The United States: Is the greatest threat from within?

Here is one of the first of what I hope are many original posts from me. I have been hesitant about sharing thoughts, opinions in an original writing. There are good reasons for this. First, I am lousy at keyboarding. Secondly, I know that I am not the best writer by a large stretch so I am hesitant to do this. My new part time job is helping the State Dept.of Employment with skills assessment exams and this involves quite a bit of writing on my part. I am also getting paid to learn better keyboarding skills. The pay at this job is pretty poor but it is a job, and it may lead to a position with another agency. After much prayer and thought and I am taking a big step. Let me know what you think.

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Protesters in Portland, Oregon 
show their love of country

The United States: Is the greatest threat from within?

By Patriot USA

Influx of Central Americans across the U.S./Mexican border is one of the more topical intrusions on American soil, and — in accordance with the old proverb about empty vessels making the most sound — vocal opponents of this migration call for a muscular response to the symptoms — walls, fences, troops, etc. — while they completely disregard the cause.

Most of the people moving from Central America are very family-oriented and leave their homes with great reluctance, but in the vast majority of cases, grinding poverty drives them northward, often at risk to their lives. So, what are we doing about that? The exact opposite of what we should be doing. As one example, let’s consider Honduras. A few months ago, the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted and exiled in a political coup with the support of the military. Zelaya had attempted some modest efforts to relieve some of the poverty that was endemic in his country. This did not sit well with the powerful plutocrats who saw this as a threat to the existing system of increasing their already substantial wealth.

So, which side did the United States, champion of democracy, freedom and liberty, support? Like all previous administrations, the present one inevitably aligned with fellow oligarchs who were offended by the effrontery of peasants asking for some amelioration of their abysmal conditions so they might provide the basic necessities of life for their families. The uniformed gang of strong-arm thugs posing as the Honduran military engaged in a violent repression of protesters seeking a return to what little democracy they might have enjoyed. This oppression was another incentive for creating more refugees to migrate to the U.S. As a nation, we rarely really care for governments that show concern for their poor, their tired and huddled masses.

Then there are the attempted and actual violent attacks on the nation that come under the rubric of blow back, a concept about which Chalmers Johnson has written extensively and just as studiously ignored by successive administrations and Congress. Americans who believe there is one set of rules and laws for us and another for foreigners, especially those of non-white ethnicity or race, may find this hard to understand, but when we attack, kill and maim other people or are complicit in such attacks, then the victims and their sympathizers are liable to have a reflexive inclination to respond in kind. This is particularly true in the Middle East, where the United States has had a deplorable history of aggression and support of dictators since the end of World War II. Michael Scheurer, former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, has expressed an opinion that American participation in the enduring tragedies associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq sanctions was among the factors that led to 9/11.

The greatest threats to our nation, however, are more likely to come from decay within. In 13th-century England, a rebellion against King John led to the Magna Carta, which established principles on which British and American laws were founded. After the rebellion against another oppressive English monarch, the new United States created its Constitution. Lessons from World Wars I and II led the United States and other nations toward a more civilized world with introduction of the United Nations Charter, the Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions to reduce the barbarism that is inherent in wars and civil conflicts.

Now we have government officials, elected and non-elected, and major corporations with the acquiescence of a docile and ill-informed citizenry shredding the Constitution, choosing which laws to obey, which treaties to adhere to, and which to ignore for short-term political interest and commercial gain that threaten the long-term well being of the nation. When the privileged and powerful can ignore laws with impunity but use the machinery of law enforcement to control the people, then we will no longer have a democracy.

Militarism in pursuit of empire and unsustainable depletion and destruction of natural resources have led to the collapse of many societies throughout history. The Roman empire, the Mayan world and Nazi Germany are but three of the better-known examples of many monumental collapses. As long as we repeat errors of the past, adhere to false sets of values, indulge hubris and ideologies to the point of being out of touch with reality, listen to charlatans and wallow in ignorance, we will aid and abet actions complicit in our own decline and fall. No nation beyond our borders is capable of making that our fate, but we, the people, can.