The Anti-Empire Report
Some things you need to know before the world ends
September 25, 2006
by William Blum
"Thank you for not putting a bomb in your
luggage."
"President Bush said the United States is still under
the threat of
attack and will continue to be right up until Election
Day." -- Jay Leno
Hand-in-hand
with his threat warnings, Bush keeps telling us how his War on Terror has made
us
so much safer, bragging that there hasn't been a terrorist attack in the United
States
in
the five years since the one of September 11, 2001. Marvelous.
There
wasn't a terrorist attack in the United States in the five years before that
day either.
But
thanks to the War on Terror -- particularly the bombing, invasion, occupation,
and
torture of Afghanistan and Iraq -- numerous new anti-American terrorists have
been created
since
that historic day. The latest confirmation of this, if any more were needed,
is
the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate conclusion that
"the
American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of
Islamic
radicalism
and ... the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11
attacks." [1]
Since
the first strike on Afghanistan in October 2001 there have been literally
scores of terrorist
attacks
against American institutions and individuals in the Middle East,
South
Asia and the Pacific, more than a dozen in Pakistan alone: military,
diplomatic, civilian,
Christian,
and other targets associated with the United States, including the October 2002
bombings
of
two nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia, which killed more than 200 people,
almost
all of them Americans and citizens of their Australian and British war allies;
the
following year brought the heavy bombing of the US-managed Marriott Hotel in
Jakarta,
Indonesia,
the site of diplomatic receptions and 4th of July celebrations held
by
the American Embassy; and other horrendous attacks on US war allies in recent
years
in Madrid, London, and elsewhere.
A
US State Department report of 2004 on worldwide terrorist attacks
--
"Patterns of Global Terrorism" -- showed that the year 2003 had more
"significant
terrorist incidents" than at any time since the department began
issuing
statistics in 1985, even though the figures did not include attacks on US
troops
by
insurgents in Iraq, which the Bush administration explicitly labels as
"terrorist". [2]
When
their report for 2004 showed an even higher number of incidents,
the
State Department announced that it was going to stop publishing the annual
statistics. [3]
It
is extremely difficult and threatening for US and UK officials to accept the
correlation
between
their foreign policies and the rise of terrorists. A spokesman for the Blair
government
recently
declared: "Al-Qaida started killing innocent civilians in the 90s.
It
killed Muslim civilians even before 9/11, and the attacks on New York and
Washington
killed
over 3,000 people before Iraq. To imply al-Qaida is driven by an honest
disagreement
over
foreign policy is a mistake." [4]
Vice
President Dick Cheney, on more than one occasion,
has
also pointed out that terrorists were attacking American targets even before
9-11.
The "reasoning" behind such thinking is odd; it's
as if these esteemed gentlemen believe
that
there was no Western foreign policy in the Mideast before September 11, 2001.
But
of course, even in modern times, there were decades of awful abuse, including
the US overthrow
of
the Iranian government in 1953, multiple bombings of Libya and Iraq, sinking an
Iranian ship
and
shooting down an Iranian passenger plane, habitual support of Israel against
the
Palestinian
people, and much more. [5]
It
can't be emphasized too often or too strongly that terrorism is a political
act,
it
is making a political statement, a statement that can often be summed up in a
single word:
"retaliation";
terrorism is what people with bombs but no air force have to resort to.
The
Bush and Blair administrations can not admit to the correlation of terrorism
with
their
policies, but those opposed to their wars should never allow them to avoid the
issue.
Here
are some of the latest examples of this retaliation phenomenon:
From a New York Times report on the UK group arrested for
allegedly planning to blow up multiple
planes
headed to the US: "'As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will
be killed,'
said
one of the men on a 'martyrdom' videotape"
...
"One of the suspects said on his martyrdom video that the 'war against
Muslims' in Iraq
and
Afghanistan had motivated him to act." ...
