Empire or Republic. How the Empire Destroys its Own People
From Joplin, Missouri to Kabul, Afghanistan
By Prof. James Petras
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25126
Global Research, June 5, 2011
Introduction
On May 29, 2011, President Obama visited Joplin,
Missouri , the site of a devastating tornado that killed 140 and
pronounced it a terrible “tragedy”. But were the deaths the inevitable
result of ‘natural events’ beyond the human intervention?
Coincidentally the same week Afghan President Karzai
condemned the killing of a family of 14 by a NATO fighter bomber,
running the total to several hundred civilians killed so far this year
and thousands over the decade.
The relation between the civilian deaths in Joplin
and Afghanistan raises fundamental questions about the priorities,
character and direction of the US Empire and the future of the American
republic.
Geography of Tornados
Every year at least 20 major violent tornadoes – with
winds exceeding 200 mph – hit “tornado alley” and beyond, including
central Texas, northern Iowa, central Kansas, Nebraska, western Ohio,
Missouri, Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Each and every
year at least sixty are killed and several hundred are maimed and
injured. This year, through May 2011, over 519 have been killed, 25% of
whom were in mobile homes, almost three times as many as those in
standard houses.
In other words, these tornado-related deaths are
predictable, annual, and region-specific and have a higher incidence
among low income households. Government agencies and academics have
compiled data banks and time series information mapping the route,
frequency and impact of tornadoes.
Information about the nature of killer tornadoes is
plentiful. Nevertheless deaths mount from year to year. Fear and
insecurity stalks the region’s most susceptible to the violent
whirlwinds, even as the Congress and White House have increased
personnel and funding for ‘Homeland Security’ twenty fold over the
decade .The current budget is over $180 billion. If we add the deaths
caused by other ‘natural’ disasters like the flooding of New Orleans ,
the numbers of deaths are staggering. What explains this perverse
relation between huge public funding for ‘homeland security’ and the
increased insecurity of vulnerable Americans in clearly identified
danger zones?
The reason is clear: ‘Homeland Security’ (HS) is an
Orwellian misnomer. The agency is not concerned with domestic, civilian,
American security. HS is part of a military-police response to imagined
overseas threats, which have not materialized or at least have not
produced deaths comparable to tornadoes and floods in the last 11 years.
HS spends billions and employs thousands to
investigate, spy and harass citizens engaged in legal-constitutional
activities. HS and the Pentagon spend tens of billions on overseas
infrastructures – buildings, bases, camps -and over 900 billion in arms.
HS and the Defense Department forcefully intervene militarily
throughout the world via overt and clandestine operations.
To be precise HS intervenes offensively overseas,
attacking civilian targets, while it fails to engage domestically to
protect American civilians who are left defenseless in the face of
predictable natural disasters.
HS and the Pentagon’s sustained violent overseas
operations are rejected and regarded as a hostile imperial intervention
by the civilians in those countries adversely affected. In contrast,
defenseless citizens in the US would welcome large-scale intervention in
the form of community shelters, which would provide survival, security,
life-saving protection and financial aid for rebuilding their lives.
Moreover, Pentagon and HS spending on overseas infrastructure, bases and
bombs results in deficits, whereas investments in tornado and flood
shelters would stimulate jobs, growth and investment in the US .
The current activity of HS destroys lives abroad and
neglects survival at home: It has nothing to do with our “homeland” and
even less with our “security”. Five percent of HS budget would have
prevented many of Joplin ’s ‘tragedy’ (and saved us from Obama’s gaseous
oratory!) and the other 400 deaths from this year’s crop of tornadoes.
Systemic Bases of Perpetual Domestic Neglect
Death from ‘natural’ events raises a fundamental
POLITICAL question: Why is the budget of Homeland Security and the
Pentagon directed overseas, toward destructive, offensive, military
activity rather than to domestic, constructive, defensive activity to
protect American lives and productive economic activity?
The problem is systemic not due to some personal flaw
or political idiosyncrasy of the moment. The structures of the US
economy and military institutions are oriented ‘outwardly’ to conquering
foreign financial markets and building a military empire. The ideology
which informs strategic policymakers is imperial-centered not
republican: They do not speak of developing and deepening the economy
and security of ‘ middle America ’. Every member of the political and
corporate elite talks of ‘world’ or ‘global’ leadership – a thinly
veiled euphemism for the drive to sustain world dominance. Within the
imperial framework the entire ‘security’ budget is directed toward
maintaining offensive military supremacy. No wonder there is a steep
decline in all spheres of domestic security – natural, social, personal,
health and employment –a phenomenon that proceeds with little public
debate. The only exception is when threats to security impinge most
directly and forcefully on a significant sector of the population. For
example, witness the storm of protest from those directly affected when
the politicians moved to privatize social security and Medicare.
Nevertheless, the entire political spectrum, the two
parties, the Congress and the White House over the past 30 years, have
created an artificial consensus in which overseas wars, foreign aid to
patrons (Israel) and clients (Pakistan and Egypt) absorbs the greatest
percentage of budgetary spending. No political or economic leadership
has stepped forward to articulate the obvious connection between global
expansion and domestic decay; to forcefully state that the deterioration
of the republic is a direct product of the vast resources channeled
into military and economic empire building. Who on New York City ’s Wall
Street or Washington ’s Pentagon is going to even look at or consider a
‘security plan’ with regard to the geography of catastrophes – tornado
alley covering a dozen states and the floods and deaths that overwhelm
the lowlands from Montana to Louisiana ?
Listen America
Their message is loud and clear:
Small towns and trailer parks do not count! You have
your 2nd amendment (the ‘right to bear arms’), you have your ‘small
government’, and you have your flags: ‘Wav ‘em and weep’ as tornadoes
blow down your houses and your sons and daughters return wrapped in
flags to the Battle Hymn of the Empire!
Conclusion
One might argue that community storm shelters won’t
break the Treasury or reverse the empire. More to the point, their
absence, from the federal, state and local political agenda, is
emblematic of the total subordination of domestic America to imperial
Washington . The ‘cost’ of building community shelters at the strip
malls and trailer parks in Joplin , Missouri is less than a regional
training outpost in Kandahar , Afghanistan . It is not a question of
money.
Conquering Afghanistan villages enhances the prestige
of the Generals, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO officials. Can
saving 145 lives in Joplin , Missouri match that in terms of world
politics or the politics of imperial leadership? For Afghanistan ,
Washington builds a thousand military shelters and bomb proof bunkers
.For the Americans living in tornado alley and the flood plains of the
Mississippi people must make do.
When you hear the tornado warning, it’s up to you. As
a proud, free American you can find a rock to crawl under and say your
prayer: the Federal government and Homeland Security have the Endless,
World-wide War against Terror to fight and cannot be bothered by a
Joplin , Missouri nursing home in the path of a tornado.
We exaggerate: Obama will jet in and speak before the
cameras in solemn terms of the ‘tragedy’ and ‘courage’ of the people of
Joplin ... But will any local politician stand up and speak truth to
power? Most of these deaths and (many more to come) are avoidable; under
a democratic American republic, the government ‘intervenes’ to provide
protection, health and employment for its people.
In the meantime, as the empire continues to grow it destroys its own people, just like the sow that devours its offspring.
