Blowback – Part 2
TimeWatch Editorial
December 23, 2016
In our last editorial entitled “Blowback” we looked at the resulting response of nations and peoples to the methods of construction of the American Empire. Chalmers Johnson in his book entitled Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, described the action referred to as Terrorism, as a response to American Global Dominance. He described not just America’s economic superiority, but it’s accompanying military supremacy. Now remember the book was published originally in the year 2000. The book was then republished in 2004. So listen to how Mr. Johnson continues to describe American ascendency.
“There are today, ten years after the demise of the Soviet Union, some 800 Defense Department installations located in other countries. The people of the United States make up perhaps 4 percent of the world’s population but consume 40 percent of its resources. They exercise hegemony over the world directly through overwhelming military might and indirectly through secretive organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Though largely dominated by the US government, these are formally international organizations and therefore beyond Congressional oversight.” Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, page 323.
Notice the mention of organizations like The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. According to his biography located in the opening pages of his book entitled, “Unholy Trinity, The IMF, World Bank and the WTO,” which was first published in 2003 Richard Peet is Professor of Geography at Clark University. He grew up near Liverpool and attended the London School of Economics, the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley. His main interests include development, policy regimes, globalization, power, social theory, philosophy and Marxism. In his book, on page 47, Richard Peet says the following:
“When the USA bound itself to international commitments, it did so from a pre-eminent position, and ensured that the commitments made conformed to American interests. As one authoritative study puts it: ‘the United States has viewed all multilateral organizations, including the World Bank, as instruments of foreign policy to be used in support of specific US aims and objectives’.” Richard Peet, “Unholy Trinity, The IMF, World Bank and the WTO,” page 47
It is therefore very clear what America’s interest in globalization is; an increasing dominant control and the absorption of the world’s resources. Not only has global wealth been siphoned off by the American Masters, but the poor have been reduced to an even lower level. Listen to how Chalmers Johnson continues:
“As the American-inspired process of “globalization” relentlessly enlarges the gap between the rich and the poor, a popular movement against it has gained strength, advancing from its first demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 through protests in Washington, DC; Melbourne; Prague; Seoul; Nice; Barcelona; Quebec City; Göteborg; and on to its violent confrontations in Genoa in 2001. Though American leaders are deaf to the desires of the protesters, the Defense Department has actually adopted their main premise, that current global economic arrangements mean more wealth for the “West” and more misery for the “rest.” Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, page 323.
In order to maintain control of the globe, America must therefore increase its military preeminence. The dominance of the planet is therefore not enough to provide the confidence of the exceptional nation called The United States, the control of outer space is the ultimate goal. Chalmers Johnson continues.
“The US Space Command’s pamphlet “Vision for 2020” argues that “the globalization of the world economy will also continue, with a widening between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’” and that we have a mission to “dominate the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investments” in an increasingly dangerous and implicitly anti-American world. Unfortunately, while the eyes of military planners were firmly focused on the “control and domination” of space and “denying other countries access to space,” a very different kind of space was suddenly occupied.” Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, page 323.
So we have not learned. The actions we have taken in the past have led to the sort of blowback that quite often is difficult to anticipate and even more difficult to defend. The aftermath of terrorist attacks further inspires the need to control the very circumstances that led to the attacks in the first place. A certain inhumanity seems justified, until a similar attitude of harshness that exists in the heart of the terrorist, grows in the heart of the defender. There is then not turning back. The enmity that exists is equal on both sides and leads to an endless round of attack and counter-attack.
“On the day after the September 11 attack, Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia declared, “I say, bomb the hell out of them. If there’s collateral damage, so be it.” “Collateral damage” is another of those hateful euphemisms invented by our military to prettify its killing of the defenseless. It is the term Pentagon spokesmen use to refer to the Serb and Iraqi civilians who were killed or maimed by bombs from high-flying American warplanes in our campaigns against Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein. It is the kind of word our new ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, might have used in the 1980s to explain the slaughter of peasants, Indians and church workers by American-backed right-wing death squads in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua while he was ambassador to Honduras. These activities made the Reagan years the worst decade for Central America since the Spanish conquest.” Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, page 324.
Mr. Johnson may not have realized it, but the utopia that one would hope would eventually appear on the horizon, is perhaps non-existent. The real Cost and Consequence of American Empire will perhaps only be the annihilation of society as we know it, especially when the covert connections to the Papacy become publicly known. The book of Revelation in chapter 18, describes the final reward of Babylon the Great, the Papacy, and the ultimate result of her global domination.
Revelation 18:11 - And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Revelation 18:12 - The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Revelation 18:13 - And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
The costs and consequences will indeed be conclusive
Cameron A. Bowen
