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We’ve
killed millions since King said those words in 1967, and now we’ve re-elected a
president to whom the Constitution means nothing if it gets in the way of what
he wants to do. Perhaps, his worst sin in this regard was that he executed one
of his own countrymen—Anwar al Awlaki—without the Constitutionally guaranteed
benefit of a trial. Of course, the other candidate made it clear that he was
even more passionate than Obama about the president being a law unto himself,
so it’s not like we had a viable option.
Why
is it that Canada, Britain, Australia, and much of the rest of the world
supports America? Don’t they know we’re criminally insane over here? Don’t they
know we’re like a black hole that sucks whole worlds into its gaping jaws and
squeezes them out of existence? Since I was born in 1949, my country has
attacked, or supported attacks, on nation after nation for little or no reason,
yet our many allies go right on smiling like idiots and pretending everything’s
just hunky-dory. Heck, they’re even willing to send their own children to die
as long as we don’t ask for a number that would cause people to take to the
streets (we like to keep friendly politicians in power, so we’re always willing
to hash out details regarding how much blood we require).
If
you’re country isn’t white, Christian, English-speaking, and democratic, you should
be very afraid because even we don’t know who we might bomb next—although we're
pretty much fixated on Iran at the moment. We have more weapons than most of
the world’s countries put together, and it only takes the decision of one man
to fire them. I don’t know how the world can trust any one person with that
much power, much less when he’s the rotating leader of a country with the
Orwellian view that War = Peace.
Actually, I think I know why much of the
world supports America. I think it's because they're afraid of what America
might do to them, and I think it's because they're afraid to be without
American support and protection. After all, it can’t be because they love and
respect us.
30 comments:
Because we are part of your empire and you own us.
Read this.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175614/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_super_weapons_and_global_dominion/
It isn't the welfare queens who are bankrupting your federal treasury. It is waging war to maintain the empire at taxpayers expense and to the benefit of the very rich.
Fodder, my Canadian/Ukrainian friend, when I write a post criticizing America (a country whose vices vastly outweigh its virtues, despite what it likes to think), I always hope you will see it. I added a paragraph to the end, and I would like your opinion about that.
No, it's not the welfare queens, but that's all the Republicans think about, that and "entitlements." They speak of these as if they were frivolous luxuries for blood-sucking government leeches, but they're really what the word says they are. As for the Democrats, they're marginally better, but we're still going down the tubes, and I'm not seeing anything to make me thing they're going to turn that around. Now, Obama has another four years to add to his previous four years of failure, bloodshed, and Constitutional violations. Great!
P.S. to Fodder. That was a hell of an article you linked us to. As I was reading that, I thought, shit, when is China going to get scared and seriously amp up it's own military technology. That will start the post WWII mentality all over again, only I wonder if the government will even bother to instruct school children to hide beneath their desks this time because how many of us still believe we could come out of WWIII alive even if we wanted to?
If you like kitty-cat humor, you need to see Fodder's post for November 8. I really think everyone should vote for their favorite.
I agree with everything you've written here. The world doesn't love the USA, they fear us, but are tied to us in raping the world for profit...
We should all have a healthy dose of fear for this government that is striping our personal freedoms...we are already under a form of Marshall Law..
I watched the election results with apprehension, but no joy. The progressives did well...maybe there is hope. Maybe the political leaders realize that many of us to believe in a nation that includes all of us. Many women were voted in including a openly gay woman and a Buddhist woman...I don't know that it will matter but I'm hoping. I do think that the Tea Party is on their way out...I hope that Pres. Obama will recognize who gave him this mandate and that we will hold his feet to the fire. I hope it will matter. My goal will be to work to amend corporate pesonhood... movetoamend.org
I guess I am trying to be hopeful and not just relieved that the hate mongering party missed the boat.
"The progressives did well...maybe there is hope."
Yes. For the second time, we elected a black man to be president, plus two states legalized gay marriage, and two states legalized marijuana. You remember the '60s. Could you have even imagined back then how far we would have come in some ways and in such a relatively short time? We humans CAN change, but it's for the bad so much of the time that the good gets canceled out, not altogether, but in the overall picture.
"I guess I am trying to be hopeful and not just relieved that the hate mongering party missed the boat"
I did a double-take when I first read this because in my mind it came out "hate mongering mongrel," and I got a good laugh out of that.
"We humans CAN change, but it's for the bad so much of the time that the good gets canceled out, not altogether, but in the overall picture."
I'd like to be more optimistic than that. In the short term it seems like nothing improves, but in the big picture it does. If you consider the plight of a minority or woman in the 50's or the plight of just about everyone in the 1500's there has been a definite improvement.
The saddest thing about current politics is that when someone says "constitutional violations" one party thinks of the Patriot Act, indefinite detention, executions without trial, the corporate end-run against property rights and free speech while the other party thinks only of the Affordable Care Act. How someone can call themselves Christian while simultaneously believing they have the right to watch poor people die of easily preventable illness I'll never know.
I think julie meant martial law, not Marshall Law, unless she meant Penny Marshall Law, in which case I would tend to agree with her.
