The Secret History of the American Empire

Watch John Perkins on Book TV discuss his newest book "The Secret History of the American Empire"

The program runs for a little over an hour and is worth watching.

About the Program:

John Perkins talks about his follow-up to his 2005 book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," at Barnes & Noble in New York City. In his new book, Mr. Perkins argues that the United States uses its foreign policy to further U.S. business interests around the globe, often to the detriment of poor countries.

About the Author

John Perkins is the founder and chairman of Dream Change, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable development. He is a former international business consultant.

Technorati tags: American Empire, Book TV, John Perkins, Video, The Secret History of the American Empire, books

This July 4th: Put away the flags

By Howard Zinn
The Progressive

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.

That self-deception started early.

When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession."

When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."

On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country."

It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to war.

We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people.

As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."

We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture.

Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies.

How many times have we heard President Bush tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"?

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail in 2004 that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best-selling "A People's History of the United States" (Perennial Classics, 2003, latest edition). This piece was distributed by the Progressive Media Project in 2006.

Hat tip to Al B.

Technorati tags: Howard Zinn, The Progressive, July 4th, American Flag, America, Foreign Policy, International Relations, news, commentary

The Fall of America?

“There is the moral of all human tales; / ’Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, / First Freedom, and then Glory — when that fails, / Wealth, vice, corruption — barbarism at last.”
-- Byron

Cullen Murphy examines parallels between the United States today and the world of ancient Rome.

Also See:

• Evil Empire by Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.com

  Is imperial liquidation possible for America?

Technorati tags: New York Times, Rome, America, Walter Isaacson, Empire, Books, news

Enough Already!

• A Nation in Silent Anger
  By Manuel Valenzuela

  "...Can you feel the betrayal of millions who for decades have been made to believe in the American myth of a nation benign and altruistic, only to become aware that only wickedness, greed and criminality define the Empire, that beyond the smoke and mirrors America's government is ruthless, corporatist and concerned only for the interests of the elite?..."

• "Are we headed for another Great Depression?"
  My talks with Elaine Meinel Supkis
  By Mike Whitney

  "...Our empire won't retreat from its distant borders but these same borders are bankrupting us for we never recovered from the Vietnam War, we literally papered over the mess which remained and continues to poison our nation. The military/industrial complex is not making us rich, it is making us poorer. And the paper being laid over all this is the same paper the Germans used in 1924 to paper over their own bankruptcy: printed money...."

• The War on Democracy
  An Interview - Audio Q & A With John Pilger

  John Pilger, talked about his new film: The War on Democracy which comes out on June 15th and takes a look at Latin America. The man himself says: "I've long regarded Latin America as the source of hopes of freedom from poverty for the very poor, and the current, extraordinary rising of millions against the old order is defying all the stereotypes."

• Inside Sadr City
  By Pepe Escobar
  Asia Times

  BAGHDAD - This is the 24-square-kilometer theater where a great part of Iraq's future is already being played out; a vital element in US President George W Bush's surge; the place Pentagon generals dream of smashing into submission; one of the largest and arguably most notorious slums in the world: Sadr (formerly Saddam) City.
  
  Sadr City is also, along with Gaza and the West Bank, the theater of the already evolving 21st-century war, pitting the high-tech Western haves against the slum-dwelling Third World have-nots. If the Bush administration had any intention of conquering any hearts and minds in Iraq, this is where it would be trying the hardest. Reality spells otherwise...."

• Feingold Rejects Compromise, Pushes Exit Strategy
  By John Nichols
  The Nation

  "Fifty-seven percent of Americans say that Congress should not compromise with President Bush in the Iraq War funding fight. That's the number that, according to a new CNN poll, wants Congress to give Bush another bill with a withdrawal timetable.
  
  
  Unfortunately, not all the Democrats on the Hill want to push back quite that hard. There is serious talk of giving Bush a substantial portion of the money with no strings attached and then returning to the issue later this year.
  
  
  Such a move would highlight the failure of all the major players to step up to the challenge the Iraq imbroglio poses...."

• Bush to veto new Iraq Bill
  The Daily Telegraph

  "THE White House has warned Democrats that President George W. Bush would veto an Iraq funding Bill that would bankroll the war in Iraq for just three months...."

• POLL: Most Americans back Iraq Pullout Timetable
  Reuters AlterNet

  "Six out of 10 U.S. adults support setting a timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, even though a clear majority predict civil war there if U.S. forces withdraw next year, according to a poll published on Wednesday...."

• Pelosi threat to sue Bush over Iraq bill
  By Jonathan E. Kaplan and Elana Schor
  The Hill

  "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill.
  
  Pelosi recently told a group of liberal bloggers, 'We can take the president to court' if he issues a signing statement, according to Kid Oakland, a blogger who covered Pelosi's remarks for the liberal website dailykos.com...."

• Afghan MPs demand end to military offensives
  Guardian Unlimited

  "Afghan MPs today called for an end to military offensives by international forces amid reports that 21 civilians had died in a wave of US-led air strikes yesterday...."

• CIA-backed raid 'killed 50 Afghan villagers'
  By Tom Coghlan in Kabul
  Telegraph

  "Military specialists with the CIA were among a US force accused of killing more than 50 civilians during the hunt for a Taliban commander in Afghanistan...."

• Afghanistan | No way to win hearts and minds
  Economist.com

  The killing of large numbers of civilians by American forces, through indisciplined firing or as a result of their heavy reliance on air-strikes, has been a bitter feature of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq-just as it was in Vietnam.

• Internet Calls Subject To Phone Tapping
  By Eric Thomas
  ABC News

  "Companies that provide Internet phone service have just six days to meet a deadline from the Justice Department. By next Monday, they'll have to make their systems easier to tap. That's right -- make it easier to secretly listen in on your phone calls, or face daily fines of $10,000 dollars...."

• Mayday Immigration Reform Demonstration: Video

  Watch the video: The police are brutal. It's only a matter of time. (Warning X-Rated Language in Video)

Technorati tags: America, Depression, Police, Iraq, Afghanistan, Domestic Spying, Democracy, Immigration

Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps

"There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today."

Read more.

Technorati tags: America, Facism, Naomi Wolf, "The End of America", news, books