So many of my fellow Americans, due to either apathy or years of propaganda, still do not understand the extent of our empire.
We study the history of the Nazi regime and gasp at its outrageous behavior. Yet, so few of us see the parallels between their empire and ours. Factor out the holocaust against the Jews, Communists and handicapped, and our two military monsters are more similar than not. Our 9/11 was the bastard cousin of their Reichstag fire, as is our PATRIOT Act to their Enabling Act.
Hitler and his gang made sure that only one political party could rule, much to the horror of many German citizens. Our elites used a much more sophisticated manipulation to make sure that only a ‘Two Party, Lesser Evil’ system flourishes here. Regardless, the end result is the same: The Third Reich and Pax Americana succeeded in controlling the masses.
For those who still hold out hope that our system can be reformed by working within it, or that America’s mission has been to bring democracy to the world . . . READ:
War Is a Racket (1935) by General Smedly Butler
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961)
Blowback (2000) by Chalmers Johnson
The Untold History of the United States (2012) by Kuznick & Stone
There are so many other fine books, essays and speeches one could and should read about our empire, yet these four fully capture the essence . More than that, each singularly makes the point that it really does not matter which of the Two Party system controls the Congress or White House. We have never at all been a true and committed representative democracy. As Bob Dylan’s 1963 song Masters of War commented, we are living under a Military Industrial Empire where war is the doorway to profit and power for the few at the expense of the many.
All of our post WW2 presidents has served empire first and the people second. Every single one! As far as JFK, according to author James W Douglass’s book JFK and the Unspeakable (2011) Kennedy most likely had his own epiphany after the frightening Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, guiding him to atone for his cold warrior mindset . . . and that alone probably got him murdered.
My sadness comes from knowing that for every crazy act of terror that results in the loss or crippling of American lives, my nation conducts a myriad of terrorism abroad. Read the accounts that our mainstream media fails to acknowledge or cover: that of the wanton death and destruction of innocent civilians by our drones . . . in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and many other places.
Each time our missiles whiz down like the grim reapers they are and destroy whole families with little children and the elderly, more and more terrorists are created. Chalmers Johnson called it what it is: Blowback. The cycle needs to be cut, NOW!
The media and the unsuspecting public label our occupying forces in these countries as brave warriors. I label them for what they most of the time are: good and decent kids who have NO business being in those places . . . now or ever before! How about all those yuppie 20- and 30-something (so called) ‘journalists’ from both sides of the Two Party apologist mindset, or their fellow 20- and 30-somethings who care only for a brew and a hearty party? They love to chant “USA USA and “Fight them there so they don’t come here “. What if we had a draft again, as we did during Vietnam? How many of these young folks would finally get wise and see the light? You can bet your sweet ass that many of the parents of these kids would not stand idly by and watch them march off. No, many of these parents would also finally begin to question the motives of this empire.
As our economy bleeds red, without the white and blue, isn’t it time for many out there to begin to connect the dots? Isn’t it time to realize that we have been conned for so long? Those of us who speak truth to power need our friends and neighbors to finally study the real history and follow his or her conscience. A mutilated Afghan or Pakistani child with no arms or no eyes because of collateral damage is just as much an equal in the eyes of our creator as an American child. When will Americans find their moral compass and use it?
Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on TheSleuthJournal.com, Information Clearing house, Op Ed News, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). 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.
I would also recommend Naomi Klein’s shock doctrine. It pretty much explains everything. Thanks for writing, Phil.
A strong, simple, and principled piece from Farruggio, as always.
American humanity is as submerged beneath the same kind of callous indifference to the suffering inflicted on other innocent people as was that of the Germans in the Hitler era.
We, as a people, are in denial of the tremendous harm our sociopathic “leaders” are inflicting on much of the rest of the world, and ultimately on us as well.