The Sad, Sad Karma
Of Empire
By Phillip Farruggio
June 26, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" -
To this writer, empire is not
exactly what the dictionary defines it as: A group of nations
or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress or other
sovereign or government; usually a territory of greater extent than
a kingdom. Another definition can be found stating: A
powerful and important enterprise or holding of large scope that is
controlled by a single person, family or group of associates.
Putting these two definitions together, one can perhaps begin to
understand what our American Empire looks like. The heinous
marriage between mega wealth via corporate crony-capitalism and
elected government. The first born bastard child they named
The Military Industrial Empire!
When the victors of
WW1, including the quickly dying British Empire and the up and
coming American one, chose to push the Versailles Diktat on
Germany… the seeds for radical government were planted there. The
Third Reich was the bad karma to the nth degree
resulting from the overbearing decisions at Versailles. Of course,
our empire, with its corporate boosters, profited the most from the
Nazi horror while our European allies were being beaten down by it..
along with of course the multitude of innocent Jews, Communists,
Socialists, trade unionists, etc. Those who know the truth of
history realize that WW2 helped nurture our current American empire.
Then, being like a superstar athlete on mega steroids, America
became Amerika, with our imperial machinations causing a Cold
War (read Stone & Kuznicks’ The Untold History of the
United States) and from it our disastrous venture into Vietnam.
Yet, we as a nation learned nothing from the Vietnam
debacle. Our Military Industrial Empire just chugged along from one
overseas action to another, while the Fat Cat war industry and the
Pentagon grew into monsters.
Ever ask yourself why
our American culture becomes more and more violent every day? Child
psychologists can tell you that when the parent is a bully to the
child, the child grows up into one as well. When the parent, as role
model (or lack of one) reveals a life of rage and violence, the
child is more apt to parrot that way of living. Please read
Elizabeth Holtzman & Cynthia Cooper’s 2012 book Cheating
Justice: How Bush and Cheney attacked the rule of law and plotted to
avoid prosecution …and begin to understand how rot from the top
seeps down. It began with the phony and orchestrated lies to
justify pre-emptive war on Iraq, and then the terrible occupation
with blatant use of torture, more often than not on individuals
later deemed innocent of anything. The book covers the deceptions
and outright crimes of trying to use legal mumbo jumbo to circumvent
the Geneva Accords and US War Crimes Act of 1996. Men like John Yoo,
Jay Bybee and Alberto Gonzales wrote these at the request of Cheney,
Rumsfeld and of course Junior Bush (if they even took the time to
tell that jackass about it). Bybee got his just reward by becoming a
federal judge. Woo got his with a professorship and Fredo, Bush
Junior’s lapdog Attorney General got his as, are you ready for this,
the Dean of Law at Belmont University. The Dean of law!!! Alas, the
terrible deeds done by all these men (and of course the phony Condi
Rice) are, to this writer, resonating with our nation’s increased
culture of violence and ‘what’s in it for me’ mentality of many of
our young folks. When people see, and more importantly sense
that our leaders are literally getting away with murder, or
that our corporation Fat Cats are getting mega rich at their
expense… **** happens.
Do any of you out
there actually think that groups like ISIS would ever exist if not
for what Amerika did in Afghanistan and Iraq? Would suicide bombers
be so prevalent in Israel if that nation did not continue to treat
the Palestinians as they have for over 60+ years? Thus, I make the
same bold statement concerning the crazy country we now live in.
Yes, there will always be violent, unstable individuals who will do
harm to others for no rational reason. Yet, when it is so
continuous… we need to see how much bad karma this empire has
accrued. Food for thought.
Philip A
Farruggio is son and grandson of
Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist. Philip
works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an
activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson
for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military
spending 25%. Philip can be reached at
PAF1222@bellsouth.net