Colombia: State terror in the name of peace

The first casualty of state terror is the corruption of language, the invention of euphemisms, where words mean their opposite and slogans cover great crimes: There is no longer a world consensus that condemns crimes against humanity. This is because mass murder and assassinations secure investor 'confidence', because Indians are dispossessed so the mines can be exploited; oil workers disappear so the petroleum will flow; and the international financial press praises the success of el Presidente for "pacifying the country". When narco-presidents are embraced by the leaders of North America and Europe, it is evident that criminals have become respectable; the respectable have become criminals. But other voices from other regions have put the past and present war criminals on trial. In Argentina, the Generals of the disappeared are spending their last years behind bars. Arrest warrants against Israeli military commanders have been issued in Spain, Dubai and elsewhere. Tony Blair, complicit in Bush's genocidal war in Iraq runs from a citizens' arrest in Malaysia for his war crimes. Colombia, the US and Israel, the epicenters of state terror, stand alone in the General Assembly of Nations, condemned but not yet on trial. Their days of impunity are ending. Unending wars, rampant corruption, massive financial swindles–the inner rot–are eroding the outward facades of military power. Writers and intellectuals have a role to play in hastening this process by exposing the lies that sustain the killing machines.