“Anti-Americanism” Revisited

Denialism is the enemy within

There are those who casually dismiss any criticism of US as being “anti-American” as if to suggest it is some sort of blasphemy. But those who use the term betray a flippancy that tells much of themselves as it might just indicate an intellectual laziness, being uninformed or a well entrenched denialism. The accusation of anti-Americanism is too often made by those who mindless indulge in knee-jerk pro-Americanism.

We can no longer carelessly bandy the term about as now, more than ever, we Canadians are in too many ways adoptive Americans. America is still the world’s leading economy and a global cultural force. So goes the fortunes of that country so go our own and those of many other countries. The market collapse of 2008 showed in dramatic terms how America’s troubled economy takes others down with it. It also showed just how integrated Marshall McLuhan’s “global village” has become.

As adoptive Americans we can hardly be indifferent to what happens there. Nor can we ignore the hard fact that our hapless federal government is very much in sympathy with America’s despotic agenda, and like many previous federal governments is susceptible to knee-jerk pro-Americanism. At a time when we would be wise to keep our distance from the floundering empire we perversely embrace it even more.

American values at one time thought sacrosanct are no longer so. American exceptionalism has been grounded as the Empire is showing itself to be as vulnerable as all previous empires to the inevitable cycles of history.

In my college days there was a poster entitled “It is un-American to be Canadian.” The implication being that to assert being Canadian and pursue a distinct policies and identity were automatically considered anti-American. Now, too many Americans are themselves deemed “Anti-American” as they oppose the gutting of their Constitution, endless warfare and fiscal irresponsibility.

In a recent Tomdispatch, founder and editor Tom Engelhardt states:

Neither$553 billion nor 80.1 billion can buy Washington a brain. Right now, by all evidence, our leaders are still convinced that it’s there job to run the world and fight distant wars until hell freezes over. They can’t bear to think a new thought, or take a chance, or experiment on anything, or look at our planet in a new way. At the moment, the evidence indicates that they have the brainpower of the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz without that character’s urge for self-improvement, and its taking us down.

Tom Engelhardt, Anti-American or true patriot?

Those who flippantly dismiss any criticism of the US as simply being anti-American reveal themselves as leading lights of denialism, and denialism has never been an effective way of dealing with any crisis. Like the accusation “conspiracy theorist,” – it is a dismissive blocking term that merely begs the question. Both of these terms are manifestations of denialism where we avoid hard truths like failing economies, the scourge of hyper-militarism, the looming advent of the end of oil, global warming and the irrefutable evidence that 9/11 was an inside job.

We live in an Orwellian world where values are turned inside out. As Orwell so astutely observed, in times of tyranny it is considered treason to speak the truth. Indeed, we live in a time where a veritable chorus of dissident writers, intellectuals and activists reveal the truth, yet they are accused of a lack of patriotism, threatened with assassination, jailed and tortured, discredited and of course accused of being anti –American and conspiracy theorists.

As Orwell would no doubt agree these two terms are tools-and very superficial tools- of propagandists and the glib responses of the apathetic and ill-informed.

The people of Egypt have shown that a revolution can to some degree be defined as they overthrew a despotic government in a relatively peaceful way with a minimum of violence and loss of life. Now remains the daunting challenge of actualizing a real democracy while resisting the meddlesome machinations of foreign powers-namely the US, as control of the Middle East and its essential petroleum reserves is the centre piece of its dubious foreign policy. A truly democratic Egypt, and any other ME country that chooses to follow suit would constitute a direct threat to US hegemony in the region.

Closer to home there is also talk of revolution and here again it can be defined by collective agreement-an incremental revolution. It could take the form of the arrival of a new generation of progressive realist political leaders or it could come in the form of social unrest and war. But the likelihood of an incremental revolution is unlikely as the present status quo has shown that it is not disposed to reform as it ruthlessly resists change and the present slate of politicians have been so effectively co-opted.

Where the office of US president is touted as the most powerful in the world recent presidents are merely captives to this well entrenched status quo. US President Ronald Reagan believed that the world is facing Armageddon; but he didn’t get around to the addressing the distinct possibility that it could be self-inflicted and not at the hand of some extinct God.

