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Some of the comments on an AlJazeera Programme about the declining USA Empire
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TiredOfBsToo 1 week ago
All the signs of decline are there, just like the Roman empire. Contenders for political office are people which wouldn't have even received media coverage much less consideration for public office 30 or 40 years ago, military stretched all over the world with a never ending climb in military spending and the ever climbing creation of enemies all over the world which demands even more money for military spending, laws which target the very people for which the country was founded and also curtails their liberties and makes them even more insecure, education and social programs which in turn benefit the country through a more educated and employed population are targeted to provide even more money for more unaffordable military adventures, poverty which now stands at approximately 48% (according to the governments own accounting) and climbing, etc, etc, etc.........
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Haruun Ahmed 1 week ago in reply to TiredOfBsToo
Words cannot possible capture the magnificence of US imperial policy, the world would be lost without the guiding hand of a fervent defender of human rights (which happens to support dictators in every orifice of the globe) has such restraint against violent measures and resorts to diplomacy (Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, the bombings of Laos, Cambodia, Somalia, Sudan etc etc are no more then blips on an otherwise exemplary record) Promotes equality within its borders (Which is why millions have no access to any form of healthcare and a minority of the population control an overwhelming share of the wealth).
Sarcasm aside the US has been and remains the most bitter impediment to peace on this earth, as a direct result of US imperialistic policy innumerable lives have been lost and many more forced to live under the jackboot of subjection; it has enslaved millions across the world either directly with military force and support for oppressive regimes or indirectly through economic slavery. The US government has defiled this planet and has absolutely no regard for the rule of law or rational thought; it if anything deserves the undying and everlasting contempt of mankind, admiration is not an emotion worthy of a virulent cancer.
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Laughing__Man 1 week ago in reply to Haruun Ahmed
Your argument is misguided. It's not America itself that undermines world peace, but the Big Businesses, trans-national corporations and Capitalists who pull America's puppet strings to protect their accumulation of wealth and power.
These Capitalists care not for America - as they routinely choose their own short-term profits over the well being of nearly every American citizen. They don't have loyalty to any nation - only to profit, no matter how unsustainable.
The planet cannot sustain their endless greed - neither can the people, hence the Capitalists will soon be removed from power like so many obsolete royalty and dynasties of the past.
Speculative finance, the military-industrial complex and the oil industry will sooner become radical fascists than allow dominance of the global economy to be taken away from them. But take it away from them we must - our survival depends on it.
(Edited by author 1 week ago)
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The not distant future 1 week ago in reply to Laughing__Man
... and I thought only Kusanagi understood that capitalism is dominating democracy. Smiles.
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Ali Ahmed 4 days ago in reply to The not distant future
wrong the problem is not capitalism,but rather cooperatism.
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RichardLP 5 days ago in reply to Laughing__Man
Yes, there is greed, unfortunately everywhere, not just in North America. Mankind has weaknesses and yet there is much to be joyous over.
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James Mclean 4 days ago in reply to Laughing__Man
There is nothing wrong with Democracy and Capitalism, its the Operators with there strong Connections to the Banks and may I say to all the Wars.
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Hector Vargas 3 days ago in reply to Laughing__Man
Your point is well taken but you most know that in a capitalist country the aim is to make MONY. In a capitalist world everyone is looking for its own interest and investing in places were the mony can yield the most for a profit. The protector of this is called DEMOCRACY. The liberty to do what you want with your wealth under the regulations and laws given by the country were you do your business. The one that guarantees the protection of your wealth is the Armed Forces of the nation were you conduct your business. This is the nature of democracy and capitalism of the United States. This is also what most nations of the world want for themselves. .
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Paddy Martin 1 week ago in reply to Laughing__Man
You got it in one. Apart form us two, the rest don't seem to want to know which means we are destined to share the same the fate as the rest.
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adilrye 1 week ago in reply to Haruun Ahmed
This is such an exaggeration. Really? The cancer of mankind and a virulent cancer? This is a complicated legacy with both benign and dark aspects to it. But what other empire pours billions for the reconstruction of a foreign continent? Is the leader of the democratic world, ironically, most US allies are in fact, democratic, despite the storied support for dictatorships? Saw millions of people liberated from Communist rule embrace them? Helped fight and destroy fascist empires like Germany and Japan? Gave us amazing technological achievements, like you know, the internet you spout your comments off on right now?
The US is not an evil empire. Using such harsh words leads me to believe rationality is far from your analysis as well.
