US Empire

The East-Bound Wind Causes A Storm In The West

July 18, 2020 Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi, Counterpunch. Educate! Belt and Road Initiative, China, Iran, US Empire

A few months after the publication of his remarkable book, Adam Smith in Beijing, I had an illuminating conversation with Giovanni Arrighi about the significance of China in world history. The late sociologist was interested in knowing more about the subject of my scholarship–modern Iran and the Iranian revolution. When he saw my puzzled face, he told me that he believes that all this apprehension in the west about Iran, is actually rooted in apprehension about China. Arrighi thought that if there were any “mainstream” of world history, it ought to be located in the story of China, the only civilization that has shaped the world as a hegemon over many millennia with the exception of the last 250 years.

Modi’s ‘New’ India: Notch Or Knot On China’s Belt (And Road Initiative)

July 16, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Antiwar.com. Educate! Border, China, India, US Empire

File it in the rapidly-brimming "biggest-stories-of-2020-you-haven’t-heard-about" folder. Amidst the madness merger of pandemic and protests – both of which Trump’s minions have blamed on China – there’s been scant attention paid to a brewing conflict between two of the world’s nine nuclear-armed powers (accounting for some 430 warheads between them). One is a rather flighty proxy – India – that Washington has long pursued with the oft-hopeless passion of a smitten suitor. The other, an "enemy" of "freedom," America, and apple pie everywhere: a Chinese dragon to whom new cold war enthusiasts – no doubt with visions of (defense contract) dollar signs dancing in their heads – have ascribed near preternatural ability and ambition.

Danny Sjursen: Fourth Of July Musings

July 4, 2020 Danny Sjursen, ScheerPost.com. Educate! American Exceptionalism, Fourth of July, Militarism and War, US Empire

Once again, this Fourth of July, Americans will celebrate — to the unwitting militarist racist tune that is the “Star Spangled Banner” — more than just the nation’s Independence Day. Though most folks will, if at a reasonable social distance, focus more on the backyard beer and brats, U.S. jingoism and exceptionalism will invariably be on the menu. That last sentiment, particularly amidst the COVID- and mass protest-exposing era of forever war at home and abroad, deserves a closer and critical look. For exceptionalism is truly a national disease that ravages American bodies and democratic institutions alike. This malignancy must be named and shamed in pursuit of precisely the “participatory patriotism” the holiday purports to celebrate. As the (late) man said, “Always look to the language;” so let us begin there:

Suicidal Empire

June 28, 2020 Mazin Qumsiyeh, Popular Resistance. Educate! colonization, Genocide, Indigenous Peoples, US Empire

Let us talk about the suicidal aspect. Ever since the US government turned its economy to the control of a "federal reserve" (which is not federal or government but private bankers), it had forfeited the control of its economy to what Eisenhauer warned about: "a military-industrial complex" [now we can add technological]. Between signing the federal reserve law and the support of the Balfour declaration and entry into WWI, the USA's future was set in motion of militarization, special interest lobbies, and a future of cycles of recessions that could only lead to economic collapse. With the military expenses spiraling out of control ( the Caesar law is actually embedded in the National "defense" authorization act), the US deficits mushrooms. The national public (government) debt is now $26 trillion and when you add private and corporate debts we have over $80 trillion total debts (much of it owed to foreign countries and individuals).

Stealing A Nation

June 27, 2020 John Pilger. Educate! United Kingdom (UK), US Empire, US Foreign Bases, Wars and Militarism

One of John Pilger’s most remarkable documentaries, bringing a little-known story to a wide audience, is Stealing a Nation, about how British governments ruthlessly expelled the population of the Chagos Islands, a crown colony in the Indian Ocean, in the late 1960s and early 70s to make way for an American military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island. The truth about the brutal removal of 1,500 islanders and the official conspiracy to deny the presence of an indigenous population did not emerge for another 20 years. Secret official files were unearthed at the Public Record Office, in London, by lawyers acting for the former inhabitants of the coral archipelago, who wished to return to their homeland. Historian Mark Curtis described the enforced depopulation in Web of Deceit, his 2003 book about Britain’s post-war foreign policy.

‘Black Lives Matter’ Is International

June 19, 2020 Roger Harris, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Educate! Black Lives Matter (BLM), colonization, Rebellion2020, US Empire

Corte Madera, California - The police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th was the spark that ignited the tinder of accrued injustice throughout the US and globally. This injustice has deep antecedents in the US and indeed in much of what is now called the Global South. There is a shared history of colonial conquest of the Indigenous and the abominable institution of the enslavement of African peoples. What happened has its roots in systemic oppression that has resonated internationally. Just as the police suffocated George Floyd, US unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Zimbabwe, and nearly one third of humanity are designed to asphyxiate those nations which aspire to pursue an independent course.

COVID-19: A Polygraph For These Times

June 18, 2020 Pasqualina Curcio, Ultimas Noticias. Educate! Capitalism, COVID-19, Neoliberalism, US Empire

Like a lie detector, COVID-19 has made obvious at least two phenomena that have been taking place already over the past few years: the decline of the U.S. empire and the failure of capitalism. For a number of years now, the U.S. has been losing this super-power status, its economy has lost range, and the dollar has hit the skids. Its international reserves do not cover even 2% of the exorbitant external debt and it is not sufficient for even 2 months of imports (hence the desperation to re-open the economy in the midst of the pandemic.) for decades, the U.S. has imported more than it has exported, and its commercial dependence on China is ever increasing. The U.S. does not have the gold to back up its currency, and, to cap it off, has run out of petroleum reserves quite a while ago. COVID-19 has not only pointed out the economic weakness of the U.S., shown in the rude and arrogant attitude of the government in the midst of the pandemic, it has also served as a catalyst of world reorganization that has been years in the making.