One major party is like Laverne and Shirley and the other major party is like Lenny and Squiggy, and I defy you to figure out which is which.
Yes, Rhymes, I did mean martial law...
About health care for all...I heard a woman at the RNC say, 'if everyone had health care, the lines would be too long'....
Our foreign policy has for years involving seeing how far up your Government's fundament we can climb. It doesn't matter which of our two major political parties hold power we still brown nose for all we are worth.
Fear? Perhaps, but the fear is more probably related to trade agreements (or lack thereof) than the unimaginable concept that you might attack us. 'There are none so blind as those who will not see...'
not every australian wants our government and our young men to support your wars. i think they just do it in case we ever need your help
"I think julie meant martial law, not Marshall Law, unless she meant Penny Marshall Law..."
Funny you would think Penny rather than Thurgood...ha.
"How someone can call themselves Christian while simultaneously believing they have the right to watch poor people die of easily preventable illness I'll never know."
It's like trying to understand the Trinity; it's a mystery that we're not supposed to think about too much. There was once a cartoon character named Colonel Cockroach. He didn't hesitate to send any number of his soldiers to be slaughtered because, after all, roaches breed so fast that they would never be missed. So it is that rich people see the poor.
"In the short term it seems like nothing improves, but in the big picture it does."
I will concede that the question is debatable, but it would hard to prove one way or another. I will just say that I was thinking about the world situation as a whole as opposed to the situation in any one locality. If nothing else, I think things get worse because the world's population increases faster than our willingness--if not our ability--to see that everyone has their basic rights and their basic biological and psychological needs met. But, you might still be right, and I hope you are.
We're now up to THREE states that approved same-sex marriage during this week's election--Maine, Washington, and Maryland. This brings the total to eight states plus the District of Columbia.
I don't think other countries fear us as much as they no longer respect us. We stand for nothing and fall for everything. We are impotent in removing those in charge of our own country while insisting on the removal of so many in charge of other countries.
We are now an arrogant country with a champagne tab on a beer account.
"Yes, Rhymes, I did mean martial law..."
Julie, my motto has long been, "If Julie said it, it must be true," so what am I supposed to believe now that you've admitted to an error? All I can think is that I have to believe your original statement was true, your retraction was true, and your new statement was true. This will require a lot of faith, but I think I can pull it off.
"I heard a woman at the RNC say, 'if everyone had health care, the lines would be too long'...."
Damn, I hadn't thought of that, and I do hate standing in line.... Oh, well, it's too late to vote for Romney now.
"Perhaps, but the fear is more probably related to trade agreements (or lack thereof) than the unimaginable concept that you might attack us."
Yeah, I know. I just hope we attack Canada next time so we won't have to spend so much money on gas getting there.
"We stand for nothing and fall for everything."
Well, I don't know. Money is nice, and we love to eat. Big-screen TVS are also nice, as are comfy recliners. We stand for lots of things if you ask me.
My apologies to everyone. I'm just in a smart-ass mood. If I didn't have a wild sense of humor, I don't know I could bear it all, there being so much reason to be miserable in this old world.
I'd rather see you in a smart-assed mood than a beaten down one any day. You and I spend so much time in pain that when we come out swinging, we're a force of energetic smart-assed-ness. And I invent words.
To be honest, I think Obama is much saner and peaceful than Romney and that's why most of the world wanted him to get re-elected.
Three cheers for the Military Industrial Complex.LOL..Linda and I are in Florida right now heading home soon.
Hello, as a citizen of a country that is an American ally, I totally agree with your last paragraph. I'm sorry. Many of us have pushed the government to cut its ties with Ameica, but it wouldn't budge because America gives good benefits to the right people. Case in point, when we evicted our dictator back in the 1980s, it was America that gave him and his family refuge (as he brought hundreds of thousands from the Philippine bank, good thing it was deemed without value when he landed in Hawaii). We would've loved it if the American government would stop meddling with our political affairs. We also cheered when Obama won, but because we believed he is a better choice than Romney. We don't want the war in Afghanistan and Iraq to happen again where almost if not all of my soldier countrymen were put in the front lines, fighting a war that is not theirs.
We've certainly engaged in plenty of violence, but I don't believe for a moment that we are unique among countries. England and France, Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and India, Israel, Syria, and many others have engaged in large scale violence in the past 15 years, sometimes more subtle than the US, but not always, and generally government sanctioned as well.
I'm a new reader from Canada, very interested in your views. I'd like to echo what ladyfi said. Obama is mostly honest and caring; he seems to want the world to work, not just that the U.S. thrives. The differences between him and Romney are vast. I think a lot of Canadians do feel a natural friendship with Americans. Personally, I'm encouraged with the fact that the demographics are slowly changing and younger people will have the chance to promote a much fairer world.
My friend,
Would be such a pity if the world appears to support America out of fear and not out of admiration.
And I am a Canadian living in Britain. In Britain, we are bombarded with this propaganda about a "special relationship" with America. This is mostly political speak.
What I have felt living in Canada and Britain is the man on the street, generally speaking, is insulted by the insular arrogance that America, the self-proclaimed, "Greatest nation in the world", hypes out.
