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Redemption
Within Reach for the American Empire
By Jason
Miller
08/18/05 "ICH"
-- -- America
's "strong and resolute" Commander in Chief is safely
enjoying a five week vacation on his
Texas
ranch. Yes, that would be the ranch he owns by virtue of
that silver spoon that was dangling out of his mouth as he passed
down the birth canal. Following his example from
Vietnam
, his daughters remain stateside as Bush pontificates the
nobility of the cause for which 2,000 Americans have died in
Iraq
. Despite his unflinching conviction, Mr. Bush lacks the courage
to confront Cindy Sheehan and explain to her why her son really
died. Ultimately George Bush bears the responsibility for the
death of Casey Sheehan, yet he refuses to take a few minutes
of his precious "R&R" to impart his wisdom to Cindy
about the noble reasons for which he is putting our troops in
harm's way. He owes her and the rest of
America
an answer, but this Evangelical crusader cannot summon the mettle to
meet with her on his own doorstep.
Your
lies are revealed and your cover is blown
Support
for the war continues to wane. According to a recent
poll conducted by the highly respected, non-partisan
Pew
Research
Center
, 51% of Americans believe that Bush deliberately misled the
public about whether or not Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction (the primary justification for initiating the war).
58% of Americans now believe that the
US
will not be able to establish a democratic, stable government in
Iraq
(the notion that the
US
would establish the Iraqi government underscores
the imperialistic nature of
America
's intentions). Only 43% of Americans are now predicting a victory
in
Iraq
. It is time to start bringing our troops home to safety and
to stop the senseless slaughter of Iraqi civilians (the
"collateral damage").
Since
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to
Osama bin Laden, why have 2,000 Americans and at least 15,000
innocent Iraqi civilians died in
Iraq
? One could justify the American cause by stating that we toppled a
brutal dictator who committed genocide against the Kurds (native
Iraqis), but Hussein was a
US
ally while he was committing these atrocities (until Bush the
First duped him into invading
Kuwait
so the
US
could justify the Gulf War against
Iraq
). Besides, there are multiple nations in the grips of ruthless
autocrats who are committing murders and atrocities, and
America
is not rushing to the aid of those innocent victims. In fact, the
United States
government has installed and supported many murderous regimes
throughout its history. In the paradigm of the Global Empire
of the
United States
, abuse of power and murder is acceptable as long as it coincides
with American economic and military interests. Why the sudden pangs
of concern about the plight of the Iraqi people under Saddam,
Mr. Bush?
The
Grimm truth
If
fairy tales were true, the
United States
would be involved in the truly noble cause of "spreading
freedom", and
America
would have "firmly planted the flag of liberty" in
Iraq
. However, reality keeps rearing its ugly head to mock the Neocons
and their fiction that the
US
is an altruistic, benevolent super-power sowing the seeds of
democracy in the
Middle East
. For openers, consider the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis
resulting from "collateral damage" inflicted by the
American military. Bestowing a "better government" as
an altruistic gesture would not involve obscene and
scandalous profits for members of the military industrial complex
like Bechtel and Halliburton, would it? What spiritually aware
human being could overlook the widespread Iraqi civilian
suffering and death caused by the brutal economic sanctions the US
spear-headed for 10 years prior to the war and perpetuated by the American
invasion and occupation? How about the Neocon's use of lies
and defiance of the UN to initiate the invasion? Torture and
abuse of prisoners of war are not characteristic actions of a
nation "spreading freedom" or planting a "flag of
liberty". Tragically, as was the case with
Vietnam
, there will be no happy ending to the "Tale
of the Iraqi Invasion". Suffering, war,
terror, and death are the bitter harvest the Iraqis are
reaping, and the flag firmly planted in their soil is one
of economic servitude to the American Empire.
