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America is
gigantic; a gigantic mistake. --Sigmund Freud
America is a great country. It has many shortcomings, many social inequalities, and it’s tragic that the problem of the blacks wasn’t solved fifty or even a hundred years ago, but it’s still a great country, a country full of opportunities, of freedom! Does it seem nothing to you to be able to say what you like, even against the government, the Establishment? --Golda Meir
We Americans regard ourselves as a nation with a moral mission; a nation that is, in Abraham Lincoln's words, "The last best hope of mankind." Europe, on the other hand, identifies a sense of national mission with fanaticism and chauvinism. --Dennis Prager
America is a savage nation with a long history of criminal acts. Sadly, American governments, especially the Republican regimes, like killing and oppression. The American motivation for violence has generally been money. Americans will kill anybody for money. --G.G. Stoctay
Poll: over
40% of Canadian teens think America is "evil" --http://www.canadafreepress.com/2004/weinreb063004.htm
YouTube - God Bless & Damn America Pope Benedict | Jeremiah Wright
Read
D'Souza's
Preface & Chapter 1
As you read, keep in mind these questions. They will serve as the basis of our class discussion.
D'Souza
Preface: A Funeral Oration-Pericles' Dilemma, and Ours.
- What is Pericles' dilemma?
- Why connection does he want you
to make with Pericles?
- Where is life lived best in the world today?
D'Souza Chap. 1:
Why they hate us--America and its enemies
- Which author does he agree with more (Fukuyama or Huntington) and
why?
- What are the three external critics of America?
- What are the three internal critics of America?
- What is the Tocqueville advantage?
PART II. Read
Loewen's Introduction & Afterword
As you read, keep in
mind these questions. They will serve as the basis of our class
discussion.
- What makes history unique compared to others classes?
- What's the problem with the teaching of history in the schools?
- What are the problems in textbooks?
Loewen
Afterword:
- What is required to be a "Crap detector?"
- How can truth replace the errors?
- What are the five questions to put to each work?
Read also:
Patriotism
Debate
John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630
Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke and to provide for our posterity is to followe the Counsell of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others Condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together, allwayes haveing before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke, our Community as members of the same body, soe shall wee keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his owne people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our wayes, soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome power goodnes and truthe then formerly wee have beene acquainted with, wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among us, when tenn of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods sake; wee shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause theire prayers to be turned into Cursses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land whether wee are going: And to shutt upp this discourse with that exhortacion of Moses that faithfull servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israell Deut. 30. Beloved there is now sett before us life, and good, deathe and evill in that wee are Commaunded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Commaundements and his Ordinance, and his lawes, and the Articles of our Covenant with him that wee may live and be multiplyed, and that the Lord our God may blesse us in the land whether wee goe to possesse it: But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it;
Therefore lett us choose life, that wee, and our Seede, may live; by obeyeing his voyce, and cleaveing to him, for hee is our life, and our prosperity.
"The
Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852)
By Frederick Douglass, 18
Source:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this
republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men.
They were great men, too ‹ great enough to give frame to a great age. It
does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of
truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not,
certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great
deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes,
and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will
unite with you to honor their memory....
...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to
speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your
national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of
natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to
us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the
national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for
the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could
be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and
my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's
sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of
gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits?
Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the
hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been
torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might
eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the
disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious
anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance
between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed
in common.‹The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and
independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The
sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and
death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must
mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of
liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman
mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking
me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me
warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes,
towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty,
burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive
lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we
remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and
they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of
Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee,
let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful
wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day,
rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do
forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow
this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs,
and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and
shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject,
then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its
popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there
identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not
hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of
this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we
turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present,
the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America.is
false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be
false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on
this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the
name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the
Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and
to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to
perpetuate slavery ‹ the great sin and shame of America! "I will not
equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can
command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment
is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not
confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this
circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a
favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce
less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much
more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing
to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue?
