March 26, 2005

 

                                                           Survival of the Richest

 

Militarism is at the foundation of the United States

While killing most of the continent=s native people

The colonies expanded from the Atlantic to the Pacific

South to Mexico, East to Cuba and Puerto Rico

West to Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines, then

Beyond, with now over 725 military bases worldwide

 

At present, the government is coining new phrases B 

AEnemy combatants,@ Aextraordinary renditions,@

A Acoalition of the willing,@ Atargeted killings@

AFailed states,@ Aclimate change,@ AAmerican science@    

The Aunsigning@ of treaties, Agenerations of weapons@                  

AMini-nukes,@ and Abad-guy-identifying chemicals@                                 

                                                                             

The U.S. is rapidly redefining the meaning of words

A Ademocratic@ country is one which steps in line

A Aliberated@ country is one under occupation

A Ahumanitarian intervention@ is one that kills

AInsurgents@ are those who resist occupation

ATorture@ occurs only if pain equals organ failure

 

The U.S. is also denigrating the United Nations

It defies and refuses to sign international treaties

Belittles the severity and impact of global warming

Prefers to drill for oil than protect wildlife refuges

Hampers efforts to stabilize world population

And keeps its own people afraid of Aterrorists@

 

Yet its leaders know that world oil is drying out

That world consumption of grain exceeds harvest

That world aquifers are now being over-pumped

That the number of the world=s poor is increasing

That many indebted countries are close to default

And that it is also susceptible to disease pandemics 

 

Still, per capita, it ranks 18th in aid to poor countries

Sixth in the value of its exports of conventional arms

                                    First in the overkill capacity of its nuclear arsenal

First in its willingness to put nuclear arms in space

First in its demand that countries cut social services

And its technology is not directed at helping the poor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the U.S. leaders are also aware that empires

Have collapsed because of an inability to capture

Sufficient energy to maintain far-flung control

They know that industrialization depends on oil

And that none of today=s alternative forms of

Energy have the efficiency and flexibility of oil

 

And they know that, with current technology, for

The world population to achieve a level of energy

Capture equal to that of the U.S. today, another

Two planets similar to our own Planet Earth would

Be required.  The leaders of the U.S. know this

And the dreams and aspirations of the destitute

 

Perhaps the U.S. is preparing to defend itself from

The upcoming revulsion of 80 percent of humanity

 

The occupation of Iraq may indeed be necessary

An early step to ensure the survival of the richest

 

The neo-conservatives now in power do not tell

The enemy must not be privy to one=s strategy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                         Notes

 

Militarism is at the foundation of the United States:

Johnson, Chalmers, pp. 1 and 2.

AThe new American empire has been a long time in the making.  Its roots go back to the early 19th century, when the United States declared all of Latin America its sphere of influence and busily enlarged its own territory at the expense of the indigenous people of North America, ... British, French, and Spanish colonialists, and neighboring Mexico@ (p. 2).

 

AAs distinct from other people of this earth, most Americans do not recognize B or do not want to recognize B that the United States dominates the world through its military power.  Our country deploys well over 500,000 soldiers, spies, technicians, teachers, dependents, and civilian contractors in other nations and... [on] carriers... in all the oceans and seas of the world@ (p. 1). 

 

While killing most of the continent=s native people:

Churchill, Ward, p. 1.

ADuring the four centuries spanning the time between 1492 (when Christopher Columbus first set foot on the ANew World@ of a Caribbean beach), and 1892 (when the U.S. Census Bureau concluded that there were fewer than 250,000 indigenous people surviving within the country=s claimed boundaries), a hemispheric population estimated to have been 125,000,000, was reduced by something over 90 percent.@

 

Johnson, Chalmers, p. 2.

AMuch like their contemporaries in Australia, Algeria, and tsarist Russia, Americans devoted much energy to displacing the original inhabitants of the North American continent and turning over their lands to new settlers.@

 

South to Mexico, East to Cuba and Puerto Rico, West to Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines:

Johnson, Chalmers, p. 2.