"The
man said he was seeking revenge for the foreign policy of the United States,
and 'their accomplices, the U.K. and the
Jews'." [6]
From
a review of the new book, "The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission"
by its chairmen,
Thomas
Kean and Lee Hamilton: "In looking into the background of the hijackers,
the staff found
that
religious orthodoxy was not a common denominator since some of the members
'reportedly
even
consumed alcohol and abused drugs.' Others engaged in casual sex.
Instead,
hatred of American foreign policy in the Middle East seemed to be the key
factor."
...
"I believe they feel a sense of outrage against the United States,"
said
Supervisory Special Agent James Fitzgerald.
"They
identify with the Palestinian problem, they identify with people who oppose
repressive
regimes
and I believe they tend to focus their anger on the United States."
...
"Lee [Hamilton] felt that there had to be an acknowledgment that a
settlement
of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was vital to America's long-term relationship
with the Islamic world,
and
that the presence of American forces in the Middle East was a major motivating
factor
in
Al Qaeda's actions." [7]
But
the War on Terrorism paints terrorists as only irrational madmen or those who
loathe
freedom,
democracy and Western culture, or doing what they do just for the pure,
America-hating
thrill of it, and so the US and the UK continue to look for military solutions.
Writer
David Rees predicted a few years ago: "Remember when the United States had
a drug
problem
and then we declared a War on Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?
The
War on Terrorism will be just like that." [8]
Cold War Myths
It's become a commonplace for critics of the wall being built by the United
States along the
Mexican border to equate it to the Berlin
Wall. The same highly negative comparison is evoked
in speaking about the Israeli wall being
built alongside and through Palestine.
Just as the Holocaust is the standard
against which acts of mass murder and atrocities are
conventionally compared, the Berlin Wall is
the standard for judging the erection of a physical
barrier which restricts freedom of travel
for large numbers of people.
The Wall is also employed by conservatives
as a symbol of the wickedness and the failure
of communism. But what was the Berlin Wall
actually about?
During the 1950s, American coldwarriors in West Germany instituted a
crude campaign
of sabotage and subversion against East
Germany designed to throw that country's economic
and administrative machinery out of gear.
The CIA and other US intelligence and military services
recruited, equipped, trained and financed
German activist groups and individuals,
of West and East, to carry out actions
which ran the spectrum from juvenile delinquency
to terrorism; anything to make life
difficult for the East German people and weaken their support
of the government; anything to make the
commies look bad.
It was a remarkable undertaking.
The United States and its agents used
explosives, arson, short circuiting,
and other methods to damage power stations,
shipyards, canals, docks, public buildings,
gas stations, public transportation,
bridges, etc; they derailed freight trains,
seriously injuring workers; burned 12 cars
of a freight train and destroyed air pressure hoses
of others; used acids to damage vital
factory machinery; put sand in the turbine of a factory,
bringing it to a standstill; set fire to a
tile-producing factory;
promoted work slow-downs in factories;
killed 7,000 cows of a co-operative dairy
through poisoning; added soap to powdered
milk destined for East German schools;
were in possession, when arrested, of a
large quantity of the poison cantharidin
with which it was planned to produce
poisoned cigarettes to kill leading East Germans;
set off stink bombs to disrupt political
meetings;
attempted to disrupt the World Youth
Festival in East Berlin by sending out forged invitations,
false promises of free bed and board, false
notices of cancellations, etc.;
carried out attacks on participants with
explosives, firebombs, and tire-puncturing equipment;
forged and distributed large quantities of
food ration cards to cause confusion,
shortages and resentment; sent out forged
tax notices and other government directives
and documents to foster disorganization and
inefficiency within industry and unions
... all this and much more.
Throughout the 1950s,
the East Germans and the Soviet Union repeatedly lodged complaints
with the Soviets' erstwhile allies in the
West and with the United Nations about specific sabotage
and espionage activities and called for the
closure of the offices in West Germany they claimed
were responsible, and for which they
provided names and addresses.
Their complaints fell on deaf ears.