Behind
the vacuous rhetoric about
America
"spreading freedom" lays a much more sinister motive for the
Iraqi invasion. The Neocons launched the war in
Iraq
to begin implementing the Bush Doctrine, their strategy to
advance
US
global domination. Invasion and occupation of
Iraq
afforded them what they believed would be a "soft
target" (obviously someone forgot to account for the
challenges of "post war"
Iraq
) to engage the four principles of their grand
blueprint. They exercised preemption by
invading a country which they deemed a threat to the
United States
. Acting in opposition to the United
Nations, they attacked
Iraq
unilaterally. Placing over 100,000 American troops
in harm's way, they placed Congress in a moral Catch-22 as
they demanded billions of additional dollars to
perpetuate the American military's "strength beyond
challenge". Despite their
constituency's growing opposition to the war, Congress could
hardly deny American troops the funding they needed. To complete
the "quadrifecta" of principles forming the bedrock of
the Bush Doctrine, the Neocons are carrying out their morally
despicable invasion and occupation under the guise of "promoting
democracy and freedom".
It
is critical to note that the chief architects of the Bush
Doctrine, which ensures that the poor and working class of
America
were (and will continue to be) thrust into the inferno of war,
found ways to evade conscription into service during previous
US imperialistic endeavors. Bush, Cheney, "Scooter"
Libby, Karl Rove, and Paul Wolfowitz each sat safely on the
sidelines during the
Vietnam
invasion, which claimed the lives of 58,000 Americans (and an
estimated 3 million Vietnamese). Donald Rumsfeld rested
comfortably in his dorm room at Princeton while 37,000 Americans
died in
Korea
(with an estimated 2.5 million Koreans). As a vehement opponent of
US imperialistic wars, I would laud them for choosing not to
participate in those wars were it not for the fact that now that
they are ineligible for military service (and enjoy more
security than any humans on the planet), they use the poor and
working class as disposable components of their
military industrial machine to advance US corporate and
plutocratic interests. While one could argue that the current
military personnel joined voluntarily, it is quite reasonable
to conclude that most
US
soldiers did not sign on to die for the expansion of an
imperialistic empire and the further enrichment of
America
's elite.
"We
the People" still have a voice
On
September 24, United for Peace and Justice (http://unitedforpeace.org/) and
International ANSWER (http://www.internationalanswer.org/) will
orchestrate a non-violent march to the White House (involving an
anticipated hundreds of thousands of advocates for peace and
social justice). The participants will make the following demands
upon the administration:
1.
Stop the war in
Iraq
2.
End colonial occupation from
Iraq
to
Palestine
to
Haiti
3.
Support the Palestinian People's Right of Return
4.
Stop the threats against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and
North Korea
5.
US out of the
Philippines
and
Puerto Rico
6.
Bring all the troops home now
7.
Stop the Racist, anti-immigrant and anti-labor offensive at home
8.
Defend Civil Rights
9.
Military recruiters out of our schools and communities
Not
coincidently, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,
two of the American Empire's primary vehicles for enhancing
corporate profits and wielding financial tyranny over other
nations, will be meeting to plan further economic conquest as
protestors are delivering their demands to the White House.
Without
justice, there will be no peace
What
the proponents of the
Iraq
invasion do not realize (or care about, perhaps) is that peace and
justice are inextricably linked. While terrorist acts are evil and
their perpetrators deserve severe consequences, they are
ultimately desperate acts of revenge against the imperialism,
hubris, avarice, abuse, and murder perpetrated by the
US
government for many years. I strongly believe the
United States
has the right to pursue its attackers to the ends of the Earth to
render justice and to defend its people, but that is not what the
Bush administration is doing. The Neocons simply have simply used
terrorist attacks as a rationale to unleash the Bush
Doctrine. By invading and occupying a sovereign nation,
America
's leaders have wasted many lives and vast resources, while
fueling antipathy toward the
US
and creating new terrorists. If the Neocons truly had noble
intentions, they would be employing far fewer American military
forces in a much more efficient way by hunting down and rooting
out the true perpetrators of terrorism, and they would be
revising US foreign policy to root out imperialism, economic
aggression, and flagrant disregard for international law. Instead,
the Neocons chose to brutalize a nation and thumb their collective
noses at the world.
You've
got to change your evil ways, baby....
