Why
do they hate us? President George Bush posed this question to the
American public shortly after 9/11. It is a strong affirmation of the
power of propaganda that some Americans still pose this as a serious
question, and are legitimately dumb-founded that such antipathy exists
toward the United States. Our government, media and schools start
burnishing the false notion of American moral superiority into our
brains at a very young age. However, beneath the thin veneer of their
white-washed accounts of history and current events, abundant sources
of information reveal the true malevolence of the moneyed
elite who rule
America
. There is a great body of evidence which obliterates the inane
notion that the
United States
is a benevolent world leader. Despite the ready availability of
contrary evidence, many Americans remain blind to the truth about our
despised nation, and choose to believe the fairy tale version of
"truth, justice and the
American Way
". The sad reality is that
America
is an imperialistic, avaricious war machine ruled by the wealthy. Yes,
much of the world despises this nation. Our leaders have virtually
assured abhorrence of America, and what's more, they do not care!
Hubris,
avarice, over-consumption....what's not to love?
America
's Corporatacracy is leading the human race down a path of global
extinction. Representing only 5% of the world population, the
United States
consumes 25% of the world's energy and possesses approximately
27% of its wealth. Through lobbying efforts and major campaign
donations, the major oil companies ensure the implementation of
government policies that ensure continued dependence on fossil fuels,
a non-renewable resource (for more on this, study the theory of
Hubbert Peak theory at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil).
Despite being a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect, the
US Plutocracy has spent millions of dollars to create junk science
(look to efforts by the Cato Institute) to "debunk" the
notion of global warming, and has refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty.
The
United States
innovated, tested (on hundreds of thousands of human
beings), and possesses devastating nuclear weapons. Yet with
blatant hubris and hypocrisy, our ruling Oligarchs attempt to dictate
which nations can and cannot develop nuclear capabilities.
America
's allies, like
Pakistan
,
India
, and
Israel
have developed nuclear weaponry with
America
's blessing, while countries like
Iran
are forbidden to even acquire the technology to generate nuclear
power. The ruling Aristocracy of the United States has long exhibited
a flagrant disregard for international law, world opinion, and most
recently, for the United Nations (consider the appointment of John
Bolton as America's UN "ambassador").
While
the rest of the world has many reasons to hate the United States,
perhaps their most compelling motivation is the mayhem, abject
poverty, and murder resulting from the imperialistic endeavors of the
US military industrial complex, which includes the Departments of
Defense, Homeland Security, and Energy; the intelligence community;
and the myriad private corporations which have incestuous
relationships with the government (i.e. Halliburton). Spending $500
billion per year on the perpetuation of the world's largest and
mightiest war machine, the
US
(with a mere 5% of the world's population) accounts for half of the
world's military spending. Regardless of which half of the
Democratic/Republican Duopoly has been in power, the ruling elite has
perpetuated domination of the rest of the world through
direct military intervention (think Iraq), economic warfare (i.e. the
persistent yet failed policies toward Cuba), and overt or covert
support of ruthless totalitarian regimes which advance the interests
of US corporations (i.e. the Shah of Iran).
Not
as free as we are taught we are, but still freer than most....in spite
of them
Despite
the ruthless devotion of our aristocratic leaders to unrestrained
capitalism, the perpetuation of a majority of the wealth remaining in
the hands of the few (the wealthiest 20% of Americans possess 83% of
our nation's vast wealth), and the reduction of the civil liberties of
"commoners", the brilliant Constitution drafted by our
forefathers has maintained a semblance of a liberal democracy in the
United States. The fact that I am writing this essay for publication
is a testament to that fact. However, before celebrating too hard,
remember that throughout American history there has been an ebb and
flow of social justice, and the tide is clearly ebbing. Need evidence?
Consider the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq, the declaration of a
perpetual state of war on terror (increasing the authority of the
federal government), higher regressive taxes, lower progressive taxes,
a growing concentration of political power in the hands of legalistic
Christians (the Religious Right), legislated discrimination against
gays, an erosion of affirmative action, and a significant decline in
funding for social safety net programs (i.e. Medicaid) coupled with
increases in defense spending. As Americans, we still enjoy many of
the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, but we enjoy them in
spite of the true nature and intent of our leaders. We are taught and
programmed to believe that we enjoy these freedoms because of the
imperialistic endeavors of our elite leaders (like the "War
to End All Wars"), which "keep the world safe for
democracy". The reality is that Americans remain free because of
the ongoing vigilance of many amongst us, and to some extent because
allowing a degree of freedom amongst their own subjects enables the
American ruling class to engage in aggression against other nations
under the pretext of "spreading freedom and democracy".
Like
Capra's Potter, these "warped frustrated old men" view
people as cattle....