On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must
I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded
already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the
enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish
disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the
State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant
he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same
crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the
acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible
being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that
Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe
fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you
can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I
may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your
streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the
fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish
the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race.
Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping,
using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges,
building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold;
that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks,
merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers,
poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in
all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California,
capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the
hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as
husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the
Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the
grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the
rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue
the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be
settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with
great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of
justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of
Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a
natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively,
negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous,
and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the
canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of
their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their
relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh
with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to
sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to
burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their
mastcrs? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with
pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time
and strength than such arguments would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God
did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is
blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can
reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for
such argument is passed.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O!
had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour
out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm,
and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not
the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the
earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of
the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the
hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man
must be proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that
reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice
and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is
a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness,
swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your
denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and
equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and
thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him,
mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to
cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a
nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are
the people of the United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and
despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every
abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the
everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for
revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a
rival....
...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have
this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this
country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the
downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of
slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While
drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great
principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit
is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now
stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation
can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same
old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could
be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence
themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was
then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on
in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind.
Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has
borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the
darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea,
as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered
agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to
London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. --
Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the
other.
The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The
Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the
Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no
outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the
all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen
in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven
garment. 'Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto Ood." In the fervent
aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in
saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive --
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.
From the
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II
Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860
Philip S. Foner
International Publishers Co., Inc., New York, 1950
The ongoing debate over what to believe about America is oftentimes waged
with the use of history. Here are some examples:
Why the world hates AmericaBy Michael Medved
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2006/08/23/why_the_world_hates_america
The disease of America Hatred now has reached pandemic proportions in many corners of the globe, spreading far beyond the predictably hopeless fever swamps of Islamic militants, French intellectuals, or Latin American demagogues. In fact, many citizens within the USA itself energetically embrace the basic assumptions of America Hatred, perceiving their country as an unequivocally negative force on the world scene.
John Tirman, director of MIT’s prestigious Center for International Studies, recently wrote a book called “100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World.” When questioned on my radio show, he refused to dismiss the notion that humanity might have been better off if Europeans had never settled North America in the first place – in other words, if the USA as we know it had never come into existence.
The most direct way to counter such disgraceful fatuity is with reference to a key element in a classic American contribution to world cinema: Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) learns to appreciate his own worth after getting a glimpse of the direction his community of Bedford Falls might have taken had he not been around to serve and save it. By the same token, America bashers might try a thought experiment in which they imagine a world in which the USA never existed and played no current role. Would Belgium and Canada have somehow pooled their mighty military machines and succeeded in rescuing humanity from Naziism – and Communism? If not for the United States, which nation might have inspired the world to pursue self-government and human rights? Remember, the famous French Revolution proved so feckless in this regard that the frog-eaters anointed an all-powerful Emperor (Napoleon) less than twenty years after they guillotined their king. In terms of commercial activity and living standards, the United States remains the indefatigable engine that drives the world economy, with productivity and ingenuity as indispensable to sustaining global prosperity as American agricultural bounty is essential to feeding all of humanity.
The irrational nature of America Hatred comes into clearest focus with the realization that this destructive passion flourishes most spectacularly among those who have benefited most conspicuously from the existence of the U.S. You’ll find such festering resentment in Western Europe in general (France in particular), Islamic nations especially dependent on American aid, support and trade (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, for example), among pampered, privileged stars in the entertainment industry, and on elite university campuses in the United States and around the world.