(Edited by author 1 week ago)
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Zulf Ahmed 6 days ago in reply to adilrye
It's not so much of an exaggeration. After the Second World War, America took global control. The Marshall Plan was presented as a sign of altruism, but what is altruistic about taking control of Western Europe? Truman's regime formed the planetary military empire and while it is true that in Europe, the American empire reconstructed the modern democracies, it is equally true that in the Middle East they fully supported dictatorships. The Cold War was mostly a fabrication of the American Empire under Truman's regime where the nuclear arms race was an idea of the American elite. Besides Israel, which was really an American military colony which was okayed by Truman, which was formed by ethnic cleansing of around 700,000 native Palestinians in 1948, America's strongest ally in the region is Saudi Arabia, which is the most repressive of the Arab countries, an absolute monarchy with a medieval political culture; in comparison Iraq was extremely modern. In 1953, Eisenhower was persuaded that the democratic government of Iran which was planning to nationalize the oil was a communist threat and so America toppled the government and re-instated the autocratic monarch. This was the backdrop of the 1979 clerical takeover of Iran. In 1979 also America supported the mujahideen Islamists against the short-lived communist regime in Afghanistan, and Operation Cyclone was a project with enormous funding, and although there is now a denial of CIA funding of bin Laden himself, this is just political double-talk because Saudis sent the Arab mujahideen with bin Laden into Afghanistan surely with consent of the American empire. The dictatorships in the Middle East were all supported by America -- one clear example is the 30 year repressive rule in Egypt by Hosni Mubarak. In Africa, the Mobuto government which was a kleptocracy that pocketed funds for development projects flew in a private Concorde from a private airport to meet with Bush because America supported this vile dictatorship as a Cold War ally. The list goes on and on. Since 1945, America has overthrown 50 governments, many of them democratic, has killed upwards of 10 million people, has today around 900 military bases. Besides, 9/11 was an imperial false flag operation by the Israel-centric neoconservatives who had taken over the National Security State and were planning regime change in seven Muslim countries a decade earlier: Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya. It was a showcasing of the remote-controlled aircraft technologies developed in Area 51, the birthplace of RQ-170 Sentinel and other drones that fly on their deadly missions from over 60 bases worldwide.
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Tom Tudo 6 days ago in reply to Zulf Ahmed
Those are historical facts. Unfortunatly many Americans like the ones who are just now wanting to kill more Muslims, kill more Iranians don't operate on facts. They operate on feelings.
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Zulf Ahmed 5 days ago in reply to Zulf Ahmed
Responding to Adilrye, the problem with the nitpicking about Saudi Arabia which is a repressive absolute monarchy where the migrant workers work in literal slave-like conditions in the oil fields and women are not allowed to drive among many many social problems compared to Iraq by the American Empire is that America invaded and DESTROYED the country. It killed a million people and there are suicide terror groups running around there now while before 2003 there was not even a single terror incident. Would Americans call an empire that did the same in Texas anything other than an evil empire? What has the American empire really done for the Kurds? Turkey is still free to bomb their Kurdish separatists in Iraq, probably with even more freedom. The defense of the American empire behavior always reminds me of the whitewashing of the ethnic cleansing of British Mandate Palestine and these defenders of America don't seem to have as much sympathy for the Palestinian plight under Israelis as the excuse they use about Saddam Hussein's treatment of Kurds. The reality is that Iraq is the third largest confirmed oil reserves at 150 billion and unconfirmed 350 billion estimated, and while the big oil does not outright own the oil, Exxon, BP, Occidental and Shell have control of the oil with 20-year contracts now.
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adilrye 6 days ago in reply to Zulf Ahmed
I'm aware of all of this. But still, historically and contextually speaking, I don't think America is the worst empire in history, which the person I commented on seemed to believe. Even with all of this, America has done a lot of good for the world. And I'm not American, either. This is a complex country, often paradoxical, but I will still firmly stand that there are merits to the American Empire.
Also, Iraq may have been 'modern', but last time I checked, Saudi Arabia didn't have a genocide of a minority on its hands. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds died under Saddam Hussein. His rule was the epitome of the worst of the worst Arab dictatorships. Although I see the double standard, I would definitely disagree that Saudi Arabia is as bad as Baathist Iraq.
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Zulf Ahmed 4 days ago in reply to Zulf Ahmed
In response to completely random accusation of being 'mad', let me remind you that the Leo Strauss school of neoconservatives -- and I am fully convinced that the Israel-centric neoconservatives who had taken over the National Security State power a decade before 9/11 -- planned the 9/11 false flag because they needed the support of the American people and Congress for a mass regime change plan involving seven Muslim countries. Shadia Drury, who is a scholar focused on Straussian philosophy, had the following to say in an interview:
Shadia Drury: Leo Strauss was a great believer in the efficacy
and usefulness of lies in politics. Public support for the Iraq war
rested on lies about Iraq posing an imminent threat to the United States
– the business about weapons of mass destruction and a fictitious
alliance between al-Qaida and the Iraqi regime. Now that the lies have
been exposed, Paul Wolfowitz and others in the war party are denying
that these were the real reasons for the war.
So what were the real reasons? Reorganising the balance of power
in the Middle East in favour of Israel? Expanding American hegemony in
the Arab world? Possibly. But these reasons would not have been
sufficient in themselves to mobilise American support for the war. And
the Straussian cabal in the administration realised that.
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