To Bob, On Empire
by Diane V. McLoughlin, mcloughlinpost.com
September 1, 2010
The following was written after I got an interesting comment on my essay, 'Reactions to American Extremism',
by a guy named Bob.
Bob wrote, 'I just can't stand the message that America is to blame for all the faults that go around the world that is just not true
we are the greatest nation in the WORLD, also read what she is saying, it almost seems to me that she is kinda taking sides with
bin laden and she is quoting castro'.
Bob. Hi. I hope everything is well with you. I have a toothache I can't fix. How I feel these days (beyond the immediate of the
tooth and its broader implications) is this way:
I see things in a particular way because I have been studying current affairs full-time now for several years; a luxury not open to
most. The spirit of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are embedded in my DNA.
I believe these rights are the inalienable rights of every single person living on this planet. People have a right to be free - from
discrimination, from fear, from want, from occupation, from oppression, from resource-hungry military-backed multinational
corporations, and from remote-controlled U.S. drones dropping bombs on your village compound. That's me.
I believe most Americans feel the same way, too. But the government (or, more precisely, interests with a powerful influence on
government) does not believe it. And the more I learn, the more I see that it almost never has. When it looked like the government
might be led in a better direction by President John F. Kennedy, for example, he was assassinated; November 22, 1963. His
brother Robert Kennedy was bravely willing to take up the challenge to run for President, by 1968.
'Kennedy stood on a platform of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social
improvement...He aroused rabid animosity in some quarters, with J. Edgar Hoover's Deputy Clyde Tolson reported as saying, 'I
hope that someone shoots and kills the son of a bitch.'[]...It has been widely commented that Robert Kennedy's campaign for the
American presidency far outstripped, in its vision of social improvement, that of President Kennedy...;'. (1)
Robert F. Kennedy was, like his brother, assassinated in cold blood; June 6, 1968.
You know what I remember about Robert Kennedy? I remember hearing that he wanted to see what life was really like for Blacks
in the Deep South. What I remember is that he came back stunned that Black kids weren't getting milk. Their families could not
afford milk.
Patrick Buchanan gets a lot of flack from the left, and it may well be that it's fair
criticism and that I just don't know much about him. But I picked up a book of
his in a Salvation Army store a few years ago, and although it could have been
edited better, the message rang true in the choice facing the United States:
Republic - or Empire?
Bob, you spit out Fidel Castro's name as if he were a minion of the devil.
He's a man. People have flaws. We make mistakes. But he was motivated
in his younger years by the suffering of his people, to try to do something
about it. He seems motivated now to stress the perils nuclear weapons
pose to the people of the whole world. I see nothing but good in that.
As for my discussing the events of 9/11 and what motivated Osama bin Laden - that
for one thing, we murdered over 500,000 Iraqi children during our siege of Iraq
1993-2003 - that is a discussion that is long overdue.
Empires are vicious, blood-thirsty, soulless entities, as my Mom put it to me in a chat earlier today; it doesn't matter which one, or
which time in history we pick to talk about - they are all the same. Empires don't know when to stop trying to expand their centers
of control, either, and that is one of the reasons they fall apart.
But another thing that empires do is lie to the people, Bob. You can't get people to occupy other countries or kill other people
unless you have a damned good reason to do it - defense from imminent attack - or you lie to them because you don't have a good
reason; you have evil, racist, greedy reasons. American companies such as Halliburton, now headquartered off-shore to avoid
paying taxes; Kellogg, Brown and Root; Blackwater, and others - have profited beyond the dreams of Midas from the foreign
adventures our government has conducted overseas. The profit motive motivates. Diversification
of American industry is going to be key to peace.
Image, right: Donald Rumsfeld, Special Envoy of
President Ronald Reagan, and his pal, Saddam Hussein;
- 1983 - Getty Images (1a)
Now, it is my view that you have been lied to your whole life, Bob. Americans are daily inundated with lies. I view myself as a
failure, because, so far at least, I have not found the right words to help. I'm only one person, I know. But who will save the people
from self-destruction? I view it as self-destruction, if and when the enemies we have made for ourselves retaliate. We have 1,000 -
one-thousand - military bases and outposts; U.S. personnel is situated in 156 countries around the world.(2) That's an empire.
The take-over of the government is not complete. The people can change things. I would share that at War Is A Crime.org, - (link:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/caws ) - you can find a list of candidates who have signed a pledge to refuse to authorize any
more war funding, if they are voted in.
There is another list, here - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/whipwars - where you can check your current representative's
voting record on war funding, too.
For anyone reading this (hello, how are you, hope all is well), the first question comes down to this: Are you prepared, as a citizen
of whatever country you reside in, to countenance the possibility that those in power are abusing that power? If you are not
prepared to even consider that as a possibility, then time may either be short - or it is already too late.
I invite you to comment on the above article on my blog.
-----------------------------------
Notes:
(1) Wikipedia, Robert F. Kennedy;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy ;
(1a) 'Shaking Hands With Saddam Hussein; The U.S. Tilts Towards Iraq: 1980 - 1984'; National Security Archive Briefing Book
No. 82; Edited by Joyce Battle; February 25, 2003;
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ ;
(2) 'The Worldwide Network of Military Bases; The Global Deployment of U.S. Military Personnel'; by Professor Jules Dufour;
Global Research; July 1, 2007;
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5564 ;
top
home
Copyright 2010, Diane V. McLoughlin
Suggested single tip: 50 cents;
$12 for 52 weeks.
by Diane V. McLoughlin, mcloughlinpost.com
September 1, 2010
The following was written after I got an interesting comment on my essay, 'Reactions to American Extremism',
by a guy named Bob.
