to act with his military.; 12:49 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: your mom should have had an intervention.; 1:39 PM
Gridlock said...: I'll say one thing, I wouldn't play Obama at hold'em

Kept a straight face when saying the US "couldn't be seen to be meddling in Iran's internal affairs" and now this...; 3:35 PM
Erik Loomis said...: Of course I´m not calling for U.S. military intervention. That would be a terrible idea in this case. I was simply suggesting that it is plausible that not every single use of the US military is a bad thing and that perhaps Haiti in 94 was one of those times.; 4:50 PM
Mr.Fundamental said...: nihilist.; 5:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Erik Loomis: I would suggest the United States appointing itself a de facto world government and using its armed forces to enforce our…values…beliefs….desires….whatever is inherently, always, fundamentally wrong. It was wrong in Haiti in 94, and it would be wrong in Honduras today.
There is no moral distinction between whatever the hell it is you’re arguing for and what Bush did in Iraq.
Here’s a suggestion that’s so crazy it just might work; let Hondurans handle the problems of Honduras. No US “assistance” needed.; 5:07 PM
AlanSmithee said...: At some point in their oh-so-serious careers, liberal hawk pundit-wannabes like Loomis have to make it clear that they have no problem with US military interventions. That's how we're supposed to know these Keyboard Kommandos are oh-so-fucking-serious.; 5:32 PM
Anonymous said...: dude, loomis, you claim you have no interest in US military intervention yet prattle on about how the coup can not stand. those two ideas are in tension. the sooner you realize this, the sooner your ramblings are less....off-kilter.; 6:12 PM
Anonymous said...: PS - this line is great:

"I usually oppose US intervention in Latin America."

thrown in with such non-chalance.

usually i prefer steak for dinner. usually i oppose tipping more than 15%. usually i oppose un-doing the mechanizations of a foreign country's enigmatic political culture.; 6:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr. Loomis,

If Guatemala could 'intervene' in U.S. affairs at will, would you oppose it:

(a.) Generally.
(b.) Sometimes.
(c.) Always.
(d.) Never.
(e.) That depends.
(f.) I really wouldn't care.

Thanks.; 10:47 PM

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Extraordinary Statement of the Day

34 comments:

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