Where Is Our Nation Heading?
By Timothy V. Gatto
12 November,
2008
Countercurrents.org
I may be disgusted and tired of the current paradigm in Washington and the nation, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to throw in the towel and accept the fact that my government is following the only path available. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. The American government is hell-bent on its own world agenda and feels that there is nothing in this world that can stop them from realizing its goals. They are pursuing world hegemony at the expense of all other nations and their own people. “Peace in our time” is an illusion, for the government seeks no peace, only more power that is bought at the end of a gun.
There are many examples that can be brought to bear when examining our policies. The American economy is collapsing around us but the right of center government in Washington calls for massive “defense” spending; the phrase “defense spending” is a complete oxymoron. Who are we defending ourselves against? Is it the Arabs we are so afraid of? Are the Russians just waiting for a chance to loose their weapons of mass destruction on our soil? We have almost daily incursions into Pakistan. We threaten Iran at every opportunity. Governments that work for the people in Latin America like Chavez’s Venezuela and Evo Morales’s Bolivia have become targets of both the Bush and Obama camps.
Our government is on a mission to bring every nation that doesn’t accept the United States and its policies into line. The right of center capitalistic predatory institutions such as the IMF and the WTO must call the shots in order to bring American hegemony to all the nations of the world. We set out to lend enourmous sums to fledgling democracies knowing that they can not pay back the loans with their usurous interest rates. This is part of the plan. We call in the notes and when these nations cannot pay, we take their resources at pennies on the dollar.
Four nations have stood up to the United States. They are Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. These nations are anathema to our government. They refuse to play our game. Panama was also against the status quo and we invaded them and jailed their leader on trumped up drug charges. Read “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins to see the cover of the U.S global empire blown. This is serious stuff and this book alone should disgust everyone that believes that the United States is a “beacon of light” in the world.
There is hope however small it may be. The rejection of the Neo-Conservatives that made up the Bush administration and tried to ingratiate themselves in the McCain campaign have been totally rejected by the people. Those that want a return to sanity and desire that our government start meeting the needs of the Americans that put the Democrats into office are in for a rude awakening. There will be no dramatic “change” as witnessed by the people that Barack Obama is surrounding himself with. We will continue to be a proxy for Israel and its policies of ethnic cleansing. We will continue to rattle our sabers toward those nations that reject American hegemony. Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia will be targets for black ops and propaganda. The New York Times published an article last week where they proclaimed that it was the government of Georgia that started the hostilities, still the United States blames Russia for unleashing war.
I belong to the left. I believe that many others will follow suit. I am not a “progressive” I belong to the liberal/left. Many young people that will become disenchanted with the centrist/right policies of the political “messiah” will also gravitate to the left. There is so much that we could accomplish by stating the truth and ridding ourselves of the greedy robber barons that are hell-bent on destroying not only the economic well-being of this country, but the very nation itself. This is where the real battle is. The real battle is the people of America against the corporate banking interests of those that have no allegiance to this county. Profit is their only consideration, and if they must rape the population to stay in business, that is a small price for them to pay.
I believe in nationalizing those corporations that have mismanaged themselves into bankruptcy. The bailouts should include a majority of their stock to their workers. The promise of employee-owned corporations is attractive, to say the least. They should be accountable to the Federal government that gave them the capitol to stay in business. The only people that will get hurt are the people that have been skimming off the top. The chief officers of these corporations that make the majority of the salaries while the companies run in the red. The profits and debts of these corporations that are running in the red should be shared by all the employees, not just the blue-collar worker trying to feed their families.
One good example is the steel industry. We have just about outsourced our steel manufacturing to other nations where they can produce it much cheaper. We have thousands of automobile scrap yards with millions of pounds of steel that can be recycled that rusts away from the elements. Why not get some older steel mills refurbished to recycle that steel? We could be self sufficient by making our own steel in employee owned factories. This would be cost effective and employ American workers. Where has the entrepreneurial spirit gone in this nation? So many opportunities and so little initiative is what is killing our economy.
One thing before I end this, we can’t just sit in our living rooms watching the corporate dominated media tell us what to believe. We must start talking with our neighbors and start questioning authority, the sooner the better. When this country spends over 50% of the total military spending of the entire world, one must ask the question why. Who are we afraid of exactly? It time that this nation sat down and had a long conversation with itself.