Inevitably, the East Germans began to
tighten up entry into the country from the West.
At the same time, the
West was bedeviling the East with a vigorous campaign of recruiting
East German professionals and skilled
workers, who had been educated at the expense
of the Communist government.
This eventually led to a serious labor and
production crisis in the East. [9]
By August of 1961, the East Germans had had enough.
They began the building of their infamous
wall.
This was not erected to keep their citizens
from "truth" or "freedom"
-- before the wall many Easterners had
commuted to the West for jobs each day and then returned
to the East in the evening. But in the Cold
War atmosphere every possible means of scoring
propaganda points was exploited by both
sides and thus was born the legend of the Evil Commie Wall.
"Appeasement" is another Cold War
myth dredged up recently by the Bush administration
in its desperate attempt to find an
argument for the Iraq war that more than 30%
of the American population will swallow.
There's been more than one occasion of our
old friend Rumsfeld labeling as "fascists"
anti-American terrorists and those who
resist American occupations,
and calling Democrats and others not in
love with the war "appeasers"; [10]
you know, like Britain allowing the Nazis
to devour the Czechs in the hope that Hitler
would leave the West alone. The appeasement
analogy has long been a favorite of American politicians
when it suited their purpose; Eisenhower
and Johnson both personally used it, to name but two.
But what happened in 1938 in Munich wasn't so much
"appeasement" as it was "collusion".
One of Adolf's qualities that appealed so
much to the West was his fervent anti-communism.
Britain, the United States and other
Western governments were counting on the Nazis
to turn eastward and put an end once and
for all to the Bolshevik menace to God,
family and capitalism.[11]
If to Donald Rumsfeld opposing the
war in Iraq is the moral equivalent of appeasing Hitler,
to Condoleezza Rice it's the moral
equivalent of tolerating slavery in 19th century America.
Here she is at her desperate best:
"I'm sure that there are people who thought that
it was a mistake to fight the Civil War to
its end and to insist that the emancipation
of slaves would hold. I'm sure that there
were people who said
... why don't we get out of this now, take
a peace with the South,
but leave the South with slaves."[12]
Let freedom and cash registers ring
US Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez has proposed that Cubans hold an
internationally
monitored referendum to decide whether they want to be ruled by
dictators
or live in a democracy.[13]
So what do you think Carlos M. Gutierrez -- formerly a corporate CEO and
now a man who goes
around the world promoting corporate
investment and trade -- means by "a democracy"?
Can he imagine a "democratic"
society not dominated by corporations which turn everything
into a commodity? Is Gutierrez really
concerned about the Cuban people having a say over
the decisions that affect their lives?
Given that so many basic decisions that
affect Americans' lives are not made in legislatures
but in corporate boardrooms, does he know
for a fact that Cubans have any less say over
such decisions than Americans do?
The usual American
definition of democracy has to do in major part with elections.
But even if we accept this simple, and
simplistic, definition, the fact remains that,
contrary to what Gutierrez, and most
Americans assume,
Cuba holds elections on a regular basis.
The elections, which
observe universal suffrage and a secret ballot,
are for seats in the Municipal Assemblies,
the Provincial Assemblies, and the National Assembly.
There is direct nomination of candidates by
the citizenry, not by the Communist Party,
which does not get involved in any stage of
the electoral process.
All candidates have the same public
exposure, which is the publication and posting
of a biography listing their qualities and
history, in very accessible and commonly
visited places in the community.
There is one deputy in the Municipal
Assembly for each 20,000 of population.
Candidates must receive over 50% of the
vote to be elected,
if not in the first round then in a
run-off.
The 609 members of the National Assembly
elect the 31 members of the Council of State.
The President of the Council of State is
the Head of State and Head of Government.
Fidel Castro is repeatedly chosen for this
position, purportedly because of his sterling qualities.
I don't know enough
detail about the actual workings of the Cuban electoral system
to point out the flaws and shortcomings of
the above, which most likely exist in practice.