AThen, at the edge of the 20th century, a group of self-conscious imperialists in the government B much like a similar group of conservatives who a century later would seek to implement their own expansive agendas under cover of the Awar on terrorism@ B used the Spanish-American War to seed military bases in Central America, various islands in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines.@

 

 

With now over 725 military bases worldwide:

Johnson, Chalmers, p. 24.

Overseas bases, of which the Defense Department acknowledges some 725, come within the scope of the peacetime standing army and constitute a permanent claim on the nation=s resources, while being almost invariably inadequate to actually fight a war...  [These bases] represent the headquarters of our pro-consuls, visible manifestations of our imperial reach.@

 

AEnemy combatants@:

Prisoners of war.

 

 AExtraordinary renditions@:

The transfer of a prisoner to a country with no or with lax legal sanctions against torture.

 

A Acoalition of the willing@:

President George W. Bush=s faltering coalition for the war on Iraq.

 

ATargeted killings@:

Political murders, mostly by Israel against the Palestinians.

 

AFailed states@:

States whose government is insufficiently strong to maintain order. 

 

AClimate change@:

A euphemism for global warming.

 

AAmerican science@:

Gelbspan, Ross, pp. 60, 69.

APrior to his withdrawal from [the] Kyoto [Protocol, in March 2001], President Bush declared he would not accept the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), because the organization represented Aforeign science@ B even though about half of the 2,000 scientists whose work contributes to the IPCC reports are American.  Instead, Bush called for a report by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that would provide AAmerican science.@  The subsequent response from the NAS not only confirmed the findings of the IPCC but indicated that [it] may have understated the magnitude of some impacts@ (p. 69).

 

The Aunsigning@ of treaties@:

Gelbspan, Ross, pp. 60, 69 and 103.

In 1999, President Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol, even though, in 1997, the Senate had voted overwhelmingly not to ratify it.  In 2001, President Bush Aunsigned@ the Protocol. 


 

 

AGenerations of Weapons@:

Caldicott, Helen, p. 27.

The present missile defense system (MDS) is called the Athird generation@ of nuclear weapons, the atomic bomb being the first, and the hydrogen bomb the second.

 

AMini-nukes@:

Caldicott, Helen, p. 48.

In 2000, Congress authorized the development of a Auser friendly@ mini-nuke.  Weighing less than 5 kilotons, mini-nukes exert a one-mile radius of blast destruction B compared to a Hiroshima bomb which, weighing 13 kilotons, exerts a 1 2 radius of blast destruction.  Stephen Younger, Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear Weapons at Los Alamos National Laboratory, wrote that these low-yield weapons offer the Aadvantage@ of Areduced collateral damage@ B but only by half a mile.                                       

 

 ABad-guy-identifying chemicals@:                          

Sunshine Project, p. 1.

In 1994, the U.S. Air Force submitted to the Pentagon=s Joint Non-lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) the biochemical weapons proposal, AHarassing, Annoying, and >Bad Guy= Identifying Chemicals.@  The document suggests the development of a mind-altering aphrodisiac weapon, as well as other chemical weapons, including one that would render U.S. enemies exceptionally sensitive to sunlight. 

 

In 2000, in an effort to spur further development of Anon-lethal@ weapons, the JNLWD distributed the proposal to US military and government agencies in the form of a promotional CD-ROM.

 

In 2001, on the occasion of commissioning a study of Anon-lethal@ weapons to the National Academy of Science (NAS), the Pentagon gave the proposal to the NAS.

 

A Ademocratic@ country is one which steps in line:

Chomsky, Noam, Presentation, 2005.