If, then, the most outspoken advocates of America Hatred have seldom suffered personally at the hands of the nation they loathe, how can we understand their implacable hostility? Three factors help to explain this impassioned abhorrence which, like most consuming hatreds, does its most serious damage to the haters themselves ---
I. ENVY
When the society often described as “the world’s most hated nation” also turns out to be the country most fervently desired as a destination for immigrants from everywhere, then it’s blindingly obvious that envy plays the leading role in generating hostility to the United States. In the same way that the most successful kid in school will generate considerable resentment, or the most prominent and prosperous citizen of a town will provoke hostility from some of his less fortunate neighbors, the US draws anger and condemnation precisely because of its overwhelming power and influence. America hatred has clearly intensified in the last fifteen years, though it’s hard to make the case that our country has suddenly begun playing a more destructive role in the world since the conclusion of the Cold War. What changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union is the disappearance of any credible rival to the last remaining superpower, so that the US, as the unequivocally dominant power on the planet, draws more anger and suspicion than it did during the long struggle with global Communism.
Moreover, the envy that spurs anti-Americanism often stems from a resentment of US power, rather than jealousy of the wealth and freedoms Americans so obviously enjoy. For instance, the citizens of the Netherlands boast living standards that compare favorably with those of many Americans, and have built a vibrant democracy with abundant civil liberties. Nevertheless, when voters go to the polls in Amsterdam or Utrecht they make decisions with no significant consequences beyond the boundaries of Holland; American elections, by contrast, help determine the future of all of civilization and resonate in the remotest corners of the planet. After the Bush re-election in 2004, several journalists in Europe suggested that residents of nations allied with America should get the chance to vote in US elections because of the impact of those campaigns on every nation’s future —a sure indication of the seething envy for the centrality and influence of the USA that contributes unmistakably to America Hatred.
Among America-haters within the USA, their jealousy is directed at presently powerful major institutions (the military, the corporations, the Republican Party, conservative religious groups) and the “great unwashed” who support them. Their alienation from long-standing traditions, current trends, and the majority of their fellow citizens make them feel like exiles in their own country – and to resent the nation which, for the most part, continues to ignore their increasingly hysterical criticisms.
II. THE LEGACY OF COMMUNISM.
For nearly fifty years the Communist Empire that covered half the globe invested untold resources in the most vile and relentless anti-American propaganda. More than a billion adults in today’s world grew up under fanatical dictatorships headed by the likes of Brezhnev, Mao, Castro, Kim Il Sung where school books, youth organizations, radio, movies, TV, newspapers, even official holidays spread the vicious and preposterous lies about life in the United States. Declassified files in the former Soviet Union show that the KGB and related organizations also spent literally hundreds of millions of dollars to spread the same lies in the West – hiring countless agents of “disinformation” to communicate the idea that America is a uniquely cruel, corrupt, exploitative, racist, militaristic, imperialist, and religiously fanatical society whose very existence menaces “People’s Republics” everywhere. Of course, Communist dictatorships remain in power from Beijing to Havana and they’ve been joined recently by leftist demagogues such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or Evo Morales in Bolivia who depend on whipping up anti-Yankee sentiment to maintain their tenuous hold on power. To an astonishing degree, the condemnations of the United States by even the most “advanced” and “sophisticated” pundits and professors in the West continue to echo the ancient particulars of Marxist anti-Americanism first put forward by Lenin himself, and later elaborated by his Stalinist successors. In a sense, the current discredited state of Marxist ideology (with massive economic failures and appalling mass murder in every nation under Communist rule) only redoubled the anti-American fervor on the left: former apologists for Stalinism, Maoism, Castroism and other horrors can now salve their consciences by insisting that the American economic and political system is even worse than the nightmarish regimes they once embraced.