The
American ruling elite's ultimate goal of global domination precedes
the well-being of its subjects. In fact, to the
US
aristocracy, the poor, working class, and diminishing middle
class are disposable cogs in their monolithic money-making
machine. They understand that they are endangering the American people
by continuing to foster hatred and inspire terrorism, but it is of
little consequence to them.
Concerning
America
's current leadership, Noam Chomsky wrote:
For
the political leadership, mostly recycled from more reactionary
sectors of the Reagan-Bush I administrations, "the global wave of
hatred" is not a particular problem. They want to be feared, not
loved. They understand as well as their establishment critics that
their actions increase the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) and terror. But that too is not a major problem.
Higher on the scale of priorities are the goals of establishing global
hegemony and implementing their domestic agenda: dismantling the
progressive achievements that have been won by popular struggle over
the past century and institutionalizing these radical changes so that
recovering them will be no easy task.
While
both parties of the bloated, corrupt Duopoly ruling the
United States
are guilty of blatant violations of international law and crimes
against humanity throughout history, the current administration has
operated more brazenly and with more impunity. Kennedy had
Cuba
. Johnson and Nixon shared the culpability for the deaths of over
3 million in
Vietnam
. Reagan bloodied his hands in
Nicaragua
.
Clinton
's bombing campaign killed thousands of innocents in Kosovo. Yet
somehow, these presidents managed to maintain the
United States'
image of an aloof and perhaps even benevolent super-power.
America
's current administration has not maintained this facade nearly as
well, and has led the
United States
down a path entailing a much more blatant disregard and disrespect for
international law and the rights of other nations. There are numerous
historical examples of the immoral, illegal, and repulsive
US
imperial dominance of other nations achieved through a variety of
means, perhaps the most inclusive, perpetual, instructive, and
relevant example is that of
Iraq
. Recognizing a nation rife with political instabilities and virtually
incalculable riches through its oil reserves, the US Plutocracy has
been targeting
Iraq
for years. Bush II finally bagged it, but got more than he bargained
for in the process.
Today,
staunch ally....tomorrow, sworn enemy
One
of the most disturbing aspects of
US
involvement in
Iraq
has been our government's schizophrenic relationship with Saddam
Hussein. Donald Rumsfeld, an influential member of the Reagan, Bush I
and now Bush II administrations made the following statements that
demonstrate the gross inconsistency of the US Oligarchy's position on
Saddam and
Iraq
(explained by their shifting loyalties based on their shifting needs
for more money and power rather than a commitment to their
self-proclaimed Higher Purpose of spreading freedom):
"As
with all sovereign nations, we respect
Iraq
's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity."
- Donald Rumsfeld, 1983
"This is a regime
that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
people."
-- Donald Rumsfeld March 21, 2003
In 1979, the year of the Iranian
hostage crisis, Saddam Hussein became president of
Iraq
as a member of the ruling Ba'ath party, which the CIA had propelled to
power in 1963. The following year,
Iraq
invaded
Iran
and the eight year Iran-Iraq war ensued. The cost was one million
lives. Before Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency in 1981, the Carter
administration had listed
Iraq
as a nation which sponsored terrorism. Despite this, and despite the
knowledge within the
US
intelligence community that
Iraq
had been building an arsenal of chemical weapons (WMDs) since the mid
1970's, Reagan began supporting
Iraq
and Hussein in the war against
Iran
. Under
Reagan
,
Iraq
was no longer an "official" sponsor of terrorism
and quickly became a clandestine strategic ally of the
United States
, with full eligibility for American economic and military aid waiting
in the wings. The US started funneling weaponry to support
Hussein's' war effort through third parties like Egypt and Saudi
Arabia, and by 1983 was selling conventional arms directly to Iraq.
In 1983,
US
envoy Donald Rumsfeld paid a personal visit to Hussein and restored
diplomatic relations, which had been cut during the 1967 Arab-Israel
War.
America
's rulers resumed relations with
Iraq
despite their knowledge that Hussein had used chemical weapons against
Iran
only a few months before. They also knew that Hussein was building
manufacturing facilities to produce more WMDs. Rumsfeld, one of the
strongest advocates of the removal of Hussein from power
under Bush II, was a strong proponent of the relationship with Hussein
under Reagan. By 1984, both the US State Department and European
doctors had confirmed that
Iraq
was using nerve gas against Iranians. After digesting this
information, the US Aristocracy decided to initiate a program which
forgave $5 billion worth of agricultural loans to
Iraq
between 1983 and 1990, freeing up more cash for Hussein to fund his
war machine.