I would like to think that we are all citizens of the earth and that America, instead of invoking fear, understood and rejoiced in the diversity that makes up our planet.
I support the friends I have in your nation. Thank you for a most provocative and thoughtful article.
With respect and peaceful wishes, Gary
there is so much i disagree with and so much i agree with here that i have to think some more before i comment.
except this: the difference between the man obama and the man romney is very large. intent and well meaning matter in this case, even when a country fails to face its arrogance.
more to say after thinking more.
love
kj
"What I have felt living in Canada and Britain is the man on the street, generally speaking, is insulted by the insular arrogance that America, the self-proclaimed, "Greatest nation in the world", hypes out."
I suspected as much because I know I would feel that way. During the presidential debates, Obama referred to the US as the "only indispensable nation on earth," and I wanted to crawl under my seat. You have no idea how embarrassed I am by my country, yet my leaders carry on as if they believe their own words. It's sad to think they do, but it would be just as sad to think they didn't. We really are insane over here in the sense that we as a nation do all of these horribly evil things, not only without any apparent awareness of how evil they are, but with the belief--at least on the part of the masses--that we're behaving nobly by sending our young people to die for "liberty and justice for all." Meanwhile, we imagine that the world's countries love us and are screaming, "Yay, America!"
"the difference between the man obama and the man romney is very large."
If you're referring to one being much more liberal and the other being more conservative, I would certainly agree, but as for "intent and well meaning," I don't know enough to say. In Romney, you've got a man who, as Mormon, wears magic underwear and thinks he's going to be assigned by God to rule worlds when he dies. How do you take someone who is that gullible and figure out what his intentions are? What I mean is if he's capable of taking such utter nonsense as the Book of Mormon and believing it to be God's truth, he's capable of believing pretty much anything.
"We also cheered when Obama won, but because we believed he is a better choice than Romney."
Kert, I'm so happy you came to visit. I haven't see you in what we Americans (some of us anyway) would call "a coon's age." That just means a long time, although what raccoons have to do with it, I don't know. I agree the Obama was a better choice than Romney, but I also find it sad that we give people on the other side of the world so much reason to care who we elect when we don't know even know who their leaders are and can't even find their countries on a map.
"Obama is mostly honest and caring; he seems to want the world to work, not just that the U.S. thrives."
Like KJ, you're impressed by Obama as a person even if you don't agree with everything he does. I give most everyone the credit for doing what they think is right, so for me the matter is simple, if good actions aren't there, the person isn't a good president. The most important "action" for a president is to obey the law, so when you have a president who walks over the Constitution in the name of national security or anything else, I'm going to oppose him. Bush started us down the road of the president being a law unto himself, and Obama has continued us on that path. If Obama kills his own citizens on his own initiative, then the next president can do the same, and even if Obama's motives are good, the next president's motives might not be.
The following link has nothing to do with this post or with my blog. It's a first-hand account of rape and the aftermath of rape, and I thought it deserved more exposure than it appears to be getting:
http://juliemitchellspiritfigures.blogspot.com/
Snowbrush, it's Julie from Canada again. I truly appreciate your thoughtful comments and honesty. I think a lot of Canadians do roll their eyes when the arrogance of America is expressed.
I also agree with you about Obama following some of the examples of Bush being a law unto himself. I was particularly saddened to see little children in the news rejoicing at the death of Bin Laden. So we are creating a bunch of monsters among our children, who can gleefully justify murder. Maybe that murder was necessary but I think an appropriate response is deep sadness.
The main reason I was so relieved to see Obama re-elected is that I am pretty sure that a Romney win would start the deep recession in the U.S. again, with most of the cash skimmed off for the rich. When the U.S. economy caves in, it hurts our economy hugely, and the world economies as well.
Waging wars is BIG BUSINESS, and it's never the rich dudes whose children go off to die. I'm pretty sure Romney would have been quick to escalate violence in the world. Peace is so very elusive among humankind but I want leaders that can argue and strategise, not use bombs, to make a point.
" I truly appreciate your thoughtful comments and honesty."
Oh, thank you, Julie. I get nervous about responding to comments because whereas I put a lot of time into making my posts say just what I want them to say, I can't put an equal amount of time into comments, so I worry that I will appear rude, vague, opinionated, arrogant, dismissive, or come across in some other way that doesn't reflect my best effort to communicate well.
"The main reason I was so relieved to see Obama re-elected is that I am pretty sure that a Romney win would start the deep recession in the U.S. again"
I too am glad that Obama won. I voted for the Green Party candidate due to my very great disillusionment with Obama, but between Romney and Obama, I agree that Obama was a better choice.
"I'm pretty sure Romney would have been quick to escalate violence in the world...I want leaders that can argue and strategise, not use bombs, to make a point."
I don't know that Obama is any more peaceful than Romney. He took up where Bush left off and escalated the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the only reason he finally got us out of Iraq was that the Iraqi people demanded our retirement. Iran might very well be our next target, and Obama and Romney both said in no uncertain terms that America would NOT allow Iran to get a nuke. Which one would have bombed that country first, I don't know, but both made their intention to do so clear, that is if other measures fail, and it sure looks like they will.
So sad and so true!
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