Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Reposted from The Yellow Times.

Watch Out! The Americans are Coming

Paul Harris

As a Canadian, I consider the country to the south a great place. It's a country that has been at times a savior; it is full of inventive and intelligent people and provided some wonderful things for the world and great opportunities for the dispossessed of other lands. We have more beliefs in common than just about any other two nations and are proud to call them our friends. Our neighbor leads the whole world in almost every way, including blowing parts of it into little bits.

The United States claims to be a nation of peace lovers and it has been at peace since the end of the Second World War, except, that is, for their attacks on China (1945-46); Korea (1950-53); Guatemala (1954, 1967-69); Cuba (1959-60); Belgian Congo (1964); Vietnam (1961-73); Cambodia (1969-70); Grenada (1983); Libya (1986); El Salvador (1980-92); Nicaragua (1981-90); Panama (1989); Iraq (1991); Bosnia (1995); Sudan (1998); Yugoslavia (1999); Afghanistan (2001-02); plus a grudge match soon to come in Iraq. Plus "police action" in Columbia regarding drugs (ongoing), an insurrection in Chile (1973), and numerous other covert bombings conducted by, or under the direction of, the CIA. From 1945 to the end of the 20th century, the U.S. attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments and to crush more than 30 populist movements fighting against insufferable regimes. In the process, they bombed about 25 countries, killed several million people, and condemned many millions more to lives of agony, poverty and despair.

If this is a nation of peace lovers, then God help us all.

Now I can already hear the rationalizing that these were all just and moral battles; that the recipients of all this attention really needed to be attacked; that it was all done in the interests of the national security of the United States; that they were protecting the world from communism or some other 'ism.' It is perhaps fair to say that at least some of the campaigns I iterated above had some noble purpose but that would only have been the public relations dividend of the real business at hand, which was the expansion of American economic interests. Presently, of course, it will be said that they are protecting the world from terrorists. Horse feathers. This is all about hegemony and acquisition of things, of peoples, and of territory. They are actually helping to create the terrorists, or at least giving would-be terrorists a raison d'être by their belligerence and bellicosity.

Most frightening is that all the activity noted in my second paragraph took place while the United States was allegedly in a 'defensive' posture. In reality, the United States has never been in a defensive posture. Its long history is one of expansionism; first through movement to the west coast, then economically in the rest of the Americas (where the profits can be derived without the overhead of actually running the places).

With alarm that increased page after page, I have just finished reading George W. Bush's September 2002 document entitled "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America." The overwhelming message to the rest of the world is 'look out, we're coming.'

On the surface, it seems like a moderately thoughtful document and people of very differing persuasions could readily defend much of it. I am not one of those people; it scares the daylights out of me largely because of the threats the Bush administration makes to the security of the planet and the fundamental misunderstandings he appears to have about how the world operates and how it ought to operate. In the second paragraph of the introduction, Bush says: "In keeping with our heritage and principles, we do not use our strength to press for unilateral advantage." He couldn't get even further than that before starting to lie. America's entire history has been to press for unilateral advantage.

"For most of the twentieth century, the world was divided by a great struggle over ideas: destructive totalitarian visions versus freedom and equality. That great struggle is over." Apparently Mr. Bush has forgotten that about one sixth of the world lives in a communist authoritarian country and that many of America's allies are totalitarian dictatorships.

Without going into a line-by-line analysis of this lengthy document, suffice it to say it is full of rhetoric that ignores the realities of history and the shape in which the world currently finds itself. But the overwhelming message of this strategy is that America is now going to officially acknowledge what it has always been, the world's biggest bully. To be sure, there are some positive initiatives and good ideas espoused in this strategy but even they will clearly provide benefit only to those who are willing to be subjugated. And to be fair, it is certainly in America's best interest to secure itself and to protect its own citizens. But that isn't really what most of this is about.

The European press and the sometimes timid, European politicos make clear that they are very disturbed by the posture that America will act alone, whenever and wherever it chooses. The United States has declared, effectively, that international rules and international law doesn't apply to them, just to everyone else. The strategy makes clear that the United States will not hesitate to take pre-emptive military action wherever it sees fit and most other countries are understandably worried about that. Further, the Europeans see much of this as arising from blind and fervent nationalism, the bad sides of which they know very well. The bloody experience of centuries of war has left them quite uncomfortable with unbridled nationalism.

The so-called Third World countries wonder what this all means for them. They presume that they would be the likely targets of American aggression.

The problem as I see it is that the United States has decided that it intends to rule the world. The hell with what anyone else might want. They think they are big enough and powerful enough to take on all challengers and they are essentially telling all the rest of us that it is their way or the highway.

They may well be right about their power but they are dead wrong about their legitimacy. Unless Bush is absolutely unable to read, he must know how history has dealt with this kind of hubris in the past. If the United States is unwilling to be a partner with the rest of the world, even as the first among equals, and use the tremendous potential it has to bring about good, then it is starting down the steep divide that will bring about the demise of the American Empire.

My fear is that Americans and many of their allies will fail to see that this move to assume supreme control of the Earth is exactly what the United States has groomed itself for during these past 226 years. They will erroneously believe that because a group of thugs managed to penetrate into the heart of America and cause severe damage, there is just cause to go out and kill whatever is moving or doesn't look right.

Americans who can rationally consider the swath their country has cut through the world, and the even wider swath that is intended, cannot seriously ask the question 'why do they hate us.' It is obvious.

The United States holds countries like Cuba in the lowest regard because a 'dictator' rules them; a whole world ruled by a dictatorial nation is no different, just bigger.

It's never been about how all that power and authority can be used for the betterment of everyone, including the United States; it's always about how they can bully and cajole and, if necessary in their eyes, bomb the crap out of whomever doesn't bow and scrape low enough. There is no question that there are times when military aggression is a necessity; the United States, however, usually doesn't have the patience to exhaust all the more peaceful forms of problem-solving before bringing out the big guns. That is symptomatic of a limited imagination and a lack of desire for the peace and security of all. It is symptomatic of the desire to see 'the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air' just because it feels good. So long as it's someone else's 'air.'

Read The National Security Strategy of the United States of America

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