Unwelcome Pressure

Adam Isacson made a good catch here in reviewing a report on US DOD overseas spending and noting the following:

Which is why I was surprised this morning, when going through a recent Defense Department required report to Congress on its overseas military-aid programs (PDF), to find this on page 67, in a listing of Pentagon-funded humanitarian-assistance programs in 2007:

Country: Costa Rica

Dollar Amount: $920,971

Type of Support Provided: Infrastructure - Rehabilitate or repair - School renovation/construction, Clinic construction, 4 Minimal Cost projects

Purpose: Improves U.S. image with a government with anti-military sentiment. Project showcases U.S. Military multi-mission capabilities. Promoting democracy, regional prosperity, and stability.

There is something troubling about the notion that

(1) the U.S. image in a traditionally friendly country like Costa Rica is so low today that improving it is a reason given for a nearly $1 million military deployment; and

(2) it is seen as somehow in the U.S. interest to counteract “anti-military sentiment” in armyless Costa Rica.

This is not the first time the Bush administration has shown contempt for Costa Rica's refusal to establish a military. Former Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco agreed to allow his nation to be listed as a member of the Coalition of the Willing - notwithstanding the absence of a military - and was forced to ask for the nation's name to be removed from the list when the public revolted against it. In addition, the Reagan administration sought to trash President Oscar Arias in the 1980's for having the temerity to oppose having a proxy war in a nation that his, unlike the US, bordered.

Costa Rica made a wise choice 60 years ago in eliminating its military, committing to democracy and beating its swords into ploughshares. What's one nation's anti-military sentiment is another's commitment to peace.

Comments

[Colin]

FWIW, Pacheco was a dick from start to finish. I was there in the 2002 election when he won, and his general smarminess and idiocy just oozed out of the man. Glad to see the Ticos made him eat his "coalition of the willing."

(And you do have to wonder exactly what they were "willing" to do, what with no army).