In 2003, U.S. leaders berated Turkey for its refusal to join the Acoalition of willing@ for war against Iraq B at a time when 95 percent of Turkey=s population was against the war.  They hailed President Jose Maria Aznar of Spain as the leader of a democratic ANew Europe@ for his acceptance to join the Acoalition@ B at a time when 98 percent of Spain=s population was against the war. 

 

 

 

A Aliberated@ country is one under occupation:

The U.S. declared its illegal war of aggression against Iraq, a war to Aliberate@ the country from Dictator Saddam Hussein.

 

A Ahumanitarian intervention@ is one that kills:

Chomsky, 1999, pp. 3, 16-17, 34-35 and 72-74.

Chomsky analyses the case of Kosovo, one of many examples of Ahumanitarian intervention.@

 

On March 24, 1999, U.S.-led NATO forces launched cruise missiles and bombs at targets throughout the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).  The operation was hailed as a Ahumanitarian intervention.@ 

 

President Clinton called it Aa just and necessary war@ and informed the nation that we were Aupholding our values, protecting our interests, and advancing the cause of peace...  We cannot respond to such tragedies everywhere, but when ethnic conflict turns into ethnic cleansing, where we can make a difference, we must try, and that is clearly the case in Kosovo...  Had we faltered, the result would have been a moral and strategic disaster.@ 

 

In February, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had already sounded the alarm when she declared, AThis kind of thing cannot stand, you cannot in 1999 have this kind of barbaric ethnic cleansing.  It is ultimately better that democracies stand up against this kind of evil.@

 

Deaths:

Before: According to NATO, in the year before the bombing, about 2,000 people had been killed in Kosovo. 

 

After: The bombings brought death and destruction throughout the FRY.  Vojvodina, for example, was attacked with extreme severity, particularly its capital, Novi Sad, where bridges, infrastructure, water supplies,  electricity and the health system were devastated.  Home of the Hungarian minority, Vojvodina is hundreds of miles from Kosovo and was a peaceful region until the NATO bombings.  The province had been a symbol of resistance to Slobodan Milosevic=s regime and an area where ethnic minorities lived in harmony.  An executive board member of the Novi Sad City Council, concluded that Vojvodina, the country=s agricultural center and, in 1998, the source of nearly half of its gross domestic product, was being Astruck so frequently to destroy the Serbian economy.@  

 

 

 

 

 

 

External Refugees:

Before: Prior to the bombing, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) did not report on refugees, though for years, many Kosovars B Albanian and Serb B had been leaving and entering the province, sometimes as a direct consequence of the Balkan wars, sometimes for economic and other reasons.

 

After: On March 27, after three days of bombing, the UNHCR reported that 4,000 had fled Kosovo to Albania and Macedonia, the two neighboring countries.  By April 5, the New York Times, relying on UNHCR figures, reported that Amore than 350,000 [had] left Kosovo since March 24th and an unknown number of Serbs [had] fled north to Serbia.@  By the time of the peace accord, June 3, 1999, the UNHCR reported 746,500 refugees beyond the borders of the FRY, and 70,000 to Montenegro.

 

Internal Refugees:

Before: Prior to the bombing, estimates of internal refugees in Kosovo varied from 200,000 to 250,000.                                                        

 

After: According to the Yugoslav Red Cross, after the bombing, more than 1,000,000 had been displaced within Serbia.

 

AInsurgents@ are those who resist occupation:

The resistors to the U.S. occupation of Iraq are called Ainsurgents.@  This would imply that the U.S. has won the war and is in full control of the country, which is not the case.

 

ATorture@ occurs only if pain equals organ failure:

The U.S. government=s new guidelines (untested in the courts) are that torture only occurs if the degree of pain is equivalent to the degree of pain in organ failure.  Thus, lack of food and sleep, the obligation to wear a hood, sensory deprivation, heat and cold, beatings, electrical shocks, sexual harassment and mock executions are not Atorture.@

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It defies and refuses to sign international treaties:

Gelbspan, Ross.

 

Hall, Francoise, AThe World our Children will die in,A p. 8.