Hussein's relationship with the
United States
came into full bloom in 1985. Protecting the flow of US weapons and
money to Saddam, the Reagan administration pressured a member of
Congress to drop a proposed resolution that would have reclassified
Iraq
as a supporter of terrorism. The US Commerce Department began a five
year pattern of approving sales of US computers to
Iraq
for use in weapons labs. 1985 marked the advent of the Reagan
administration supplying Hussein with biological weapon
precursors like botulism and anthrax. By 1988, the
US
had made 70 shipments of these precursors to fuel Saddam's WMD
program.
Perhaps the most egregious example of
the hypocrisy of the US Oligarchs in
Iraq
occurred in 1988. In March, Hussein launched a poisonous gas attack
and killed 5,000 Kurds in the Iraqi town of
Halabja
. In July, one of the Corporatacracy's own, Bechtel (Secretary of
State George Shultz's' company), won a contract to build a
petrochemical plant, which Hussein could use to manufacture more WMDs.
Besides continuing to support
Iraq
and to enable its corporate darlings (like Honeywell, Rockwell,
Hewlett Packard, and DuPont) to profiteer from the war, the
Reagan administration crushed a Congressional attempt to sanction
Hussein for committing genocide against Iraqi Kurds.
Fall
from grace
Saddam Hussein committed political
suicide in 1990 when he invaded
Kuwait
. With the Iran-Iraq conflict over, our ruling elite no longer needed
Hussein. Having the chutzpah to violate international law, which
America
's leaders hold to be sacrosanct when it suits their purposes, Hussein
gave the
US
a justification for starting a war with him. The Gulf War served
several purposes for the US Aristocracy. It enabled them to flex
their military might as the
Soviet Union
, the world's other super-power, was collapsing. The victory over
Saddam erased the American public's memory of the embarrassing defeat
in
Vietnam
. Most importantly, it enabled the Plutocracy to reap the bountiful
harvest of corporate profits fueled by a war.
America
's ruling elite class knows the true bounties of war, particularly if
the opponent is relatively weak and hapless.
Estimates vary widely, but hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis died during the Gulf War and the period of
harsh economic sanctions which followed. On August 6, 1990 (shortly
after Iraq invaded Kuwait), the United Nations Security Council, led
by the United States, imposed "comprehensive" economic
sanctions on Iraq. These sanctions remained in place after the US-led
coalition forces drove Hussein from
Kuwait
a year later. Before the Gulf War,
Iraq
was one of the most highly developed countries in the
Middle East
, offering a majority of its people electricity, potable water,
free education, sewage treatment, and according to the World Health
Organization, access to health care. Since the UN originated the use
of economic sanctions in 1945,
Iraq
was the first (and only) nation to suffer under comprehensive
sanctions, in which the UN controls virtually all of the exports and
imports of a nation. The
US
, as the most powerful member of the UN Security Council, was
instrumental in delaying or choking off imports of food, medicine, and
other necessities. Again, estimates vary, but anywhere from 250,000 to
500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of the economic sanctions. The
mortality rate for children under five tripled between 1989 and 1997.
From 1990 to 1995, the infant mortality rate doubled. Safe drinking
water availability was down 50% from pre-Gulf War levels. Malaria
and other diseases became epidemics. School enrollment for Iraqis from
ages 6-23 dropped by 53%. While some of the statistics and
numbers are subject to debate, what is indisputable is that the severe
economic sanctions (spear-headed by the
United States
) resulted in suffering, misery and death for many innocent civilians,
while Saddam Hussein, the target of
America
's wrath, continued to prosper.
It is worthwhile to note that while
Iraqis were suffering under brutal economic sanctions driven by the
US
, Dick Cheney (a poster child for
America
's ruling Plutocracy) was the CEO of Halliburton Corporation (from
1995 to 2000), and was prospering nicely. When he left to become Vice
President, they bestowed him with a parting gift of $34 million. The
Washington Post reported that during Cheney's tenure as CEO,
Halliburton sold $73 million worth of services and equipment to
Iraq
to rebuild its oil infrastructure. Cheney, a true capitalist, was not
about to let Hussein's enemy status stand in his way of making a
profit.
The
business of
America
WAS business....now it is war
When Bush II assumed office in 2000,
US
leadership took its obsession with Hussein and
Iraq
to a new level. Surrounding himself with men like Donald Rumsfeld,
Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz, three Neocons who were veterans of
the reign of Bush I, Bush crafted the "Bush Doctrine". Under
the Bush Doctrine, the United States proclaimed its indisputable right
to engage in pre-emptive war against those they deemed
to be terrorists or rogue states, and asserted the US right to act
unilaterally (without regard for international law or the UN). Two
other aspects of this hubristic, bellicose, machismo-driven set
of principles included the
US
intent to keep its "military strengths beyond challenge" and
the
US
objective that it would actively seek to promote "democracy and
freedom in all regions of the world". The members of
America
's military industrial complex were elated.