America
needs to drop its obsession with being number one. It is time
for the
United States
to become a member of the world community rather than a murderous
bully. Obscene over-consumption has become a hallmark of the
United States
. While not all Americans fall prey to Madison Avenue's propaganda
glamorizing gluttony, many do. People of other industrialized
nations enjoy a respectable standard of living without consuming a
quarter of the world's resources (while representing only 5% of
the world's population). Other nations face reprisals and
penalties for the violation of international law. Without regard
for justice, the
United States
wields international law like a club or blatantly
defies it, depending on what best suits American interests at the
time. Ongoing support of repressive regimes (like Saudi Arabia's)
to further America's economic interests, unflinching support of
its proxy military enforcer in the Middle East
(Israel), disregard for the plight of the Palestinians, and
hypocrisy over who gets to join the "nuclear club" are
but a few more examples of how America's government engenders
more abhorrence of America and invites continued terrorism.
While
the Neocons make a mockery of global justice with their foreign
policy, the Bush Doctrine has also enabled them to begin
sweeping away the gains made by domestic forces for social justice
during the Twentieth Century. Whether one believes that these
achievements were reached with the cooperation of men like FDR and
LBJ, or that these leaders simply acquiesced to the pressure of
labor and civil rights movements, America made great strides
toward equality and justice through social programs and reforms
like Social Security, Minimum Wage laws, the Voting Rights Act,
school desegregation, Medicare, Medicaid, the advancement of
women's rights, environmental laws, and consumer
protection laws. By spending $600 billion per year on
programs related to their precious military industrial
complex (consider that $600 billion represents 60% of
the world's total annual military expenditures of $1 trillion and
that the US has only 5% of the population), deepening the federal
deficit to an unconscionable $7.5 trillion, and utilizing
shameless propaganda to convince the minions of
legalistic Christian sects and many undereducated
Americans to act in a self-defeating way by embracing an
agenda of Social Darwinism and global conquest, the Neocons
have ensured serious setbacks to social justice in the United
States.
Remember
when the "good old days" were not so good?
Emma
Goldman, a crusader for social justice until her death in 1940,
was imprisoned by the US government during World War I for daring
to criticize mandatory conscription, and was eventually deported
to Russia (with J. Edgar Hoover presiding at her deportation
hearing). Despite her
US
citizenship, she was banished from the
US
for having the audacity to question the leaders of the
American Empire. With great clarity, she described the Empire
of her time:
"The
history of the American kings of capital and authority is the
history of repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and
abuse, all aiming at the suppression of individual liberties and
the exploitation of the people. A vast country, rich enough to
supply all her children with all possible comforts, and insure
well-being to all, is in the hands of a few, while the nameless
millions are at the mercy of ruthless wealth gatherers,
unscrupulous lawmakers, and corrupt politicians. Sturdy sons of
America
are forced to tramp the country in a fruitless search for bread,
and many of her daughters are driven into the street, while
thousands of tender children are daily sacrificed on the altar of
Mammon. The reign of these kings is holding mankind in slavery,
perpetuating poverty and disease, maintaining crime and
corruption; it is fettering the spirit of liberty, throttling the
voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing humanity. It is
engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating the country
and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it nurtures
superstition and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife, and turns
the human family into a camp of Ishmaelites."
She
published these words as part of her New Declaration of
Independence in 1909. While much changed
for the better after Emma Goldman penned her thoughts,
the Neocons are ushering in an era of oppression and misery
similar to the one she described. In spite of the humanitarian
gains of the Twentieth Century, the American Empire is thriving,
and Emma Goldman's words ring as true today as they did in 1909.
In
the throes of spiritual death
For decades,
J. Edgar Hoover continued his dogged pursuit of threats to
the Empire. In the 1960's, he focused his tenacious efforts on Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., another champion of social justice who
had the unmitigated gall to speak out against
US
imperialism. While often dismissed as paranoid conspiracy theory,
there is even the realistic possibility of
Hoover
's involvement in King's assasination. Perhaps
Hoover
participated, and perhaps he did not, but the elite of the
US
government certainly did not shed tears at King's demise. They
were rid of a serious threat to their agenda to keep the wealth in
the hands of the few and to maintain
US
global hegemony. Once he was safely dead,
America
's leaders could sanitize King's message and appease black
America
by placing him in the hallowed pantheon of "American
heroes". While I believe that King was truly a hero, the
recent elevation of Ronald Reagan to the status of American hero
by our leaders demonstrates how little "official hero"
status means in the US
.