 

Renner, Michael.

 

United Nations, 2003.

 

Some of the treaties the U.S. has either undermined or refused to sign include:

The Kyoto Protocol (Gelbspan, pp. 41, 60, 95 and 103).

The Biodiversity Treaty(Gelbspan, p. 99).

The International Criminal Court (Renner, p. 14).

The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (Renner, p. 14).

Inspection and verification provisions for a treaty banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons (Renner, p. 14).

Verification for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Treaty (Renner, p. 14).                                                 

The Ban on Anti-personnel Land Mines (Gelbspan, p. 99).

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (U.N., 2003, p. 331).

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (U.N., 2003, p. 331).

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (U.N. 2003, p. 331).

 

Belittles the severity and impact of global warming:

Gelbspan, Ross.

 

Hall, Francoise, AGlobal Warming B The Real, Implacable but Unmentionable Enemy of the United States?@ 23 pages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prefers to drill for oil than protect wildlife refuges:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

On March 16, 2005, the U.S. Senate voted 49-51, to reject an amendment that would have removed Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) provisions from a Budget Resolution.  The insertion of ANWR provisions in the Budget Resolution, prevents the possibility of a Senate filibuster.

 

Hampers efforts to stabilize world population:

Kaplan, Esther.

 

Yet its leaders know that world oil is drying out:

Heinberg, Richard.

 

World consumption of grain exceeds harvest:

Brown, Lester, Presentation.

 

Gelbspan, pp. 7 and 147-148.

 

In 2004, for the first time in recorded history, the world grain consumption exceeded harvest for a fifth consecutive year.  By the end of the year, grain stocks were at the lowest level on record.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World aquifers are now being over-pumped:

Barlow, p. 6.

AAround the world, people are extracting groundwater at rapid rates to supplement declining supplies of surface water.@

 

Brown, Presentation.

AHalf of the world=s people now live in countries where the water tables are falling and wells are going dry.@  These countries include China, India and the United States B the world=s three major grain producers, which in combination, account for nearly half of the world=s total grain harvest.           

 

Barlow, p. 8.

AIt takes 400,000 liters (105,000 US gallons) of water to make one car.@ 

 

Brown, Presentation.

Every 10 cars requires a paved surface equivalent to the area of one football field.

 

Renner, p. 103.

From 1950 to 2003, the world=s automobile production quintupled B from 8,000,000 to 41,000,000 automobiles.  This trend is likely to continue as developing countries motorize. 

 

In 2003, for example, the Chinese bought 2,000,000 new cars B 80 percent more than in 2002.  

 

Brown, Lester, Presentation.

China=s grain production has been as follows:                     

1950                90,000,000 tons

1998              392,000,000 tons

2003              322,000,000 tons.

 

The drop of 70,000,000 tons in grain production between 1998 and 2003, is attributed to both increasing water shortages and industrialization, with its attending conversion of crop land to non-farm uses B exemplified by China=s new embrace of the automobile as a method of transportation.

 

China=s fall in grain harvest between 1998 and 2003 (70,000,000 tons), exceeds the entire grain harvest of Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

The number of the world=s poor is increasing:

United Nations, 2003, p. 253.

The population in Adeveloping@ countries is increasing as follows:

1975                2,961,000,000

2001                4,864,000,000

2015                5,868,000,000 (medium projection)

 

Many indebted countries are close to default:

United Nations, 2003, pp. 232-235 and 251-253.

 

Hall, Francoise, ADisposable People B Population Reduction without War,@ p. 4. 

This is a summary of the United Nations, 2003, data.