Bob wrote, 'I just can't stand the message that America is to blame for all the faults that go around the world that is just not true
we are the greatest nation in the WORLD, also read what she is saying, it almost seems to me that she is kinda taking sides with
bin laden and she is quoting castro'.
Bob. Hi. I hope everything is well with you. I have a toothache I can't fix. How I feel these days (beyond the immediate of the
tooth and its broader implications) is this way:
I see things in a particular way because I have been studying current affairs full-time now for several years; a luxury not open to
most. The spirit of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are embedded in my DNA.
I believe these rights are the inalienable rights of every single person living on this planet. People have a right to be free - from
discrimination, from fear, from want, from occupation, from oppression, from resource-hungry military-backed multinational
corporations, and from remote-controlled U.S. drones dropping bombs on your village compound. That's me.
I believe most Americans feel the same way, too. But the government (or, more precisely, interests with a powerful influence on
government) does not believe it. And the more I learn, the more I see that it almost never has. When it looked like the government
might be led in a better direction by President John F. Kennedy, for example, he was assassinated; November 22, 1963. His
brother Robert Kennedy was bravely willing to take up the challenge to run for President, by 1968.
'Kennedy stood on a platform of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social
improvement...He aroused rabid animosity in some quarters, with J. Edgar Hoover's Deputy Clyde Tolson reported as saying, 'I
hope that someone shoots and kills the son of a bitch.'[]...It has been widely commented that Robert Kennedy's campaign for the
American presidency far outstripped, in its vision of social improvement, that of President Kennedy...;'. (1)
Robert F. Kennedy was, like his brother, assassinated in cold blood; June 6, 1968.
You know what I remember about Robert Kennedy? I remember hearing that he wanted to see what life was really like for Blacks
in the Deep South. What I remember is that he came back stunned that Black kids weren't getting milk. Their families could not
afford milk.
Patrick Buchanan gets a lot of flack from the left, and it may well be that it's fair
criticism and that I just don't know much about him. But I picked up a book of
his in a Salvation Army store a few years ago, and although it could have been
edited better, the message rang true in the choice facing the United States:
Republic - or Empire?
Bob, you spit out Fidel Castro's name as if he were a minion of the devil.
He's a man. People have flaws. We make mistakes. But he was motivated
in his younger years by the suffering of his people, to try to do something
about it. He seems motivated now to stress the perils nuclear weapons
pose to the people of the whole world. I see nothing but good in that.
As for my discussing the events of 9/11 and what motivated Osama bin Laden - that
for one thing, we murdered over 500,000 Iraqi children during our siege of Iraq
1993-2003 - that is a discussion that is long overdue.
Empires are vicious, blood-thirsty, soulless entities, as my Mom put it to me in a chat earlier today; it doesn't matter which one, or
which time in history we pick to talk about - they are all the same. Empires don't know when to stop trying to expand their centers
of control, either, and that is one of the reasons they fall apart.
But another thing that empires do is lie to the people, Bob. You can't get people to occupy other countries or kill other people
unless you have a damned good reason to do it - defense from imminent attack - or you lie to them because you don't have a good
reason; you have evil, racist, greedy reasons. American companies such as Halliburton, now headquartered off-shore to avoid
paying taxes; Kellogg, Brown and Root; Blackwater, and others - have profited beyond the dreams of Midas from the foreign
adventures our government has conducted overseas. The profit motive motivates. Diversification
of American industry is going to be key to peace.
Image, right: Donald Rumsfeld, Special Envoy of
President Ronald Reagan, and his pal, Saddam Hussein;
- 1983 - Getty Images (1a)
Now, it is my view that you have been lied to your whole life, Bob. Americans are daily inundated with lies. I view myself as a
failure, because, so far at least, I have not found the right words to help. I'm only one person, I know. But who will save the people
from self-destruction? I view it as self-destruction, if and when the enemies we have made for ourselves retaliate. We have 1,000 -
one-thousand - military bases and outposts; U.S. personnel is situated in 156 countries around the world.(2) That's an empire.
The take-over of the government is not complete. The people can change things. I would share that at War Is A Crime.org, - (link:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/caws ) - you can find a list of candidates who have signed a pledge to refuse to authorize any
more war funding, if they are voted in.
There is another list, here - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/whipwars - where you can check your current representative's
voting record on war funding, too.
For anyone reading this (hello, how are you, hope all is well), the first question comes down to this: Are you prepared, as a citizen
of whatever country you reside in, to countenance the possibility that those in power are abusing that power? If you are not
prepared to even consider that as a possibility, then time may either be short - or it is already too late.
I invite you to comment on the above article on my blog.
-----------------------------------
Notes:
(1) Wikipedia, Robert F. Kennedy;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy ;
(1a) 'Shaking Hands With Saddam Hussein; The U.S. Tilts Towards Iraq: 1980 - 1984'; National Security Archive Briefing Book
No. 82; Edited by Joyce Battle; February 25, 2003;
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ ;
(2) 'The Worldwide Network of Military Bases; The Global Deployment of U.S. Military Personnel'; by Professor Jules Dufour;
Global Research; July 1, 2007;
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5564 ;
top
home
Copyright 2010, Diane V. McLoughlin
Suggested single tip: 50 cents;
$12 for 52 weeks.