Before
he was assassinated, King had this to say about the unfulfilled
promise of America
in his 1967 speech entitled Beyond Vietnam: a Time to
Break Silence:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm
"A
nation that continues year after year to spend more money on
military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful
nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of
values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent
us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace
will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to
keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands
until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood."
America
is indeed approaching a spiritual death. Our dark cabal of
Neocon leaders, several of whom have held positions of
great power under Reagan, Bush I, and now Bush II, are
perpetuating unrestrained expansion of the American Empire while
utilizing Orwellian propaganda to convince its subjects that
they are still living in the "land of the free". They
have taken advantage of the inculcated apathy and ignorance of
many Americans to begin the erosion of civil liberties
through the Patriot Act, to increase regressive taxes while
decreasing progressive taxes, and to launch an unabashed assault
on the UN rather than working to help reform it in a way
that would benefit the world, including
America
. They are bankrupting the federal government to the point that it will
no longer be able to "afford" social welfare programs.
They have launched the Bush Doctrine in
Iraq
. Thanks to the Neocons, many Americans are convinced that
the Judicial Branch needs to be relegated to the status of
"junior partner". Bush's proposed 2006 budget laid
out aggressive cuts to social welfare programs and increases
in defense spending. The administration steadily chips
away at the wall of separation of church and state, which serves
to protect both entities from undue influence over one another. Neocon
policies are assaulting the rights of workers and
consumers to enhance corporate profits. Exploiting the
alleged necessity brought on by their "war on terror", this
administration conducts many of its activities in secrecy.
Under Bush, the environment is under siege. With the
Neocons at the helm, those exhibiting xenophobia, hubris, proper
support for the "
American Way
", anti-intellectualism, and over-consumption are considered
to be patriots. As a nation,
America
is quite near spiritual bankruptcy. Like pigs rolling in
the mud, the Neocons thrive in an American culture which
promotes shallow thinking, immediate gratification, excessive
spending based on easily obtained credit, bellicose attitudes, and
a shameless narcissism devoid of empathy.
Soul of
America
can be resuscitated
There is still time for
America
to change course. Armed with the Constitution (an outline of
governing principles without equal), unparalleled wealth and
resources, brilliant minds, a strong capacity to rise to
challenges, a melting pot of cultures and nationalities from which
to draw human resources, and unprecedented military strength, the
United States can still fulfill its destiny and
responsibility to guide humanity back to the light (http://www.worldwiderenaissance.com/mainstuff/mainportalpage.asp?Level=Main) through
leading by example, using its power responsibly, and
cooperating with other nations rather than pursuing global
domination. I know from the responses I have received to my
previously published essays that there are many Americans ready to
join in this spiritual renaissance to direct our energy and
resources away from war, hatred, and materialism, and toward the
advancement of human rights, the environment, science, medicine, and
humanity in general. Many have written me asking why I stay here
if I hate
America
so much. My answer is that I do not hate
America
. I loathe the corruption, hatred, murder, and gluttony that our
leaders carry out and promote in the name of Americans, but I also
see the positive aspects of our nation, and its rich promise and
potential. I have no intention of leaving my homeland. I will
continue to advocate for social justice and to dissent against
tyranny and corruption through my writing. I will continue to
pursue and practice my spiritual values of moderation,
non-violence (except in defense of family, friend, nation, or
self), honesty, responsibility, living within my means, acceptance
and empathy for others (regardless of race, religion, gender, or
sexual orientation), zealous pursuit of self education, commitment
to my marriage, responsible co-parenting of my children,
respecting the environment, donating money to
organizations supporting charity and human rights, teaching my
children to pursue intellectual and spiritual freedom, engaging in
critical thinking, and applying a strong work ethic. My wife
and I will travel from our home in
Kansas
to be at the White House on September 24 to help hundreds of
thousands of others delivering the demands for social justice and
peace. It is my sincere belief that there are many others who care
as much as she and I do, and it is my sincere hope that together
we can reinvigorate the soul of
America
.
I leave you with one final thought,
complements of Theodor Seuss Geisel from The Lorax:
Unless someone like you cares a whole,
awful lot. Things aren't going to get better, they're NOT!
Jason
Miller is a 38 year old activist writer with a degree in liberal
arts and who works in the transportation industry. He is a husband
and a father to three boys. His affiliations include Amnesty
International, the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of
Church and State. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com
or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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