                                                                             

The Indebted:

Number living in countries where the debt is 25 percent      

of exports or more (year 2001). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  354,300,000

 

               Country=s              Debt Service as % of

                    Population    Exports of Goods and Services

     (2001)                           (2001)

 

Brazil              174,000,000                                    29

Turkey             69,300,000                                   25

Colombia         42,800,000                         28

Argentina         37,500.000                         49

Angola             12,800,000                                   26

Burundi              6,400,000                            36       

Sierra Leone       4,600,000                            74

Lebanon             3,500,000                            41

Uruguay             3,400,000                            30

         

Continents most affected:     

                             Debt Service as % of

                     Exports of Goods and Services

         (2001)

 

Latin America and the Caribbean                   20

South Asia                                                      11

Central Eastern Europe & CIS                       10                               

 

 

 

 

Hertz, pp. 118 and 167.

Between 1998 and 2000, the total debt service for the world=s poorest, highly indebted countries has increased.  These are countries in which half the people live on less than $1 a day, a third goes hungry, one child of every six dies before the age of five, and life expectancy has declined from 50 to 46 years since 1990.

 

Most of the failed or quasi-failed states are severely indebted B Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

 

Hertz, p 141.

There is a real chance of big defaults looming.

 

Hertz, pp. 135 and 141.

And yet, there is no organized bankruptcy procedure in place for sovereign default, as there is for corporations, cities and individuals finding themselves in similar circumstances.  Nor as yet, are there widespread collective action clauses on emerging-market bonds that would prevent individual bondholders from vetoing the re-structuring of proposals.

 

Hertz, pp. 80 and 102.                                                                       

The more countries have needed their money, the more stringent, questionable and dogmatic the conditions which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have become. 

 

AStructural adjustment programs@ include diktats to:

Devaluate the currency.

Liberalize trade.

Raise taxes.

Allow the prices of essential commodities to rise.

Allow the prices of basic services to rise.

Abandon dirigiste policies.

Curtail public expenditure.

Relax barriers to external capital flows.

Deregulate the labor market.

Cut public sector jobs.

Impose wage restraints.

Sell off state-owned enterprises.

 

 

 

 

 

It also is susceptible to disease pandemics:

Hall, Francoise, AAsk the Mosquitoes,@ p. 11.

In 2002, five major communicable diseases (respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, tuberculosis and malaria) were responsible for 11,500,000 deaths.  Most of these deaths are preventable. 

 

Other serious diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever, are spreading.

 

Pandemics of zoonoses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the West Nile virus, avian flu, swine flu and the Nipah virus, are spreading to humans.  The Ebola virus threatens to spread to humans.

                                                                             

Animal prions, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, Amad cow disease@) and bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE), are spreading to humans

 

Renner, pp. 27, 29, 42-43, 45, 47-50 and 68-70.

 

Per capita, it ranks 18th in aid to poor countries:

Hall, Francoise, AHuman Development,@ p. 7.

See list of per capita net official development assistance (ODA) disbursed by the 24 countries in the highest development category.  In 2001, the U.S. ranked 18th, giving US (2001) $40 per capita of its own population.  The U.S. was one of the 12 countries which have decreased their assistance since 1990.

 

United Nations, 2003, pp. 228, 250 and 290.

 

Sixth in the value of its exports of conventional arms:

Hall, Francoise, AHuman Development,@ p. 8.

See list of conventional arms exports by the 24 countries in the highest development category.  In 2002, the U.S. ranked 6th, exporting US (2002) $14 worth of conventional arms per capita of its own population.

 

United Nations, 2003, pp. 250 and 304.

 

First in its demand that countries cut social services:

The United States controls the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through which it makes these demands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Empires have collapsed because of an inability to capture sufficient energy:

Tainter, Joseph.

The benefits to a society from investments in complexity change over time.  At first, benefits are steep.  Then the returns on investments in complexity gradually diminish, reaching a peak...  After this, a society=s returns on investment become negative and the society becomes vulnerable to collapse.

 

None of today=s alternative forms of energy have the efficiency and flexibility of oil:

Hall, Francoise, AConvergence,@ p. 9.

This is a summary of the ratio of energy return over energy invested (EROEI), for all forms of energy.

