The Moral Imperative
By Charles Sullivan
The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
--Andre Lorde
03/26/07 "ICH
" -- - It should surprise no one that the
United States invasion and occupation of Iraq four years ago was
based upon lies and fabricated evidence. Other wars instigated
by the U.S. were begun in the same way, but we never seem to
learn the lessons that history could teach us. The purpose of
the U.S. invasion was not to free the Iraqi people or to spread
democracy (when has the government ever done that?); it was to
privatize the natural wealth of the region and to transfer
ownership from the Iraqi pubic domain to the coffers of U.S.
corporations. We have a long and shameful history of imperial
invasions and occupations, and no experience building
democracies.
The United States Middle East policy is also intended to
suppress the enemies of radical Zionism and to extend Zionist
control of the region, as well as to prop up the sagging U.S.
dollar against the strengthening euro. It is the continuation of
Manifest Destiny; the foolish but stubborn believe that
Americans are superior to everyone else; what historian Howard
Zinn refers to as American exceptionalism.
Manifest Destiny and the spread of capitalism go hand in hand.
The growth of the military industrial complex requires imperial
conquests and continuous expansion—an impossibility on a finite
planet. We have yet to learn that wherever reality clashes with
economic myth, reality prevails.
The Pentagon, which is the iron fist of American capitalism,
requires enemies in order to justify its vast expenditures to an
unquestioning public, even if it has to invent them. In the past
those enemies were the spread of communism and socialism, which
were a threat only to Plutocratic rule, not to the American
people themselves. Now the danger is as cryptic and ubiquitous
as state propaganda—the exaggerated threat of Islamic terrorism.
I do not contend that there is no real threat of terrorism
against U.S. citizens. I do, however, assert that those threats
remain small and are a direct response to unjust U.S. foreign
policy, including the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
It is important to understand that the interest of the people
and the government are always in conflict. The will of the
people has never mattered to the ruling clique, as evidenced by
the ongoing occupation of Iraq, despite overwhelming public
opposition. What matters to America’s rulers is the acquisition
of private wealth through war and expansionism. The ruling elite
have never hesitated to sacrifice the lives of our soldiers and
workers for imperial ambitions, or to sanction the deliberate
killing of innocent civilians in unknowable numbers.
It is equally important to understand that imperial wars are a
product of capitalism. A core element of capitalism is the
unequal distribution of wealth and political power in which a
small cadre of owners can literally purchase political power.
The very wealthy are never satiated. They never have enough.
They have ambition. They are driven. They want more. They want
it all. Their dream is to rule the world and privatize its
wealth. To aid them in their quest the language of patriotism
and religion are evoked to stir the public emotions and to
inspire hatred and contempt. The people will be told that we are
under siege by the forces of evil, even as terror emanates from
the nation’s capital like spokes radiating from the center of a
wheel.
America’s imperial wars will continue until capitalism is
abolished and replaced by a more just and equitable system—a for
use, rather than for profit economy.
The architects of the invasion of Iraq would have us believe
that U.S. Middle East policy is a complex matter that is best
left to high minded experts. In fact, it is a fantastically
simple matter that can easily be understood by anyone having a
conscience, a sense of justice; a moral compass. What it boils
down to is simple right and wrong. A five year old child can
understand that but imperial presidents and their cohorts in
congress and industry cannot.
A thing is wrong when its purpose is anything other than a
desire for justice. We need not make things more complicated
than that. A nation founded upon injustice will have a history
of ethnic cleansing, genocide, chattel slavery, racism,
inequality, class divisions, sexism, a suppressed work force,
murder, and war—a history very much like our own. Indeed, our
history.
Injustice breeds fierce resistance that can never lead to peace,
as we are witnessing throughout the Middle East. The United
States will fail in Iraq because the government’s policies are
not driven by a desire for justice. Its purpose is not honorable
or principled; therefore, it will ultimately fail. It is wrong
to impose our will on other people. It is wrong to murder
innocent civilians. It is wrong to steal their wealth. It is
wrong to subjugate people and to exploit them as cheap labor.
Eventually Israel will be expelled from Palestine for the same
reasons—its cause (ethnic cleansing) is not only unjust—it is
immoral and criminal.
Will governments ever learn that it is not the physically
strongest who prevail, but the just? Were these not the
teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Henry Thoreau, and Gandhi?
Justice and morality do not enter into the economic equation of
capitalism. Neither does compassion, the rights of other people
to exist unmolested in their own belief systems, or equality.
There can be no peace without justice; no reckoning without a
high regard for truth. Our past speaks volumes about the
probable future.
We need not look very far into the past to realize what the
future holds. A better future demands that we act justly in the
present. Otherwise, the patterns of history will continue to
repeat themselves in endless cycles of death and violence,
disparity and suffering. We must stop putting our faith in
politicians who serve the plutocracy by exploiting the people,
and a system that from its inception was created to serve the
wealthy and privileged.
Our policies are a continuous negative feedback loop that has
always produced consistent results. We cannot continue doing the
same thing over and over and expect to get different outcomes.
The fatal flaw is not in the administration of policy, it is in
the policy itself and the corrupt system that created them; a
system that is at its core unequal and unjust; and therefore,
immoral.
A sound moral imperative should inform all that we do, and it
must have at its core a burning desire to see justice done and
to help others fulfill their promise. A strong moral imperative
should be the basis of cooperation between individuals and
nations. Without ethical moorings there can be no trust, no
justice, and no peace. It is as simple as cause and effect. We
truly do reap what we sow.
Charles Sullivan is an architectural millwright,
photographer, and free-lance writer living in the Eastern
Panhandle of West Virginia. He welcomes your comments at:
csullivan@phreego.com.Click here
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