Hey, I've got a smart idea: let's make laws that require corporations to act like sociopaths, pursuing profit without any consideration for morality or human well-being, then let's allow our entire civilization to be ruled by corporations.
Oh cool, we already did that, good thinking. --Caitlin Johnstone, You Have To Be Trusted By The People That You Lie To
Does the US Deserve Redemption?
by C. A. Matthews
After that one millionth, “Oh,
no, not again!” feeling, you begin to wonder “Why bother?” Why
bother getting upset or angry or depressed or frustrated when you
know that feeling will come again and again and again and again…
The United Nations Security Council on February 21 heard testimony from Professor Jeffrey Sachs and former CIA Intelligence Anaylyst Ray McGovern about the Nord Stream pipelines bombing. It’s obvious to everyone
that the US (with the help of Norway) were the culprits, and it was
an act of terrorism that should be punished.
But nothing is going to be done about it. The
UN refuses to condemn the bombers. They’ll pretend like it never
happened, although it actually happened, and it destroyed several
member nations’ property and
caused the largest methane leak in history.
The
United States is a Teflon-coated bully that can destroy the
environment
and drone
bomb
the world and nobody will ever stand up to the US because of fear of
retaliation, probably. That “Oh, no, not again!” feeling
never goes
away when it comes to the amount bullshit the United Nations will
allow the US to get away with, and
all because we’re the only country to drop not one, but two atom
bombs on another country.
I’ve
had enough of it. I’m ready for somebody or somebodies to call us
on our shit and take us out once and for all. It
will come as a great
surprise
to some Americans that there are many countries who have been longing
for
the day when the United States of America is no more. It’s not like
these folks necessarily nurse an irrational hatred of our people, our
junk food cuisine, our
insipid Hollywood movies and exported TV shows, or even our
gas-guzzling, climate-changing cars. It’s that they’ve had enough
of our imperialism.
It’s
our
imperialism that
makes the US a pariah around the world. The list of countries we’ve invaded,
helped stage
a
coup d’etat, economically
sanctioned, or
simply bombed grows longer by the day. Here’s
a list of the countries the US has attempted to overthrow since World War II:
(*
indicates successful ouster of a government)
China 1949 to early 1960s
Albania 1949-53
East Germany 1950s
Iran 1953 *
Guatemala 1954 *
Costa Rica mid-1950s
Syria 1956-7
Egypt 1957
Indonesia 1957-8
British Guiana 1953-64 *
Iraq 1963 *
North Vietnam 1945-73
Cambodia 1955-70 *
Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *
Ecuador 1960-63 *
Congo 1960 *
France 1965
Brazil 1962-64 *
Dominican Republic 1963 *
Cuba 1959 to present
Bolivia 1964 *
Indonesia 1965 *
Ghana 1966 *
Chile 1964-73 *
Greece 1967 *
Costa Rica 1970-71
Bolivia 1971 *
Australia 1973-75 *
Angola 1975, 1980s
Zaire 1975
Portugal 1974-76 *
Jamaica 1976-80 *
Seychelles 1979-81
Chad 1981-82 *
Grenada 1983 *
South Yemen 1982-84
Suriname 1982-84
Fiji 1987 *
Libya 1980s
Nicaragua 1981-90 *
Panama 1989 *
Bulgaria 1990 *
Albania 1991 *
Iraq 1991
Afghanistan 1980s *
Somalia 1993
Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *
Ecuador 2000 *
Afghanistan 2001 *
Venezuela 2002 *
Iraq 2003 *
Haiti 2004 *
Somalia 2007 to present
Honduras 2009 *
Libya 2011 *
Syria 2012
Ukraine 2014 *
And the US continues
to get
away with these sordid kinds of things. We actually don’t get
sanctioned,
boycotted, bombed
or nuked in return. We
love to claim certain “baddies” are out to get us with their
“spy-surveillance-lost-weather-balloons,” but
no, that’s more of our own paranoia reflecting back at us. Luckily,
most
other nations are wise
and mature enough not to fall for the
US
provoking hostilities and
ignore Americans slurs made
against them as a people.
So,
what if one day the
US
actually did
get “caught
in the act”? (We’ve
been caught red-handed
before
and nothing happened, but
what if?)
What if one day the United Nations actually
doled out an ample punishment for our imperialistic ways? Not a slap
on the wrist, but an actual penalty to drive the point home that
nobody likes a bully? What would that be like?
I,
for
one, would love to see the most polluting, most corrupt, and most
violent American military machine
put out of business. Forever. The UN could confiscate their facilities and re-tool them to do more
productive and peaceful activities. At
the end of the day, there
would be no more military-industrial-Congressional complex. Good-bye
Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing…
Total death to the War Machine! It's time to
end the most polluting, environmentally damaging organization in
the world, the US military!