Accusations of being anti-American or a conspiracy theorist are really no more than simple-minded and futile attempts to deflect pressing issues. They are aspects of societal denialism that left to persist will render any reform that much more traumatic and debilitating.

There is the well worn cliché that “the truth will set you free” until such time as we are willing to entertain some harsh truths and genuine progressivism our denialism is the enemy within and our moral, fiscal and democratic deficits swagger out of control.

Scandalous Thoughts on F-35s, Aston Martins, and the Military Mall of Horrors

The F-35 is as useless as tits on a bull and the Russians aren’t comin’ any time soon.


Last spring my wife and I had a stopover in Heathrow Airport. We were victims of an attempted consumer seduction as there was shop after shop in what seemed an endless mall of high priced luxury items begging to be purchased. We ogled and browsed but made it to our flight credit cards in tact, proud that we could resist such resplendent decadence. I did though get to admire an Aston Martin first hand. I was easily seduced by its shimmering presence, rakish styling and exquisite craftsmanship. The salesman assured me I could order it with either left or right hand steering and they delivered anywhere in the world.

I remembered the quip of legendary American industrialist J P Morgan, “If you have to ask the price you can’t afford it.” When it comes to an Aston Martin I would have to ask the price. I speculated: If I could cut a check for one without a second thought would I really want one? The answer had to be no. Unless you are an Arab sheik or James Bond this car was a useless as tits on a bull. This brief flirtation with an Aston Martin made me realize just how much I really loved my Honda (second only to my wife.) After all, an Aston Martin is a garage car meant to be coveted, stroked, endlessly polished and driven only on sunny weekends in perilous mountain passes. My Honda, on the other hand, goes anywhere in rain, sleet, and snow, it is big, roomy, carries full sheets of plywood and has a great set of Yakima racks.

Last week I happened to see on TV the spanking new F-35. Like the Aston Martin, it too epitomizes resplendent decadence, with its rakish lines, exquisite craftsmanship and a price… well let’s say a price that is astronomical and it just keeps changing- shifty numbers for shifty times- and it has seven years to keep bouncing around as that is when the first of these relics will come into service.

Why do I say “relics?” I say relics because even though this aircraft has been years in the making and swallowed up billions in development costs it is a relic of the Cold War. During the Cold War our venerable arms dealers (the Military Industrial Complex-MIC) got in the habit of making generation after generation of high performance fighter jets to face off in a prospective war against the long defunct USSR in a battle to end all battles on the plains of Western Europe. The Cold War came to an end, the battle never happened. There was a peace dividend to be rendered but this was not to be as the MIC was in the habit of making high priced war toys and this is a hard habit to break. Fortunately, for them, the War on Terror just happened along- a phony war in too many aspects- but most people haven’t caught onto that yet.

“Most people” includes a lot of people in Ottawa who seem unaware that the Cold War has been over for some 20 odd years. Like an awful lot more people in Washington they suffer from PCWPD(Post-Cold-War-Political-Dementia), a chronic malady which requires putting a lock on the toy box. They insist we need these aircraft as the Ruskies are going to come roaring over the Arctic tundra and bomb the hell out of us. Not so, Russia is a pale imitation of its former self. Its satellite countries have abandoned it. The US and NATO have encircled it and it would have to have a death wish to even think of attacking present day Fortress North America.

While we are on the subject, I would really like the PCWPD folks in Ottawa to explain why do we need all these expensive war toys? Each year, the global expenditure on armaments is1.4 trillion dollars. Over a trillion of these dollars are spent by the US and its NATO allies. Russia and China account for most of the rest- which means the US and NATO are spending roughly five times what Russia and China combined are spending. This is a lot of money to knock a few terrorists into line and the Russians aren’t coming anytime soon. Just maybe all this “defense” spending is really offensive spending, epic fraudulence, along with being addictive habitual behavior usually associated with society’s underclass.

The folks in Ottawa want to cut corporate taxes when we already live in a corporate welfare state where the MIC has been on the dole for too long time picking the public purse with no strings attached. The MIC should be nationalized, converted from war production to peace production and make things people really need for the 21st century. The Age of Militarism is no longer affordable, now we must find the political courage to push it over the nearest cliff. Instead of buying F35s and Aston Martins we have to be more pragmatic and invest in practical things like electric Hondas, wind mills and solar panels, that have real value, do real work and are not quite as useless as tits on a bull. We have to start thinking green instead of red-blood red.

