Thursday, July 14, 2011

CFR to Thailand: Accept US-Stooge or Else

The corporate-funded, corporate-serving unelected arbiters of US domestic and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations have recently written an article titled, "Is Thailand Headed for Another Coup? What Should the United States Do About It?" Considering Thailand is a sovereign nation, the obvious answer as to what the US should do is mind its own business. However CFR shill Joshua Kurlantzick, a "Fellow for Southeast Asia" suggests otherwise.

Kurlantzick first misleads a readership he must regard with utter contempt by stating, "Thailand's voters decisively backed the populist Puea Thai Party," in recent July elections. In reality, of the 74% of Thais that turned out to vote on July 3, only 48% actually cast votes for Peua Thai (PTP). Of all eligible voters, that is a tenuous 35% mandate, hardly what can be called "decisively backed." While Kurlantzick states, "Thaksin, who faces a jail term in Thailand on charges of corruption and has lived in exile since the coup, seems to have had his revenge: His sister, Yingluck, whom he has called “his clone,” runs Puea Thai, and she appears poised to become Thailand's first female prime minister," he utterly fails to point out how Thaksin literally runs the party by proxy from abroad, with the party's slogan being "Thaksin thinks, Peua Thai does."

Kurlantizick, to address Thailand's rejection of a US-backed convicted criminal and his illegitimate proxy-party, suggests that the US should cut its military aid to Thailand as well as applying sanctions that would cut off military transfers. He also suggests that Congress begin subjecting Thailand to the same "scrutiny' applied to other Asian nations. Kurlantzick also suggests that Thailand is drifting toward "civil war" and that "the U.S. must do its part to ensure that this doesn't come to pass."

In reality, Thaksin's proxy party failed to garner support from more than 35% of Thailand's eligible voters. In the past, Thaksin's attempts at triggering violent uprisings yielded only a small group of hardcore supporters willing to commit to such violence, augmented by a paltry 300 armed mercenaries, put down by the Thai military two years consecutively. While PTP will undoubtedly attempt to bring in more arms and spill more blood, and while CFR is clearly signaling the US elitist establishment will throw its full weight behind PTP, recent election results lays bare the true moral and political bankruptcy of Thaksin's proxy movement. Any violence they now commit to, they do so in a climate of complete illegitimacy. With revelations regarding pro-Thaksin, pro-PTP, pro-red shirt propaganda outlet "Prachatai" and their wall-to-wall United States foundation funding, Thais must decide for themselves whether they sort out their own problems inwardly and work pragmatically to improve their nation's future, or invite in the self-serving meddling of the US and their stooge Thaksin Shinwatra via his proxy party PTP.