William Marina, a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Emeritus Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University The Marines' 'How To' Handbook for Empire:
Americans love a good “How To” book, and the Journal has long touted this 446 page one, which details how “from 1898 to 1934, the Marines fought a number of small wars, in the Philippines, Cuba, Honduras, China, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.”
What no one bothers to mention is that the great Marine Corps hero General Smedley Butler (two Medals of Honor, in combat), who actually fought in most of these wars, turned against all of this interventionism (a kind of early whistle blower). In his 1934 book, War is a Racket, he listed the nations in which he intervened for U.S. global neo-mercantilism, benefiting such firms as Standard Oil, United Fruit, and National City Bank. Indicating that he was “a gangster” for such companies, Butler observed that Al Capone operated in only three Chicago districts, while the Marines did so on six continents.
Read the rest here and be sure to check out the list of "successful" nations we've built using this guidebook from the same service I gave six active and six reserve years.
This entry also posted at Stand Down.
Rackets and Stuff
William Marina, a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Emeritus Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University The Marines’ ‘How To’ Handbook for Empire: Americans love a good ?How To? book, and the Journal has long touted this 446 pag…
THE COMING SLAUGHTER OF FALLUJAH.
Anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear will recognise the propaganda value of a word such as “insurgents”. With its components “in” and” surgent”, it conjures images of a tide or wave of foreign fighters rushing in from outside. Calling the people of Fallujah, who are fighting a foreign army of occupation in their own homes, in their own city, and often simply fighting to avenge the deaths of freinds, loved ones, brothers, sisters, daughters…calling these people “insurgents” is wickedly and cruelly absurd.
From where have they “insurged”? Who are the real “insurgents”? Americans should be familiar with this sort of thing. After all, what were the minutemen but “rebels” and “criminal elements”, “thugs”, “outlaws”, to the colonial British Army?
But is the American War of Independence is a good guide to what will happen to the Americans themselves, as they tinker with imperial military projects (by any other name…)? The American military and supporters of the “war” in Iraq should not allow themselves the dubioius and grim flattery that they are fighting on such even terms as those were. Times have moved on. The disparity in armament is vastly greater than it was in that conflict, and the courage of resistance that much greater. The Americans are losing lives, but at a rate of less than 10:1. What will happen in Fallujah is the abject and horrible slaughter of an untrained, underarmed civilian militia fighting and dying in their own homes against the world’s most powerful technological warfare machine, capable of seeing in the dark and through clouds and rain from space… capable of killing at the distance of half the circumference of the Earth, and so much more…
The deepest sadness arises from recognising that the coming slaughter is unnecessary. Just as the war which preceded it was unnecessary. The pattern is identical: a few “negotiators” are sent in as a smoke-screen for the preparation of the use of overwhelming weapons and tactics of murder. If you listen to the words of Rumsfeld, Bush, and the generals, the message is absolutely clear: there never was any hope for these people, the minute they decided to stand up for themselves against the external aggressor.
See, for example:
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04252004/nation_w/160454.asp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/04/25/MNGI56ASTS1.DTL
and read between the lines. Bremer scurries around trying to stop the massacre, and the end of any real hope that there will be a cooperative settlement between Iraq and the US, while those who really couldn’t careless about the Iraqi people, cooperation or anything else prepare to use the coming increase in Marine casualties as an excuse for even greater scalations of violence. This is my prediction. We shall see if it rings true.
As ex-US soldier James Landrith and Marine Hero Smedley Butler state: these people are using the blood of Americans as much as Iraqis to further their own political and economic ends. What is wanted is clear: not a free democratic Iraq, which will inevitably be a Shia islamic state with its longest border contiguous with America’s (more pointedly Israel’s) other greatbugbear Iran. Why would they want that? No. Better to have a long-term military occupation, a bit like Romanised Germania.
Only then can the exploitation of resources continue unchecked in favour of this cabal within in the US political system. For what guarantees any American companies’ involvement in a Free Iraq? No. It will be done. The massacre, the slaughter will take place. The violence will escalate. Vastly more Iraqis will die, and many more Americans, and Bush and Rumsfeld will call upon the American people not to forget the “sacrifice” that these brave pawns and stooges made. What a pity. I sincerely pity them all. On both sides of the battle lines of Fallujah.
Those who are about to die, I salute you.
Emperor Bush’s thumb is up.
Yours in sadness,
Steven.
Posted by Steven on April 25, 2004 11:23 AM
Of course I meant to say that:
Emperor Bush’s thumb is DOWN.
By the way… how do I initiate a topic on this weblog?
Yours
Steven.
Posted by Steven on April 25, 2004 11:30 AM
Of course I meant to say that:
Emperor Bush’s themb is DOWN.
By the way… how do I initiate a topic on this weblog?
Yours
Steven.
Posted by Steven on April 25, 2004 11:30 AM