III. TOXIC POPULAR CULTURE.
Made-in-America movies, TV shows, popular music, fast food and fashion trends remain this nation’s most successful exports to the rest of humanity. Instead of inspiring affection for the USA (as did the Hollywood products of the 1930’s and ‘40’s, for instance), the current entertainment offerings deliver a dark, dysfunctional view of life in North America. Few people in Burundi or Bangladesh will ever get the chance to visit L.A. or New York but they’ll all get visions of American life on TV or at the movies – visions that emphasize violence, sexual indulgence, economic injustice, pervasive corruption, selfishness and villainy of every sort. Most of the societies in the non-Western world (very much including China, India, much of Africa and Latin America, and nearly all of the Islamic world) maintain a commitment to highly traditional family values that would rank as outrageously restrictive, even “puritanical” in US terms. Of course, hundreds of millions in such societies view the risqué contents of American entertainment as decadent and damaging, a (perhaps conspiratorial) threat to the morals that traditionalists year to sustain and defend. When the most creative story-tellers within America itself fail time and again to portray the overwhelming goodness, decency, kindness and wide-open opportunity that remain essential elements of the American experience, then one can hardly blame the impoverished audiences in less fortunate corners of the earth for remaining ignorant of the true nature of the USA.
The factors that produce the surging levels of America Hatred—Envy, Communist Legacy and Pop Cultural influence—all do more damage to the people who succumb to that loathing than they do to the interests of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Envy distracts from constructive effort, paralyzing both nations and individuals; nostalgia for the bad-old-days of Marxist tyranny encourages the worst tendencies in any society, and embracing the current products of US pop culture (gangsta rap, anyone?) grants influence to the worst, not the best, messages from American society.
The one form of anti-Americanism that ought to worry the citizens and leaders of this country involves the elitist contempt here at home for the nation’s past and present—contempt tirelessly fomented by leading educators and media figures. Political historian Michael Barone recently identified such leaders as “our covert enemies” who have “been working, over many years, to undermine faith in our society and confidence in its goodness…. Our covert enemies don’t want the Islamo-fascists to win. But in some corner of their hearts they would like us to lose.”
Understanding and confronting America Hatred wherever it occurs, around the world but most importantly here at home, will help to insure that these potentially dangerous enemies never get their secret wish.
The New Evil Empire: America has become what Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union used to be
By
John Kaminski
skylax@comcast.net
2-28-4
Remember the Red Menace, also known as the Communist threat? Or how about
the Third Reich, the creator of which became the chief metaphor for evil in
the 20th century?
Most Americans, certainly those younger than 30, don't remember either. Hell, they don't even remember Vietnam or Nixon or The Beatles. The terms and their connotations are totally unfamiliar, unless encountered in history texts. Millions of Americans simply do not remember what America used to stand for - freedom, justice, equality - and as a result, don't fully comprehend the appalling reality of what America has become.
Once upon a time, back in the days of Elvis and the hula hoop, when I was a little shaver, I was taught in school that when Germany took over France, Poland and other European countries, that was wrong, and the United States sacrificed almost a half million of its own young people to reverse those situations in the name of freedom. And that happened twice, 1916-18 and 1941-45.
In the same vein, I grew up being taught that the Soviet Union's annexation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and all of Eastern Europe was an evil deed, and that for many years in a period called the Cold War, the American military objective was aimed at overturning this unjust oppression. Back in the 1950s when I was in elementary school, we used to have routine Civil Defense drills where we used to have to hide under our desks pretending we were about to be nuked by the Russians. Really!
It's a new world now. For one thing, the population of the planet has doubled in those mere 50 years. And for another, it is the United States that is now sweeping the world, scooping up all these other countries in the name of capitalist democracy, and telling lies about why it has to go to war. And instead of railing against the powerful giant stealing freedom from all these hapless victims, as it did in years past, the American press is now cheering it, justifying it in the increasingly ambivalent names of capitalism and democracy. Worse, the American people are cheering it, too, something that's never really happened in U.S. history, when the people support a war that they know is based on lies.
Of course, the American press is cheering it because it is the American military doing it. Even the German and Russian press aren't really criticizing it in a serious way. Because there is no country that can oppose America, which spends more on its military than all the other countries in the world combined, yet still complains that it needs to spend more, even as its bridges and schools are falling apart and its manufacturing base has completely disappeared, precipitating its imminent economic collapse. Still the military spending increases, and war plans ooze out like an evil ink stain spreading across the globe.
