For More Jeff Danziger cartoons visit his website: Danziger CartoonsThe following is an excerpt from James Quinn's piece Charlie Don't Surf. James excellent social commentaries can be found on his website The BurningPlatform.com
The absolute folly of American imperialism is perfectly reflected in the pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign country that posed no risk to our safety and security. Faulty and/ or fake intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction was used as the basis to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iraq. President Bush and his neo-con advisors obscured the War on Terror, created false links to 9/11 and al Qaeda, declared the certainty of weapons of mass destruction, and promoted visions of mushroom clouds over U.S. cities to railroad the American public into a war of choice.
The irrationality of this war is evident by the launching of 800 cruise missiles from ships at sea to destroy key infrastructure, power plants, and bridges in a public relations TV display of Shock & Awe geared for the 52 inch boob tube mesmerized American public. As President Bush declared Mission Accomplished after a month of combat operations the United States was left with the task of spending billions, borrowed from the Chinese, to rebuild the infrastructure and bridges that we had just destroyed. Meanwhile, bridges in the U.S. were collapsing with commuters being killed.
The hypocrisy and madness of U.S. leadership is exasperating. After combat operations the American imperial ruler in Iraq Paul Bremer inexplicably disbanded the Iraqi military. These trained killers then joined the insurgency, killing thousands of American soldiers and innocent Iraqi citizens. The American “Surge”, four years after the mission had been “accomplished”, succeeded because the American military handed out wads of cash to the insurgent Sunnis who were killing American soldiers. The hypocrisy and irony of borrowing money from the Chinese to pay foreigners to not kill us in their country that we invaded under false pretenses, seems to have been lost on the neo-con hardliners like Dick Cheney.
The hypocrisy and madness of U.S. leadership is exasperating. After combat operations the American imperial ruler in Iraq Paul Bremer inexplicably disbanded the Iraqi military. These trained killers then joined the insurgency, killing thousands of American soldiers and innocent Iraqi citizens. The American “Surge”, four years after the mission had been “accomplished”, succeeded because the American military handed out wads of cash to the insurgent Sunnis who were killing American soldiers. The hypocrisy and irony of borrowing money from the Chinese to pay foreigners to not kill us in their country that we invaded under false pretenses, seems to have been lost on the neo-con hardliners like Dick Cheney.
Today, the War on Terror is code for subjugating the Muslims of the Middle East. Americans view the natives occupying Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran as no better than dirty uneducated street people who worship an evil god and hate our way of life. This view permits the use of overwhelming firepower against people living in huts and caves. When another human life is considered not as valuable as your own, it is easy to call the deaths of women and children – collateral damage. The United States “liberation” of Iraq has left 5 million orphans out of 12 million children under 18. The insanity of the civilized versus savages can be seen in Iraq & Afghanistan as the natives use homemade explosives versus the U.S. military’s vast array of high tech weapons that cost millions.
The few thousand terrorists in the world have already won. On 9/11 the terrorists committed the greatest act of terror in history and murdered 3,000 innocent Americans. They killed .001% of the American population. They could not do permanent or long lasting damage to our country. We’ve done it for them. George Bush’s imperialist response to an act of terror was to double the national debt, start two wars, sacrifice thousands of young Americans, killing hundreds of thousands of people in their own countries and taking away freedoms and liberties of US citizens.
Imperialism will always be framed by those in power as beneficial to those being “civilized”. The most evil atrocities will be committed in the name of advancement. The human impact of imperialism is madness. The hubristic delusions of emperors, kings, generals and presidents ultimately put average men into morally ambiguous circumstances.
Every man has the capacity to hand themselves over to evil if put into a chaotic, dangerous, vague situation for a long period of time. Any man could degenerate when moral and physical restraints are taken away, because when no one is watching, the darkness of the human heart can escape from its deepest recesses. The acts of barbarism committed in the Congo, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan by seemingly ordinary men were the result of madness. Some committed murder, others torture, but the majority internalized their inner ordeal resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder. When men know their mission is not morally legitimate, thecir souls become tormented. There is vagueness to our existence that we may never fathom – a real heart of darkness.
As long as imperialism is practiced by empire builders, men will be driven mad by these ambitions. Those who get pushed over the edge will pray for the end. It will be their only friend. Empires always collapse under the weight of their imperialistic ventures. The cost of imperial overreach and the moral descent into a heart of darkness ultimately mark the end of an empire. The American empire is on this path.
The only question is whether it will end in a whimper or in a blaze of fire which brings the entire world to an end.
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