It
also would put an end to all the well paid lobbyists and the
kickbacks
they
give to the
Congressional part of that MIC complex. No more huge
piles of money
buying off the loyalties of American politician-puppets. The idiots in Washington DC
and our state houses would have to actually work for We
the
People
and live only on the wages they’re
given as an office holder. (Watch the current crop of politicians abandon ship like rats when the corporate money dries up.)
I
hope the UN
will enact sanctions against our “Death Industry” as well. Sanctions
would
put
an
end to the Big Pharma/Big Health Insurance cartel that has caused
more unnecessary American deaths than every war we’ve legitimately taken a part in. Imagine
every American
having access to health care when they need it, not when or if they can
afford to purchase it. Imagine! No more tricking young men and women into joining the military simply to gain health care coverage, either. People poisoned by a chemical spill and burn caused by a private corporation will have one less worry when it comes to treating their chronic illnesses.
The
UN could also hold the US accountable to follow all the treaties we’ve ever signed that recognize
human rights for all people. These human rights
would include not locking up persons of color for decades and
slapping life sentences/death sentences on them for the same
crimes
a rich
white
person with money might commit and
receive only a slap on the wrist.
This would mean allowing asylum seekers into the country who are
searching for safety, instead of kicking them back into the dangerous
border
region of northern
Mexico. This would mean the US government would have to follow all the treaties they've broken with Native American tribes.
So
many good things would come about if the corrupt socioeconomic system
of capitalism, the thing that drives American imperialism, was wiped off the map. Completely. Forever.
But
what would replace it? And, more perplexing still, do Americans as a people,
a country, a nation, even deserve redemption?
Can
a country whose Constitution holds that enslaved African Americans
were worth 3/5 of a person for census purposes ever be absolved of
that sin? Can a nation that committed outright genocide against its
indigenous population ever be forgiven for their inhumanity? What
reparations have we made to persons of color? What land have we given
back to Native Americans without strings attached? Have we really
wiped away the taint of “otherness” from those of Japanese descent
whose grandparents we locked up in concentration camps after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor? If so, why are hate crimes against Asian
Americans on the rise?
I
could go on here about other minorities who
have been treated poorly both in the past and in the present day, but
you get my meaning. What is worthy of redemption in a country that
treats/have
treated
persons of color, the migrant, the indigenous, the working poor, the sick and disabled,
the differently gendered with such
scorn and contempt?
As
Black History Month comes to a close, it’s time to take account of
all the ways Americans have caused harm to the human beings on this planet. A massive methane leak caused by a terrorist act on a Russian/German LNG pipeline only
exacerbates the climate emergency and will only hurt ourselves in the
long run. Destroying our neighbors' property is not a positive action, and it doesn’t encourage mutual
cooperation and peace among the nations. Why do We the People allow sociopaths to become our political leaders and make such heinous decisions for both the US and the world?
So
many Americans claim they follow the “Golden Rule,” but do they?
Do they love their neighbors as themselves? We
seem to hold
back our love and wish evil upon them, but
why?
Fear? Greed? Selfishness? Laziness?
Americans need to take a good look around at all the war, violence, and chaos we've caused and are still causing.
If
we wish to be deemed worthy of redemption, then we need to start putting things right and fix the wrongs that we've done. Today.
It's simple: Shut
down the War Machine. Start peace talks. Stop taking advantage of the
economically oppressed and lock up the sociopathic oligarchs for their crimes
against humanity. We the People know, deep down, these are the
right things to do. We can’t keep kidding ourselves with all this
“freedom and democracy” nonsense if we don’t practice what we
preach.
Related Links:
UPDATE: Hungary Calls for a UN Investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline attack: https://popularresistance.org/hungary-demands-un-investigation-into-nord-stream-pipeline-attack/
Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern at the UN on the Nordstream 2 Sabotage https://popularresistance.org/jeffery-sachs-and-ray-mcgovern-at-the-u-n-on-the-nord-stream-2-sabotage/
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and Ray McGovern Address the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream Investigations (video) https://youtu.be/R_EX-VwKjng
Ray McGovern Interview - The Nord Stream Pipeline Attack (video) https://www.youtube.com/live/LsjcVv2l8wU
Overthrowing Other Peoples' Governments: The Master List
US Wars and Hostile Actions: A List https://davidswanson.org/warlist/
Why and How to End the War in Ukraine https://popularresistance.org/why-and-how-to-end-the-war-in-ukraine/
More Evidence Emerges that US Wanted Russia to Invade https://popularresistance.org/more-evidence-emerges-that-us-wanted-russia-to-invade/
How US and Ukraine's Far-Right Made Pro-Peace Zelensky a 'No Peace' President https://mate.substack.com/p/how-us-and-ukraines-far-right-made
How Can the Peace Movement Be More Effective?
There Has Never in History Been A Greater Need for a Large Anti-War Movement https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/there-has-never-in-history-been-a
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