But can it be more deadening to the
intellect, the spirit, and one's idealism than the American
electoral system? From the splashy staged
nominating conventions to the interminable boring
and insulting campaigns to the increasingly
questionable voting and counting processes,
all to select one or the other corporate
representative ... are the Cubans ready for this?
If
they were to institute any kind of electoral system in which those candidates
with the most money to spend had an
advantage, what would keep the CIA from pouring
in money-without-end to get their people
into office?
This is what we're up against
I recently heard a California farmer interviewed on National Public Radio about
the very
worrisome e-coli outbreak in spinach. At
one point he said that
"The United States has the safest
agricultural products in the world."[14]
Hmmm. I wondered how
one measured such a thing and whether the guy had actually made
a global study of this and could cite any
statistics or credible sources.
It reminded me of several radio interviews
I've had in which I was being very critical
of US foreign policy (no surprise there)
leading to someone calling in and asking
me if I could name a better country. My
standard reply has been: "Better in what respect?"
"In any respect," is the standard reply from the
caller.
"Well," I say, "what about health care?
There are many countries that provide
health care to a much larger percentage of their citizens
than the United States does and at much
cheaper cost, sometimes even for free, like in Cuba.
And it's the same with university
education."
This is effectively the end of any such conversation.
What condition, I wonder, would have to exist in the US for
such people to relinquish
their childhood love affair with that
magical place called "America"?
I have on occasion asked people who reject
virtually any criticism of US foreign policy:
"What would the United States have to
do in its foreign policy to lose your support?
What, for you, would be too much?"
I've yet to get an answer to that question.
I suspect it's because the person is afraid
that whatever they say
I'll point out that we've already done it.
Author Michael Lewis
has observed: "One of the qualities that distinguish Americans
from other people is their naive suspicion
that any foreigner with half a brain would
rather be one of them. ... The most zealous
Japanese patriot doesn't for a minute think
that other peoples actually want to be
Japanese. Ditto the French."
But don't despair, gang. As I've mentioned before, my
(very) rough guess
is that the people I speak about here
constitute no more than 15 percent of the population.
I suggest that we concentrate on the rest,
who are reachable,
and in the past three years countless of
them have indeed been reached.
Discovered at last! A difference between the Democrats
and the Republicans on foreign
policy
This just in! Republican leaders in the House have proposed legislation that
will require
that anti-war protestors be sterilized.
Democrats are refusing to roll over and play dead.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi -- who
recently called Hugo Chavez
a "thug" for his UN speech --
insists her party will support the measure only
if a right of appeal is included.
NOTES
[1] New York Times, September 24, 2006, the wording it a Times paraphrase
[2] Washington Post, June 23, 2004 and June 28, p.19
[3] "Bush Administration Eliminating 19-year-old International Terrorism
Report",
Knight Ridder Newspapers, April 15, 2005
[4] The Guardian (London), August 12, 2006
[5] For more information see Blum's essay at:
http://members.aol.com/superogue/terintro.htm
[6] New York Times, August 28, 2006, p.1
[7] Review by James Bamford, New York Times, August 20, 2006, p.15
[8] David Rees, "Get Your War On", (Soft Skull Press), p.2
[9] For further details, see William Blum, "Killing Hope: US Military and
CIA Interventions
Since World War 2", chapter 8
[10] "Rumsfeld says threat to U.S. is from 'a new type of fascism'",
Associated Press, August 29, 2006
[11] See, for example, Christopher Hitchens, "Chamberlain: Collusion, not
appeasement", Monthly
Review (January 1995), a review of Clement Leibovitz, "The
Chamberlain-Hitler Deal" (1993)
[12] Interview, Essence magazine, October 2006 issue, p.187
[13] Associated Press, September 15, 2006
[14] NPR, Day-to-Day, September 18, 2006, 12:10 PM
To make a financial donation to
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William Blum
5100 Connecticut Ave., NW #707
Washington, DC 20008-2064
William Blum is the author of:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since
World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
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