The evil empire, number one threat to peace in the world, is now the United States. No more Red Menace. No more Third Reich. Now it's a War on Terror executed by the biggest terrorist of all - America, the nation that killed its own people by the thousands in order to trigger World War III and capture all the world's oil fields.
Now the shoe is obviously on the other foot. The United States has now assumed the role of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia at their worst and all rolled into one. It has troops poised and threatening in 127 other countries. By the diabolical mechanisms of the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, it has already plundered most other countries financially, stealing their utilities and impoverishing their inhabitants. And those nations who resist this financial con game, like Yugoslavia, are simply invaded and coerced into servitude. Those nations who play the game, like Russia and Argentina, are reduced to abject poverty with a few pro-Western billionaires owning everything.
And woe to those nations who won't play the game, like Iraq. They are obliterated and turned into permanent war zones. Their people are murdered in their sleep by hopped-up American soldiers who are told by their cynical leaders that they are spreading democracy, when really what they are spreading are endless opportunities for plunder by politically connected corporations.
And America's leader lie about absolutely everything. Never at any time in my personal history has there been a time when an American president has not at least accidentally told the truth about something, but that time is now.
Once upon a time, Americans used to preach the cause of freedom and justice for all. It's actually written in their Pledge of Allegiance. But they don't adhere to that anymore. After all, Americans have canceled their Bill of Rights, which once made them famous - made them loved! - all over the world. Now they are feared all over the world. Reviled. When Americans launched their worldwide war on terror - based on a treasonous event in which they killed large numbers of their own people - they betrayed the whole world. They betrayed every dream of freedom anybody ever had anywhere.
The people who did it did it for a few billion dollars. Can you blame them? It's easy money blowing up countries and blaming it on somebody else. Even you might do it if you had the chance. Americans support such an idea. It's capitalism at its best, controlling the market, make money on the destruction by selling the weapons, make money on the reconstruction by involving your friends in the contracts, no public bids, of course. So you lose a few dark-skinned lives. The world is overpopulated anyway. Look at it as population control (although that it another, much larger topic).
Things have become so ugly in the United States that the liberal opposition candidate for president tells peace activists to "Get over it!" That there will be no peace no matter who is president. That America is united to overrun and ravish the whole world, simply because there is no one to stop it. This is the America that was venerated and admired all over the world. This is what America became when there was no other power to keep it honest. It became dishonest - and a killer nation.
People overseas make a mistake when the say they have nothing against the American people, that it is simply the American government they loathe and fear. It is the American people who have permitted this to happen, and they who bear the blame and will reap the whirlwind for their inaction.
Once, America set an example for the world to establish representative government and take care of its less fortunate. Today, America is still setting an example for the world, an example that democracy is a hoax, and that all we can expect for our children's futures is a dark abyss of endless war based on phony pretenses.
The thing that made the episodes with Nazi Germany and Soviet Union have happy endings was that there was somebody to fight for freedom ready to rescue those oppressed by military tyranny from a foreign power.
But now, who is ready to defend the freedom of those in Afghanistan, or in Iraq, or in Macedonia, Serbia, the Philippines, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala ... or Palestine?
Who is ready to defend freedom now that the Americans have declared freedom incompatible with security?
But these things tend to even out over time. Rome wasn't built in a day and it took centuries to fall apart, but eventually it was picked apart by jackals and sycophantic traitors from within.
The world will yet have the last laugh on America, after its own leaders have finished picking the bones of its financially depleted carcass.
Because Americans have given up defending true freedom around the world, the day will soon arrive (sooner than they think) when they will have to defend their own freedom against the very monster they have created by their own selfish indifference. The corporate beast that consumes freedom around the world will one day soon turn its gaping jaws on America itself, and the Americans, who have decided to forget how to defend true freedom around the world, will necessarily have forgotten how to defend their own.
Once upon a time, when I was a little shaver and the president was some guy named Ike, I was told that America was the greatest nation in the world because it was a champion of freedom and justice, and rescued the oppressed whenever people were in trouble.