 

Heinberg, Richard.

 

Another two planets similar to our own Planet Earth would be required:

Wilson, Edward, p. xi.

 

The upcoming revulsion of 80 percent of humanity:

Wilson, Edward, p. xi.

The ecological footprint is the amount of productive land needed to supply each person with food, water, energy, living space, commerce, transportation, and waste management.  It is composed of where food is grown, petroleum drawn, clothing manufactured, roads built, waste dumped, and public buildings raised (p. xi). 

 

In 2001, the average ecological footprint in the United States (population 288,000,000, or 4.7 percent of the total world population of 6,148,100,000), was 5 hectares per person.

 

That same year, the average ecological footprint in Adeveloping@ countries (population 4,863,800,000, or 79 percent of the total world population of 6,148,100,000), was 0.5 hectare per person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                     References

 

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  http://anwr.org/

 

Barlow, Maude, and Tony Clarke, Blue Gold B The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World=s Water (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002.

 

Brown, Lester, APlan B, A Blueprint for People and the Planet,@ Presentation, University of Massachusetts, July 9, 2004.  Lester Brown is Director of the Earth Policy Institute and author of  Plan B B Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (W. W. Norton, New York, N.Y.), 2003. (Alternative Radio, Tape BROL 001aT).

 

Caldicott, Helen, The New Nuclear Danger B George W. Bush=s Military-Industrial Complex (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002.

 

Chomsky, Noam

The New Military Humanism B Lessons from Kosovo (Common Courage, Monroe, ME), 1999.

 

ADemocracy and U.S. Foreign Policy,@ Presentation at the International Relations Center, 25th Anniversary Celebration, Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 26, 2005. (Alternative Radio, Tape CHON 181aT).

 

Churchill, Ward, A Little Matter of Genocide B Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present (City Lights), 1997.

 

Gelbspan, Ross, Boiling Point B How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists have fueled the Climate Crisis B and What we can do to avert Disaster (BasicBooks/Perseus, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

 

Hall, Francoise

AConvergence,@ Poem, July 3, 2004.

 

ADisposable People B Population Reduction without War,@ December 4, 2004.

 

AHuman Development,@ Poem, December 11, 2004.

 

AGlobal Warming B The Real, Implacable, but Unmentionable Enemy of the United States?@ February 26, 2005.  

 

AThe World our Children will die in,@ March 12, 2005.

 

AAsk the Mosquitoes,@ March 19, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

Hertz, Noreena, The Debt Threat B How Debt is destroying the Developing World... and threatening us All (HarperBusiness/HarperCollins, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

 

Johnson, Chalmers, The Sorrows of Empire B Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Metropolitan/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

 

Kaplan, Esther, With God on their Side B How Christian Fundamentalists trampled Science, Policy and Democracy in George W. Bush=s White House (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

 

Renner, Michael et al, State of the World 2005 B Redefining Global Security, A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress toward a Sustainable Society (W. W. Norton, New York, N.Y.), 2005.

 

Sunshine Project, ASunshine Project responds to Pentagon Statements on >Harassing, Annoying and Bad Guy Identifying Chemicals,=@ Statement, January 17, 2005.

http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr170105,html.

 

Tainter, Joseph, Complexity, Problem Solving and Sustainable Societies, in Robert Costanza et al., Eds. Getting down to Earth B Practical Applications of Ecological Economics [online],  Island Press, 1996.  http://dieoff.com/page 134. htm; cited in Heinberg, Richard, The Party=s Over B Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (New Society, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada), 2003, Figure 3 and pp. 32-36.

 

United Nations Human Development Programme, Human Development Report 2003 B Millennium Development Goals, A Compact among Nations to end Human Poverty (Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y.), 2003.

 

Wilson, Edward, The Diversity of Life, New Edition (W. W. Norton, New York, N.Y.), 1992/1999.

 

 

 

 

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