The 'Good Empire?'
[col. writ. 6/20/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal
We are taught to think in schools, and by the lies of diplomats and politicians, that the U.S. goes abroad only to help people.
Any honest historian knows better, and won't dare write or teach this to serious students.
That's because the evidence to the contrary is simply too abundant, written in the blood and scarred earth of too many nations to dispute.
Shortly after the dawn of the industrial age, economic forces pushed politicians and through them, armies abroad to seize markets and resources to fuel the Machine.
The U.S. removed leaders, brought down governments, broke treaties, installed dictators and turned a blind eye to needless suffering, because such actions, in the short run, supported illusions of stability as defined by business interests.
In fact, in many cases, they fueled, funded and armed forces that would turn around and bite them.
Years ago, during the time of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the U.S. supported right wing mujaheddin forces that would one day emerge as the Taliban and Al Qaeda. One contemporary Afghan supporter warned the Americans, "For God's sake--you're financing your own assassins!"*
From Cuba, to Hawaii, to Haiti, to Vietnam, to Iran, to Iraq, to Afghanistan and points beyond, the U.S. imposed puppets and dictators to do their bidding, against the will of those peoples.
And from the 1800's to now, the U.S. used sweet platitudes, like liberty, democracy and freedom, to sell these ruinous imperial projects.
It happens today!
We do not know, and cannot now see, in what form this animus will return.
But return it will, perhaps in the words of the great Irish poet, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939):
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
---(c) '10 maj
{Source: Kinzer, Stephen, OVERTHROW: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq. (N. Y. Times, Books/Henry Holt & Co., 2006), p.269}
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