Just days after I watched the TV spin on the F-35 I was paging through the Vancouver Province and came across an article titled: F-35 jet price tag could skyrocket… like I said, “shifty numbers in shifty times.” It now seems these planes are going to require aerial refueling , which means the purchase of tanker aircraft at the cost of a few hundred million more, and, low and behold, Canada’s northern air strips are not long enough for these winged Aston Martins and will have to be extended-a few hundred million more.

Seems to me all this is a tacit admission the F-35 is really not suited to our purposes. Its range is too short and that it must be able to land on northern airstrips has more to do with its single engine. Two engines are a basic requirement for flying in the high arctic and the F-35 is one short of two- which is maybe a reflection of the mathematical abilities of the F-35 designers. So these landings on upgraded strips have to do with a flawed appropriation and design deficiencies.

To land on these upgraded air strips the defense department is planning on asking the manufacturer to install drag chutes. Pilots though have pointed out that using drag chutes in high Arctic winds is problematic.

The F-35 is designed for air to ground attacks (remember the Cold War battle on the plains of Western Europe that never happened) not counter terrorism or knocking phantom and obsolete Russian bombers out of the sky. In the present wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan NATO pilots have proven their prowess at shooting up wedding parties, assorted family gatherings and our own troops, invariably due to faulty intelligence- in every sense of the word. They have become very adept at making apologies dripping with sincerity and promising not to do it again- until such time as they do it again, and again. It is an embarrassing and little known fact of these wars that civilian casualties far out number military casualties, in large part because so much high tech weaponry is used so indiscriminately and inappropriately with little or no regard for civilian casualties.

It also begs to be pointed out that the F-35 is a JTF- a Joint Task Force fighter. In other words, one aircraft for all. This has much to do with the manufacturer’s desire to market the F-35 globally, thus maximizing its profits at the expense of addressing the real needs of different countries. Some European NATO members have concerns over the suitability of the F-35. Canada it seems is less forth right and is now back- tracking at Mach II speed, not having done its home work; nor having the political rectitude to say no thanks to an aircraft unsuited to our future needs.

Now the F-35 is a stealth fighter. It doesn’t seem to matter that the vile enemies we are fighting now are equipped with antique AK-47s and rocket launchers, and with uncountable lives lost, billions of dollars later, and tons of bombs dropped they remain undefeated. But the real stealth is how our politicos slide these massive expenditures past an unwary public. As they meander down the Military Mall of Horrors-with our credit card not theirs- they are totally promiscuous spenders of our tax dollars-impulse buyers on multi-billion dollar purchases of dubious value. They should be shackled and their mouths duct taped so they are incapable of making purchases without checking with head office-us!

If you’re an arms dealer lookin’ to sell a pig-in-a-poke Ottawa is a good place to start as these folks just bought one and they don’t get to look in the poke for another seven years ‘ cause that’s when these oversold little war toys come into service. Assuming there is some real pork in the poke this is a very greedy little bugger who will beggar the nation.

If the folks in Ottawa have the odd dust covered dictionary lying around they might want to check out the word; b-o-o-n-d-o-g-g-l-e, ‘cause that’s the business they’re in.

When they have their chronic weak moments in the Militarist Mall of Horrors we pay the price. Conned into buying a winged Aston Martin they should have bought a good old Honda with a set of Yakima racks. …. Seems they’re spendin’ a little too much time hangin’ tits on bulls, buyin’ pigs in a poke and pimpin’ for the MIC.

And these folks want a majority government!

The Machiavellian Richard Perle

For Richard Perle and his cronies 9/11 was just a necessary deception “for the greater good”


The evil men do lives after them

Shakespeare’s, Julius Caesar

This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq… This is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and just wage a total war… our children will sing great songs about us years from now.[1] Richard Perle

And just what is Richard Perle’s, “vision of the world?” He is, most prominently, one of the authors of the PNAC: Project for the New American Century. This nefarious document unleashed in the year 2000 called for America’s domination of the world. In other terms “Full Spectrum Domination.” The world, for Perle and people like Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Irving Kristol, and John Bolton-dyed- in-the-wool neoconservatives- is to be ordered according to America’s strategic self-interest. Hijacking key resources-most notably the world’s rapidly diminishing petroleum reserves- is a top priority.

