Letter: Capitalism driving force behind U.S. foreign policy

Tuesday, May 25, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

There are hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees. Their villages have been bombed and strafed by Turkish helicopters and jets supplied by the United States. Why are the Albanian separatists treated as freedom fighters in the U.S. media, while the Kurdish guerrillas are called terrorists? Why is an independent Kosovo deemed good and an independent Kurdistan bad?

There is a logical explanation for the fact that a superpower like the United States is willing to use its Air Force in support of a guerrilla army. After the Soviet Union and most of Eastern Europe went capitalist, only one socialist state remained, Yugoslavia. Therefore, the breakup of Yugoslavia was very important to the United States and other capitalist countries.

The Kurdish guerrillas are leftist in political orientation. The last thing the United States would want to see in the oil-rich Middle East would be a socialist Kurdistan.

The prime motivating factor of U.S. foreign policy is the preservation of capitalism and enhancement of corporate power and profits. The tender concern expressed by government officials and the media for refugees and victims of atrocities is for public consumption only.

GARY SUDBOROUGH

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