This country had a jackass (sorry, I'm one of the 28%ers at the other end of the scale) installed as President and had him re-elected so the first pre-emptive war could be launched and implemented per the Project For a New American Century. The stink emanating from the FISA bill this week is the poisonous and radioactive fallout from a neoconservative agenda to dominate the world primarily through force and placing diplomacy on the back burner. The 2008 election is shaping up to be a chance to be sure the fallout is limited.
There will be more pre-emptive wars and subsequent occupations, along with conscription and/or powerful private mercenary armies to fuel this madness unless the public keeps it in check. We all want America to remain strong and the world's leading society over the next 100 years, but not by following the path of bloodshed and human indignities we have been shown over the last eight years. We've turned back others who have tried that route in history and it is not a safe path forward for us.
Each of us need to stop and think how we are fueling this synergy in our everyday actions and the politicians we elect. Even good people with good intentions can easily get caught up in this madness generated by those who lust for power. All empires of the past have met decline or extinction after traveling down this path. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In any case, New Imperialism is already upon us. It's a remodeled, streamlined version of what we once knew. For the first time in history, a single empire with an arsenal of weapons that could obliterate the world in an afternoon has complete, unipolar, economic and military hegemony. It uses different weapons to break open different markets. There isn't a country on God's earth that is not caught in the cross-hairs of the American cruise missile and the IMF checkbook. Argentina's the model if you want to be the poster boy of neoliberal capitalism, Iraq if you're the black sheep. Poor countries that are geopolitically of strategic value to Empire, or have a "market" of any size, or infrastructure that can be privatized, or, God forbid, natural resources of value--oil, gold, diamonds, cobalt, coal--must do as they're told or become military targets. Those with the greatest reserves of natural wealth are most at risk. Unless they surrender their resources willingly to the corporate machine, civil unrest will be fomented or war will be waged.
Excerpt from The Nation 1/22/2004
That's not my view of how to solve problems in the 21st Century. We are not the judge, jury and executioner of all other societies in this world. We are one, albeit the strongest one, of many views on planet Earth. But that power should not be abused or misused as it has been in recent years. Our nation is not God.
In this new age of empire, when nothing is as it appears to be, executives of concerned companies are allowed to influence foreign policy decisions. The Center for Public Integrity in Washington found that at least nine out of the thirty members of the Bush Administration's Defense Policy Board were connected to companies that were awarded military contracts for $76 billion between 2001 and 2002.
Excerpt from The Nation 1/22/2004
Eisenhower is turning over in his grave. We have been complacent, letting the military-industrial complex gradually ooze into the basic workings of American society. As a result, corporate interests are telling the American people how we should live and egging us to turn on nations that don't fit their business plans. We are being told more concentration of power in the hands of a few is necessary to keep us safe, while the factors that really affect our health and safety such as transportation options, health care, education and energy are suffering from inattention.
Suspicion, espionage, wiretapping and payoffs creep into prominence in this type of environment. Suspected enemies are tortured, taking away the moral high ground we've always used as an example to the world. People are labeled terrorists and then ignored when a chance to advance the real PNAC agenda pops up. This type of environment also makes it much easier for politicians to fall into dishonor against their better conscience.
Thus the importance of this election in 2008. Given the questions surrounding secret wiretapping of American citizens, TeleComm immunity and Constitutional authority, Barack Obama's candidacy has been elevated in my mind to an example of how to protect America from attempts to give unnecessary power to the military-industrial complex in particular, and corporate interests in general. When this complex works for us, we can get to the moon and Mars, we can make engineering advances to improve quality of life and we can improve communication systems. When we work for it, our variety of choices decrease and our inner demons have an increased chance of being manipulated.
These arguments have permeated this election cycle. It has become about much more than Obama himself and I think he's the only viable candidate addressing them. His philosophy of cap-limited direct donations from individual citizens lessens the chance political decisions will be made in favor of corporations acting for profit to the detriment of the greater good. Money will flow to a candidate because he or she resonates with the public regarding the greater good, not because some corporate agenda will be forwarded. Other Federal candidates are being supported by similar means with the goal of good government. McCain had to go with public financing because his campaign depends on forbidden direct corporate support instead of people-powered support. Therein lies the contrast for all to see.
For 219 years, we've had a solid constitutional framework to build a great country around. We have evolved into one of the most fair and compassionate major societies in history. We have advanced on the back of a strong, educated progressive middle class. We've given our own citizens opportunities unavailable elsewhere. We've taken in those excluded from other societies and allowed them to reach their creative potential here. It's taken a lot of work. Let's not allow this recent backward slip damage all that progress.
Think about all of this when it's time to punch a card, touch a screen or mark an "X" in November.