US War Against Mexico: Prelude To Empire

June 17, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Future of Freedom. Educate! Anti-war Movement, Mexican-American War, US Empire, Wars and Militarism

The 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico — popularly, if misleadingly, dubbed the Mexican-American War — must rate as an acute pivot point in the young nation’s history. The Mexican-American War, seen in the context of America’s current contemporary never-ending wars in the Greater Middle East, is more relevant than ever. Constituting the first successful conquest of another country (Canada had been unsuccessfully invaded twice), the war in Mexico included the U.S. Army’s first major amphibious operation and its first experience with prolonged occupation duty. The war, like the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was also sold to a naïve public on demonstrably false pretexts. The blowback from that realization, along with the conflict’s mounting casualties, coalesced into America’s first-ever widespread anti-war movement.

New Study: US Empire Is Falling But Will Not Fall Quietly

June 13, 2020 the Rand Corporation. Educate! Military Budget, US Empire, Wars and Militarism, weapons

Where will the next war occur? Who will fight in it? Why will it occur? How will it be fought? This brief summarizes a series of reports that sought to answer these questions—looking out from now until 2030. The reports took the approach of examining these questions through the lenses of several trends—geopolitical, economic, environmental, legal, informational, and military—that will shape the contours of conflict. Military history is littered with mistaken predictions about the future of warfare that have left forecasters militarily unprepared—sometimes disastrously so—for the conflicts ahead. The United States has suffered its own share of bad predictions. "When it comes to predicting the nature and location of our next military engagements, since Vietnam, our record has been perfect. We have never gotten it right

On Contact: COVID-19 And Critic Of Globalization

May 31, 2020 Chris Hedges, RT. Resistance Report COVID-19, Globalization, US Empire

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to John Ralston Saul, author and president emeritus of Pen International, about how the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the weakness of American society, and accelerated the decline of the American Empire. Among Saul's many books are: The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World, and Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West.

The USA Vs. China: “A Clash Of Civilizations”

May 30, 2020 Michael Wong, Peace Pivot. Educate! China, international cooperation, US Empire, Wars and Militarism

Hillary Clinton famously said, “’I don’t want my grandchildren to live in a world dominated by the Chinese.” During his tenure, President Obama launched his “Pivot to Asia,” moving 60% of US naval power to bases surrounding China, developing the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty specifically to economically isolate China, making Air-Sea Battle the official US doctrine explicitly to contain China militarily, and announcing boldly that his aim was to contain China’s economic rise. Not surprisingly, China reacted with alarm. The Cold War was long over, China’s economic rise was a peaceful one, it had no aggressive intentions towards the US or anyone, and prior to Obama’s “Pivot to Asia,” relations had been stable and tension low, China argued. Such arguments from China, however, were dismissed by US leaders.

US Uses ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ To Advance Economic And Strategic Interests

May 19, 2020 Roger D. Harris, Dissident Voice. Educate! Humanitarian War, International Law, US Empire, Wars and Militarism

No More War focuses on the one nation in recent times that has been continuously engaged in wars of aggression. In fact, that nation has been engaged in wars or military occupations in all but five years since its founding in 1776. Author and professor of human rights law at the University of Pittsburgh, Dan Kovalik, contrasts international law designed to keep the peace to the contravening ideology of “humanitarian intervention” used to excuse the US imperial project. Besides being a compelling exposition on US imperial adventures and its epigones, No More War is also a primer for law students and the general public on international law. The two most seminal documents of international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the Statute of the International Court of Justice, are included as appendices.

The US Military Is Hell-Bent On Trying To Overpower China

May 14, 2020 Vijay Prashad, Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Educate! Arms Race, China, US Empire, Wars and Militarism

The United States has unilaterally increased a buildup around China and has ramped up threatening rhetoric against Beijing. Anxiety about a possible war against China imposed by the United States is growing within China; although sober voices are asking the Chinese government not to get drawn into an arms race with the United States. Nonetheless, the threats are credible, and the desire to build some form of deterrence is growing. The absence of a strong world peace movement with the capacity to prevent this buildup by the United States is of considerable concern for the planet. The need for such a movement could not be greater.

These ‘Are The Good Times — Compared To What’s Coming Next”

April 30, 2020 Chauncey DeVega, Salon. Educate! COVID-19, Greater Depression, Plutocracy, US Empire

Empires fall a little bit at a time and then all at once. Over the last two decades, America has proven itself to be well along on that journey. The coronavirus pandemic has simply pushed our nation further along that downward spiral. Ultimately, the pandemic has further exposed and exacerbated — for those still somehow in denial about the decades-long reality of America as a decaying empire — deep political, social, economic, cultural and other societal problems. The country's infrastructure is rotting. Trump presides over a plutocratic, corrupt, cruel, authoritarian, pathological kakistocracy. The commons is being reduced to rubble while the ultra-rich extract ever more wealth and other resources from the American people. Excessive military spending has left the United States incapable of attending to the basic needs of its people.

Please Tell The Establishment That US Hegemony Is Over

April 25, 2020 Daniel Larison, The American Conservative. Educate! Globalization, Hegemony, Multipolar World, US Empire

More than 10 years ago, the columnist Charles Krauthammer asserted that American “decline is a choice,” and argued tendentiously that Barack Obama had chosen it. Yet looking back over the last decade, it has become increasingly obvious that this decline has occurred irrespective of what political leaders in Washington want. The truth is that decline was never a choice, but the U.S. can decide how it can respond to it. We can continue chasing after the vanished, empty glory of the “unipolar moment” with bromides of American exceptionalism. We can continue to delude ourselves into thinking that military might can make up for all our other weaknesses. Or we can choose to adapt to a changed world by prudently husbanding our resources and putting them to uses more productive than policing the world.

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