Empire Of Chaos - USA's Empire for Profit [of a few] - Printable Version +- Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora) +-- Forum: Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-1.html) +--- Forum: Political, Governmental, and Economic Systems and Strategies (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-33.html) +--- Thread: Empire Of Chaos - USA's Empire for Profit [of a few] (/thread-16006.html) |
Empire Of Chaos - USA's Empire for Profit [of a few] - Peter Lemkin - 22-01-2019 EMPIRE OF CHAOSThe United States' empire was at its peak following World War II. America ruled the globe economically and militarily. It's influence was ubiquitous and its soft power seemingly unlimited. But, arrogance and greed transformed the United States into a pariah. We are feared for our power, but no longer respected for our institutions. Inequality, injustice, corruption, hypocrisy, betrayal and violence, have turned much of the world against us.Sanctions, structural-adjustment, economic warfare. Coups, regime change, color revolutions. 'Responsibility-2-protect', 'coalitions-of-the-willing'. Counter-insurgencies, assassinations. Weapons trade, drug trafficking. Napalm, cluster bombs, landmines, depleted uranium, chemical and biological weapons.This destructive legacy has resulted in the suffering and death of millions, so that American corporations and banks can expand their markets and reap enormous profits, while the United States military achieves strategic global hegemony.As the United States continues to demonstrate how easily it can manipulate elections, exploit popular unrest and undermine economies around the world, many developing nations are concluding that less freedom and more authoritarianism may be their best option to withstand the 21st century 'realpolitik' of U.S. 'democracy promotion'.And, while U.S. financial and military aggression escalates in reaction to America's economic, societal and democratic decline, the global chaos that results may leave millons in misery and a world in ruins. THE 'INDISPENSIBLE NATION'"If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensible nation."U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1998)"Since World War Two the United States has attempted to overthrow more than fifty foreign governments, it has dropped bombs on the people of around thirty countries, has attempted to assassinate some sixty foreign leaders, helped to suppress dozens of populist or nationalist movements, has tortured many thousands, and seriously and illegally intervened in one way or another in virtually every country on the planet, in the process of which the U.S. has caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair."William Blum, in a speech at the University of Vermont, 2007"Coming to grips with U.S./CIA activities in broad numbers and figuring out how many people have been killed in the jungles of Laos or the hills of Nicaragua is very difficult. But, adding them up as best we can, we come up with a figure of six million people killed-and this is a minimum figure. Included are: one million killed in the Korean War, two million killed in the Vietnam War, 800,000 killed in Indonesia, one million in Cambodia, 20,000 killed in Angola ... and 22,000 killed in Nicaragua. These people would not have died if U.S. tax dollars had not been spent by the CIA to inflame tensions, finance covert political and military activities and destabilize societies."John Stockwell, CIA official in the 1960s and 1970s"The US spends almost half of all the military spending in the entire world, equal to virtually all the other countries combined. More than half of the weapons sold in the world are sold by the United States. The US has more than 700 military bases scattered across dozens of countries. The US is the world's leading trainer of paramilitaries. The US has a series of courses, from interrogators to generals, that have graduated military people guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in dozens upon dozens of countries. The US has a series of covert paramilitary forces of its own that get almost no attention. This is the U.S. military machine. In addition, there's the support for repressive non-democratic governments and for governments that commit aggression. There are about forty of them that the US backs."journalist Allan Nairn, 2010"We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations."Robert Bowman, Vietnam Veteran"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a cynical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."British playwright Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Lecture |