America
was (and still is) the largest war machine in the history of humanity.
To ice their cake, the profit hungry Capitalists now had
publicly-stated policy that its government partners were going to
"unleash the beast" on the world. After seeing the
"democracy and freedom" the US Oligarchy helped
perpetuate in
Iraq
when Hussein was our ally (not to mention numerous similar examples in
Latin America
), do Americans really need to ask why many in the world hate us?
Lies
and consequences.....
The weapons of mass destruction Saddam
Hussein had created with materials supplied by the
US
under the Reagan administration had been destroyed or rendered
harmless under UN supervision by 1996. However, for over a year prior
to the March, 2003 invasion of the sovereign nation of
Iraq
, the Aristocracy governing
America
bombarded the "commoners" with a stream of propaganda
designed to prey on fears fostered by 9/11. With little to support
their pathetically flimsy arguments that Saddam Hussein (their
own creation and former ally) had somehow amassed a cache of WMDs
after his disarmament in 1996, and that Hussein (a secular leader) had
formed close ties with Osama bin Laden (a radical Muslim), they utilized
the power of the herd mentality to gain popular support for the war
they craved. Growing bodies of evidence, including the absence of WMDs
in US-occupied Iraq, the findings of the 9/11 Commission, and the
Downing Street Memos, indicate that the US Oligarchs lied to Congress
and to the American people to garner support to launch their war (in
defiance of the UN).
As of 8/4/05, 1,827
US
soldiers had died in combat and 13,559 had been wounded. Estimates
of civilian casualties caused by the
US
invasion vary from 25,000 to the 100,000 reported in the
reputable British medical journal, The Lancet.
Discrepancies aside, an obscene number of innocents have been
slaughtered. Human Rights Watch notes that a significant number of the
civilian casualties resulted from the decision of the
US
military to use cluster munitions in highly populated areas, a
violation of international humanitarian laws of war. These laws oblige
armed forces to "refrain from attacks that are indiscriminate or
where expected civilian harm exceeds the military gain."
America
entered the war in defiance of the UN and riding on Congressional and
public support based on the lies of the Bush Administration. Thousands
and thousands of people have died. They have wasted billions of
dollars. American leaders have defied international law by using
cluster munitions and torturing prisoners of war. What was that
question again? Why do they hate us?
Get
on the gravy train......
Now that the military industrial
complex has torn Iraqi infrastructure down, someone will need to
rebuild it. Who could possibly be up to such a task? With an estimated
price tag of over $100 billion to rebuild post-war
Iraq
, the Corporatacracy is lining up for the contracts. Bechtel was at
the head of the line as they received a $680 million contract in April
of 2003. As Dick Cheney continues to receive deferred
compensation from Halliburton at the rate of $1 million per year,
Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root secured a 10
year contract (with an open-ended budget) to provide support
services to the US military starting in 2001, and is heavily
exercising that contract in Iraq. The
US
government paid KBR $3.6 billion in 2003 and $5.4 billion in 2004 for
Iraq-related work. As the number two
US
contractor in
Iraq
, Bechtel's war-related revenue was over $4 billion in 2004.
Halliburton is under investigation for charges of over-billing to the
tune of $1 billion, while Bechtel has been plagued by problems related
to shoddy work. While flag waving propaganda may fool some Americans
into believing the war in
Iraq
is "making the world safe for democracy", many in the rest
of the world see the profit motive that has led to so much human
suffering. I cannot imagine what could possibly motivate detestation
of the Red, White, Blue, and Green(backs).
Terrorist acts and acts of military
aggression are morally repugnant. Those committing these crimes
deserve to face justice. Regrettably, as evidenced by the poignant
example of Iraq, the leaders of the
United States
have been committing war crimes and acts of terrorism for years
without consequence. While the US has rendered justice upon its
attackers throughout its tenure as the world's superpower (and has
rendered a grossly misplaced justice on the "terrorists" by
invading Iraq), the rest of the world has had little choice but to
turn the other cheek when it comes to the profiteering, imperialism,
and state-sponsored terrorism perpetrated by America's Oligarchy.
Acting with impunity and arrogance, America's leaders have an
unprecedented military might at their disposal, possess a nuclear
arsenal powerful enough to destroy the world thousands of times over,
ignore international law but impose it on others, use the UN to inflict
damage on other nations but openly defy its rules, hoard the
world's riches and resources, defile the Earth which sustains us,
support ruthless dictators, and employ terrorism through the CIA.
George Bush knows why they hate us, and he likes it......
Jason Miller is a 38 year old
free-lance activist writer with a degree in liberal arts. He is a
husband and a father to three boys. His affiliations include
Amnesty International, the ACLU and the Americans United for
Separation of Church and State. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com
or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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