Blum: The American Empire for Dummies
William Blum :: The American Empire for Dummies (an excerpt from an unwritten book)
Excerpt from article at the Anti-Empire Report 19 Aug 2006 here
1. The United States is determined to dominate the world, not to mention outer space. This is not a left-wing cliché, the empire’s leading lights trumpet Washington’s desire, means, and intention for domination, while assuring the world of the noble purposes behind this crusade. Since the demise of the Soviet Union, these declarations have been regularly put forth in policy papers emanating from the White House, the Pentagon, and think tanks closely associated with the national security establishment. They make it perfectly clear that any potential rival to the world’s only superpower must be, and will be, seriously challenged. Here is the first of these warnings, from 1992: “We must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.”[12]
2. World domination includes dominating the Middle East; one might say particularly the Middle East. (See chapter 3, “Oil”, and chapter 6, “Israel”. Please note that there is no chapter on “Democracy and Freedom”.)
3. In recent times only Iraq, Syria and Iran have stood in the way of US Middle East domination (“remaking the Middle East” is the usual euphemism). Iraq is now a basket case.
The basketizing of Syria awaits only a quasi-plausible excuse, which it was hoped Israel would provide by provoking a hostile Syrian reaction in the recent Israeli-Lebanon war.
The US-Israeli assault on Lebanon was aimed at basketizing Hezbollah so that it couldn’t come to the aid of Iran by attacking Israel during the basketizing of Iran; the latter may begin with sanctions, approved by a pliant Security Council. This was one of the key ways the basketizing of Iraq began. Do not believe the canard that France is hostile to US foreign policy. Time and again, both in and out of the Security Council, France has raised a little objection to this point or that point of Washington’s policy because it needs to pretend and feel that it’s still a great power and has a significant role to play in world affairs, but in the end it smooths the way for the empire.
And Germany against the US war in Iraq? Hardly. Germany has helped the American war effort in half a dozen important ways, including on the ground in Iraq, even while German politicians ran on an anti-Iraq War platform.
Carlos Romulo, former president of the UN General Assembly:
“If there is a problem between a weak nation and another weak nation and the UN takes action, the problem disappears. If there is a problem between a strong nation and a weak nation and the UN takes action, the weak nation disappears. If there is a problem between a strong nation and a strong nation and the UN takes action, the UN disappears.”
4. World domination also includes Central Asia and its massive oil and gas reserves. Afghanistan with its pipelines and US military bases is vital to this undertaking. Through one war or another in recent years, the United States has managed to establish military bases/facilities throughout the region, including in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia, vital to protecting the pipelines to the eastern Mediterranean; one of the pipelines will extend to Israel, which, along with Turkey, is expected to play a role in the protection of the area.
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
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