In order to carry out their grand project they had to wait out the Clinton administration and the arrival of the Bush administration to serve as their vehicle for change. They still had a problem. They needed a trigger event, a new Pearl Harbor, to drive their agenda and this most conveniently occurred only months after Bush II arrived in office. 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror provided the smoke screen needed to pursue these imperial ambitions. 9/11 was an exercise in manufacturing Perle’s requisite enemies, creating pretext, and embedding a culture of fear in the homelands. The “terrorists,” it turns out, would prove to be anyone who opposed this agenda.

It is a stark reality in the lives of individuals and countries sacrifices have to be made to serve the greater good. Deciding when, where, and how such sacrifices are to be made becomes a momentous godly responsibility requiring great wisdom, a great deal of altruism, a sound knowledge base and prodigious powers of fore sight. Process that is democratic is of critical importance as flawed process leads to flawed conclusions. Where these essential elements are lacking pursuit of the greater good becomes a recipe for anarchy and despotism.

Where decisions are purportedly made to serve the greater good: Can we allow them to be made covertly and born out of conspiracy? Where the greater good is determined through conspiracy it is virtually guaranteed that few, if any, of these elements are present and history has proven this repeatedly. Hitler’s Germany, born out of conspiracy, was based on serving the greater good-at least in the eyes of the Nazi Party.

In his seminal book on 9/11 Crossing the Rubicon, the Decline of the American Empire and the End of the Age of Oil, Michael Ruppert states with refreshing bluntness the real agenda being pursued by the likes of Perle and his cronies:


The United States has chosen to address the problem of Peak Oil in the most brutal, venal, and shortsighted way available: by using military force to commandeer what remains of the world’s rapidly vanishing fossil fuels. The true attitude of American political leaders is that “the American way of life is not negotiable,” especially if such negotiations would reduce their power or influence. [2]

For Perle, the greater good is clearly for America exclusively, all others are to be beggared and bombed. However, Perle and his cronies have failed to consider one obvious fact that reveals the utter folly of their machinations: How do you justify the ongoing slaughter of humanity, endless warfare, the expenditure of trillions of dollars on hyper-militarism, gutting the homelands and turning them into a police state for a resource that will be extinct by the end of this century?

It is generally accepted that we are at or past Peak Oil. Demand for it is increasing; the infrastructure that delivers the end product is aging and operating at full capacity. Remaining reserves are more and more inaccessible and much more expensive to extract. Both the German and American military have done studies because of their concerns over anticipated shortages in the next few years. The American study suggests that the conversion to non-petroleum fuels will take decades assuming favorable economic and political dynamics. It is entirely predictable that by mid-century oil will be a scarce commodity for all and by the end of the century virtually extinct.

Perle and his cronies seem to be acting on the ludicrous supposition that oil is an infinite resource in which case their ravenous greed might be explainable. They are clearly pursuing an agenda that might yield some short term gain- and most assuredly a lot of long term pain. Their best efforts will only yield a very brief stay of execution for America’s oil driven culture.

The conversion to post-petroleum societies and economies is at best going to be a long and arduous conversion enlisting a concerted multilateral effort. Where military planners now recognize the urgency of preparing for the End of Oil our political classes and the media remain eerily silent.

As Perle is so willing to let his “vision of the world go forth” it is one that is shortsighted, born of conspiracy, greed and foolhardiness. American exceptionalism is grounded and the American way of life has become negotiable- and this applies to all nations. His country must join with others in addressing this global crisis. If America persists in its arrogant unilateral denialism it will surely be one of the first casualties, as it races down the road to fiscal and democratic bankruptcy.

Perle’s vision allows trillions of dollars to be squandered on endless wars and hyper-militarism better spent on post-oil energy development, new technologies, new industrial strategies and building new infrastructure-especially in the area of transportation. Perle’s demented vision assures there will be no transition just continuous war and social chaos.

We all want our children to sing our praises in years to come but Perle and his cronies will be utterly reviled for the evil that lives after them.



[1] David Ray Griffin; The New Pearl Harbor, Olive Branch Press 2004, Page 94

[2] Crossing the Rubicon, page 49