So ... were they lying then and telling the truth now, or telling the truth then and lying now?
And when the rest of the world comes calling to rectify this murderous tyranny and worldwide oppression that America now practices, what will you say to them when they aim their guns at you? That you didn't know?
Abu-Ghraib
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From an Australian whose son is in Iraq
Gentlemen
I am an Australian and my son is an Australian - as far as we are concerned there is not place on God's earth better than Australia, and there are no people better than Australians.
That was until the past week or so.
My son is in the Australian Army and he is currently on deployment in Iraq. I can not go into his duties in great depth, but shall we say that he and his fellow army buddies are on a glorified guard duty looking after the Australian Embassy. They don't go out looking for "action", though it is a different story in Afghanistan, there the Aussie troops chase the baddies over the hills and into the valleys..
My son and I just ended a long 'phone conversation and here are some of his comments, believe me this is what he said. We have all seen the bullshit emails written by some clown in his lounge room pretending to be at the coal face, but this is what was said.:
"Before I came over here I thought we (the Australian Army) were pretty shit hot..... was I ever wrong!....The Yanks (I hope you don't mind me using that word) are so professional from the top to the bottom that it is almost embarrassing to be in their company, and to call yourself a soldier....don't get me wrong, we are good at what we do but the Yanks are so much better.....they are complete at what they do, how they do it and their attitude is awesome....they don't complain they just get on with the job and they do it right.....I carry a Minimi (SAW) so I am not real worried about a confrontation but I tell you I feel safer just knowing that the US Army is close by....If we got into trouble I know that our boys would come running and we could deal with it but they would probably be passed by a load of Hummers. No questions asked, no glory sought, the Americans would just fight with us and for us because that is their nature, to protect those in need of protection.....We use the American Mess so you could say that we are fed by the Americans.....they have every right to be pissed at that but they don't bitch about that they just make us feel as welcome as possible....what gets to me is that the Yanks don't walk around with a "we are better than you attitude" and they could because they are, they treat us as equals and as brothers in arms. If nothing else, coming here has taught me that the Americans are a truly great Nation and a truly great bunch of people.....Let's face it they don't HAVE to be here, they could stay in America and beat the shit out of anyone who threatened them, BUT THEY ARE HERE because they believe they should be here, and the Iraqis would be screwed if they weren't here.....When I come home, you and I we are going to the US, we will buy some bikes and we are going riding...."
The reason why I am sharing this with you is because I realize that you (as a nation) must get pretty pissed with all the criticism you receive by the so-called "know it alls" who are sitting at home - safe. The reality is that they are safe, just as I am, because of America. If the world went arse up tomorrow there is f**k all we (Australia) could do about it, but I know that the Americans would be there putting themselves on the line for others. That to me is the sign of greatness.
The most precious thing in my life is my son, I look at him and I thank God that I am fortunate enough to be able to spend time in his company.
We laugh, we discuss, we argue, we dummy spit, we have the same blood. I am not happy that he is where he is but that is his duty. He joined the Army to protect and to defend, not to play games. I mightn't like it but I accept it. My reasons for not liking it are selfish and self centered.
I felt assured that he would be safe because he is in a well trained army with an excellent record, BUT NOW, I feel a whole lot better knowing that he is with your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.
Whilst he was growing up. I was always there to look after him, I would not let harm befall him and I would always put myself before him to protect him. I can't do that now. When it comes to looking after him now he and his mates will do the job, but also THANK GOD FOR AMERICA.
Gentlemen, I have rambled on for too long. but as I finish I say to you, as a foreigner and outsider, a nation is only a collection of its people and its attitude is the attitude of its people, collectively and as individuals. I am really glad you are here on this Earth and I respect you as a nation and as people.
Stand up and feel proud because you deserve it, there is no one else who will do what America does without question. The next time someone howls you down, take some comfort in the fact that America is defending their right to act like an idiot.
Finally, thank you for looking after my son.
Peter Turner