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The Empire Strikes Out

Submitted by producer on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 09:47
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I read an article this morning by Chalmers Johnson’s widow about her late husband and the fierce intellectual honesty and curiosity that drove him to write his seminal books on the follies of American empire as he struggled against a debilitating disease.

Crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, “Chal” produced the great trilogy on the American Raj starting with “Blowback”, as he fought both the pain of the disease and the cruel irony that the worst president in American history, George W. Bush was accelerating America’s demise and foreclosing any hope for a change of direction. 

Had he lived a little longer he might be experiencing a little pleasure in the pain of our Gulliver-like empire, tied down by its tentacles of hubris, writhing in irrelevance as the world passes us by.  The sorrows of empire indeed; but even worse we are trapped in our own contradictions as democratic eruptions in the Middle East, inspired by our values, leave us sidelined as history is being made by others. 

The inconsistencies are stark as we were caught by surprise by the Tunisian uprising, struggled to catch up with the Egyptian revolution, fumbled the Libyan revolt, tried to have it both ways in Bahrain and now don’t really want the Syrian dictator toppled.

Perhaps we are having the soul searching that Chalmers Johnson had hoped for, but our entrenched and metastasized military industrial complex and its global network of bases is on autopilot, just as the Afghanistan war is, and while billions are poured down the drain, there is little evidence the American people are paying attention.

Except of course for Ron Paul and now the game show politician Donald Trump, who point out the folly of filling potholes in Kabul and not on Main Street U.S.A. 

Perhaps there could be a bottom line awakening that we are wasting money on ungrateful people who hate us while our own people are being downsized as their jobs are outsourced, but that conversation would require focusing on Wall Street.  And since Wall Street clearly owns both political parties, and the Supreme Court has accelerated the total capture of our politics by big money, there seems little hope for improvement there. 

But just as the Berlin Wall fell, the wall of ignorance we have built up about the outside world is slowly crumbling and while we are learning that Arabs want democracy just like us, we might also learn that Europeans and other democracies actually take better care of their own people than we do. 

Even though there is an example right next door with Canada, one would think the intrusion of reality about their better standard of living would be inevitable.  But don’t underestimate the power of the enforcers of myth and the plutocracy of greed. 

America’s oligarchs will not stop until they have squeezed every last dollar of public money into private hands and unless the people act soon to reclaim their government, there won’t be anything left of the American dream, or of America the beautiful.

 

Comments

Submitted by Zero G on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 12:43.
#1
Member since:
11 April 2011
Last activity:
1 year 5 weeks

I fear we are wading in far murkier waters regarding the Libyan intervention than that which Ian describes when he refers to the opposition to Gaddafi as "Freedom Fighters."

John Pilger has written:

"The detail is also familiar. The Libyan "pro-democracy rebels" are reportedly commanded by Colonel Khalifa Haftar who, according to a study by the US Jamestown Foundation, set up the Libyan National Army in 1988 "with strong backing from the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]." For the past 20 years, Colonel Haftar has been living not far from Langley, Virginia, home of the CIA, which also provides him with a training camp. The Mujihadeen, which produced al-Qaeda, and the Iraqi National Congress, which scripted the Bush/Blair lies about Iraq, were sponsored in the same time-honored way, in leafy Langley."

"Libya's other "rebel" leaders include Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Qaddafi's justice minister until February, and Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younes, who ran Qaddafi's interior ministry: both with formidable reputations for savagely putting down dissent. There is a civil and tribal war in Libya, which includes popular outrage against Qaddafi's human rights record." @ http://truthout.com/david-camerons-gift-war-and-racism-them-and-us

If Ian wants to question why some on the left do not support this intervention, why not get someone of that mindset on the air and ask them directly, instead of asking Juan Cole who agreed with him why some others do not?

Submitted by producer on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 19:38.
#2
Member since:
14 July 2010
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29 min 25 sec

Even though I have presented a very strong argument against intervention in Libya from a right wing scholar Edward Luttwak, I too would like to hear an intelligent argument against intervention in Libya from the Left, and having interviewed Juan Cole yesterday I had every intention of finding someone to rebut him today. Doing an on-air debate when you have other subjects to cover in an hour takes up too much time so we gave equal time today to reply to Juan Cole even though we lost the connection with Juan yesterday and he did not finish his case. I would have gladly interviewed John Pilger who I spoke with about his friend Julian Assange's imprisonment, but the time difference with London would have him on at 2.40 AM his time which is too much to ask of him and it's unlikely he'd stay up that late for an interview that was only heard in LA. So the best I could manage today was Stephen Zunes who came highly recommended from Sonali and others against intervention who felt he could make a strong case.  You can check out Stephen Zunes on today's program now at kpfk.org and we should have it up on this website very soon.

Submitted by Zero G on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 10:06.
#3
Member since:
11 April 2011
Last activity:
1 year 5 weeks

Stipulating the reporting that John Pilger provides above (and I have no corroboration, of course) can we use the Sandinista example in Nicaragua as an accurate reflection for events in Libya?

The Sandinistas were set against the Contras who were heavily funded and trained by the US and CIA. It appears, according to Mr. Pilger that the rebel leadership is now trained by that same CIA and includes many of the same folks that were previously in Qaddafi's government. Can we really expect genuine reform to come from that leadership?

The news today includes military crackdowns in Egypt, arrests of dissidents in Bahrain, continued unrest in Yemen, etc. The US intervention in Libya while looking the other way in "friendly" regimes seems to point to the hippocracy of the US, once again.

To me it doesn't look like White Hats v. Black Hats, but plenty of Grey Hats to go around.

What is the influence of the LIFG (Libyan Islamic Fighting Group) within the rebels, for example, or the supporters of the former monarchy? Murky waters, indeed, it appears to me.

Thanks Ian, for providing Mr. Zunes a hearing, and if possible, I'd suggest a taped segment with Mr. Pilger, recorded at a more favorable hour for him, and broadcast on your Background Briefing...

Thanks for the forum, as well.

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 11:01.
#4

I am afraid that the latest intervention into Libya only feeds the military consumption machine that the US has become. Yesterday, 4/10, Ian asked Juan Cole why some on the left didn't support those he characterizes as "Freedom Fighters." Surely Ian could have found someone who disagrees with him to ask that question of.

John Pilger has written:

"The Libyan "pro-democracy rebels" are reportedly commanded by Colonel Khalifa Haftar who, according to a study by the US Jamestown Foundation, set up the Libyan National Army in 1988 "with strong backing from the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]." For the past 20 years, Colonel Haftar has been living not far from Langley, Virginia, home of the CIA, which also provides him with a training camp. The Mujihadeen, which produced al-Qaeda, and the Iraqi National Congress, which scripted the Bush/Blair lies about Iraq, were sponsored in the same time-honored way, in leafy Langley."

"Libya's other "rebel" leaders include Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Qaddafi's justice minister until February, and Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younes, who ran Qaddafi's interior ministry: both with formidable reputations for savagely putting down dissent."

I fear we are wading into far murkier waters than those which Ian describes. Not to mention that UN Security Council Resolution 1973 does not and cannot mandate US military action, only the Congress can declare war, and the War Powers Act includes a provision which necessitates an immediate threat to US security.

As General Ham briefs Congress about the possible need for US troops on the ground, perhaps Ian will interview someone with opposing views? Or is that just brain-dead thinking?

The John Pilger article is on Truthout: http://truthout.com/david-camerons-gift-war-and-racism-them-and-us