A threat to world peace
Feature Editorial
Michael Griffin
Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: Opinions
After the recent Strait of Hormuz incident (where five Iranian speedboats allegedly "harassed" three United States Navy ships), George Bush reminded the world that Iran remains "a threat to world peace." Not America, the global belligerent that spends more on military expenditures than the rest of the world combined and is the principal practitioner of state-sponsored terrorism, but Iran.
He said this without irony or reflection and appeared to take himself quite seriously. Yet, the idea that Iran, a country with a gross domestic product less than one-third the United States' war budget, is a threat to world peace and not the other way around is laughable. Indeed, the amount Iran spends on its entire military for one year is equivalent to what the United States wastes slaughtering civilians in Iraq in 17 days.
World opinion - what Noam Chomsky has called the "second superpower" - bears this out as well, as a Pew Global Attitudes Project report from June 2006 (the most recent available) demonstrates that nearly every country polled views the United States as the greatest danger to world peace.
None of this should be surprising, however, to a dispassionate observer aware of what their country is actually doing. But therein lies the problem: actions of empire are rarely reported as such, and when they are, they are almost always accompanied by grandiose proclamations of nobility and virtuous behavior from the aggressor. "Spreading democracy" and "making the world safe for freedom" are two slogans popular with contemporary terrorist regimes as they litter civilian streets with cluster bombs. With democracy like that, who needs fascism?
The foundation for how the United States has become the greatest threat to world peace is discussed by Chalmers Johnson in his new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic." Therein he conservatively catalogued the worldwide number of United States military bases at 737, with some estimates and calculations exceeding 1,000. This global empire of ours employs 2.5 million United States personnel and functions as the shadow cast over every bargaining table where an American corporate or colonial interest sits. And even when the niceties of economic strangulation or coercion call for something slightly more diplomatic than force, the World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund - what University of Cambridge economics professor Ha-Joon Chang has deemed the "Unholy Trinity" - operate merely as an extension of the United States Treasury Department, and therefore of American corporate interests.
He said this without irony or reflection and appeared to take himself quite seriously. Yet, the idea that Iran, a country with a gross domestic product less than one-third the United States' war budget, is a threat to world peace and not the other way around is laughable. Indeed, the amount Iran spends on its entire military for one year is equivalent to what the United States wastes slaughtering civilians in Iraq in 17 days.
World opinion - what Noam Chomsky has called the "second superpower" - bears this out as well, as a Pew Global Attitudes Project report from June 2006 (the most recent available) demonstrates that nearly every country polled views the United States as the greatest danger to world peace.
None of this should be surprising, however, to a dispassionate observer aware of what their country is actually doing. But therein lies the problem: actions of empire are rarely reported as such, and when they are, they are almost always accompanied by grandiose proclamations of nobility and virtuous behavior from the aggressor. "Spreading democracy" and "making the world safe for freedom" are two slogans popular with contemporary terrorist regimes as they litter civilian streets with cluster bombs. With democracy like that, who needs fascism?
The foundation for how the United States has become the greatest threat to world peace is discussed by Chalmers Johnson in his new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic." Therein he conservatively catalogued the worldwide number of United States military bases at 737, with some estimates and calculations exceeding 1,000. This global empire of ours employs 2.5 million United States personnel and functions as the shadow cast over every bargaining table where an American corporate or colonial interest sits. And even when the niceties of economic strangulation or coercion call for something slightly more diplomatic than force, the World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund - what University of Cambridge economics professor Ha-Joon Chang has deemed the "Unholy Trinity" - operate merely as an extension of the United States Treasury Department, and therefore of American corporate interests.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Chuck D
posted 1/14/08 @ 7:23 PM CST
You sir are a grade A douche bag. The US military is a terrorist organization? Please. If anything our current military policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are misguided because they are tying to create governments where the people only want to follow a religious cult. (Continued…)
Joe
posted 1/16/08 @ 8:28 PM CST
I second Chuck!
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