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Justin Raimondo is on
a rampage, and when he is this mood, there are no limits to
his pecksniffery. In this screed, he manages to smear not only
his adversary, in this case the ‘Stalinist’ Aronowitch, but
everybody mentioned by the erstwhile ‘Stalinist’ in the same
breath as his holiness himself. Nobody, it seems, occupies the
lofty perch Raimondo reserves for himself, and his ideological
brother, Pat Buchanan.
Here is my essay posted in February 2005,
that warned about the tendency of American Libertarians to
reject any notion of alternative socio/political systems to
their own. If America had a Libertarian regime right now, they
would be as expansionist as the current one. If Buchanan were
President, and not the current imbecile, America would pursue
the exact same strategy as John Kerry. That is what the Market
does, it expands. Raimondo is a Market based Libertarian, and
for him the Market justifies any outcome that is a process of
the market itself. Raimondo’s kowtowing to Zionist discourse
("most Jews were opposed to the war" – who sez?), is merely
market promotion of Libertarian doctrines. Smearing people is
imitation of Jewish/Zionist discourse, not ‘Stalinist’ as per
Raimondo’s mimicry of Trotsky’s maxim. Smearing people as
‘anti-Semites’, is philo-Semitism. (JohD)
War
on America, It's 'Freedoms', and It's 'Values'!
By Joh Domingo
The United States is at war, and it is time
we recognize that it is at war with us, every single
non-American. As much as our American friends would like us to
believe that the US administration does nor represent the
American population, the truth is that not only does it
represent the US population as a whole; it represents the core
values of many of its fiercest critics. It represents their
values, their sense of superiority about these values, and its
feeling that it is universally applicable, valid everywhere, for
all time. When Bush speaks of ‘freedom’, he is projecting this
feeling of superiority, felt even by his harshest domestic
critics. The isolationist tradition of America is long dead, and
has been replaced by an inability to recognize any other set of
values except their own. The US fully intends to implement these
values by force, even if at first it utilizes some other pretext
in order to do so. Their President has declared perpetual war,
and everyone else wants to pretend that it is not them that are
a target.
Consider for a moment these statements, both
made by Americans, one by a group of virulent warmongering
intellectuals, the other by an equally committed American
antiwar Libertarian:
"SO WHO ARE WE? What do we value? For many
people, including many Americans and a number of signatories to
this letter, some values sometimes seen in America are
unattractive and harmful. Consumerism as a way of life. The
notion of freedom as no rules……(blah blah blah)…
At the same time, other American values -
what we view as our founding ideals, and those that most define
our way of life - are quite different from these, and they are
much more attractive, not only to Americans, but to people
everywhere in the world. Let us briefly mention four of
them.
The first is the conviction that all
persons possess innate human dignity as a birthright, and that
consequently each person must always be treated as an end rather
than used as a means. …
Second, and following closely from the
first, is the conviction that universal moral truths (what our
nation's founders called "laws of Nature and of Nature's God")
exist and are accessible to all people.…
The third is the conviction that, because
our individual and collective access to truth is imperfect, most
disagreements about values call for civility, openness to other
views, and reasonable argument in pursuit of truth.…
The fourth is freedom of conscience and
freedom of religion. These intrinsically connected freedoms are
widely recognized, in our own country and elsewhere, as a
reflection of basic human dignity and as a precondition for
other individual freedoms.
To us, what is most striking about these
values is that they ,b.apply to all persons, without
distinction, and cannot be used to exclude anyone from
recognition and respect based on the particularities of race,
language, memory, or religion. That's why anyone, in principle,
can become an American,. And in fact, anyone does.…"
What We're Fighting For: A Letter from
America
(c) February 2002, Institute for
American Values
http://www.americanvalues.org/html/wwff.html
"In the name of the Bush Doctrine,
which lately proclaims "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in
the world," an Islamic theocracy is being installed in Iraq and
built up with U.S. tax dollars. The right of women to own
property and enjoy full legal personhood, long recognized in the
West – and in Saddam's Iraq – will not exist in "liberated"
Iraq. America's daughters are fighting and dying in Iraq so that
Iraqi women can be enslaved by a medieval religious and legal
dogma that reduces them to subhuman status."
Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com
Americans Die For Sharia in Iraq.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4774
Despite their fierce differences over the
war, they are in agreement about one thing: American values as a
superior value system over anything that existed before,
anything existing today, and anything that could possibly come.
Both base their assessment on their constitution, about which
they have minor differences: whether others should be bombed to
foist this superior value system, and whether or not the effort
is worth it. They share a belief in the superiority of their
constitution, and its values. Not just because they think it
works better than anybody else’s, but also in a moral sense.
Most other people have not even read their
constitution, and even if they had, would not claim to base
their value system on it, nor would they identify their national
characteristics based on it. Even Americans, who have never set
eyes on their constitution, base their identity on it.
This is important to note, because even
though many Americans are fiercely antiwar, this feeling of
moral superiority permeates the core of the American psyche. To
Raimondo I wrote:
"Let’s face it, your beloved
constitution is a failure, your political process a shambles,
and your institutions corrupt. How on earth can you deny the
implementation of an alternative social and political system?"
To which I did not receive a response;
perhaps he is busy. More likely, although he might agree with
the latter two observations, he would defend the beloved
constitution like a zealot if the attack were to come from an
American; there is no profit in engaging a non-believer.
Likewise, he would defend their economic system, which Americans
imbibe with their mother’s milk.
Few other people incorporate their
economic system into their national identity as Americans do. If
one were to ask a Frenchman, a proudly nationalistic people,
what characteristic were specifically French, few would reply
‘Capitalism’. To Americans, it is an essential part of their
culture. With Capitalism comes markets, with markets comes
interventionism, with interventionism comes interventionist
lobbies. Extremely fervid interventionist lobbies are what
characterize the American political system.
There is no similar equivalent anywhere
else, even in a translucent State such as Israel. War lobbies in
other States are usually limited to border issues, or issues on
the borders of related or client States. War lobbies in the US
are ready to demand war, against many countries on the slightest
pretexts. The range and vehemence of the lobby is phenomenal. At
present it is directed at the Islamic religion, Islamic States,
and Arabs. In case you are feeling comfortable because you are
not Muslim, or are a European, a few years ago it was directed
against Serbs, Serbia, and Slobodan Milosevic. Although that is
now but a distant memory, America’s war is permanent, only the
targets change. It s not inconceivable that a recalcitrant
European State would be bombed, if it became necessary.
Despite assurances that the Cold War has
ended, America today, considers itself in a Cold War with even
its most fawning allies. Recently, Australia was forced to grin
and bear it, as America raped its people, undermined it
regulatory authorities in social areas like drug administration,
and proceeded to dismantle one of the worlds most progressive
public health systems by virtue of its Trade Agreement with
America. There were few positives in it for Australia, and
plenty of objections from parliament, even from the Government
benches. In the end America played hardball, and humiliated its
staunchest and most obsequious ally. A gloss was put on it, and
the fog machine cranked up to full throttle, but nothing would
hide the fact that it was a sellout of every social program that
characterizes Australian values; which, despite the propaganda,
is nothing like American values. A persistent and ongoing trade
war between the US and the EU is raging at this very moment.
There is a general reluctance to criticize
America in Australia, despite serious misgivings that emanate
from the general public about the company John Howard keeps. As
a nation, it has long ago succumbed, and surrendered its
sovereignty and ethical values to the Yankee colossus. But
surrender does not mean inclusion, it just means that your
population will be raped slowly, until the rest are done; before
they return to finish off the job.
People often refer to the Jewsih neo-con
influence in the relationship between the US and Israel. But
there is more to it than meets the eye. It is also a symbiotic
relationship that revolves around a common policy of
expansionism. The US has developed into a crusading nation, and
it will continue to promote a world order that it finds
minimally acceptable – a world of market-democratic nation
States. No other social system will exist on this planet except
those that are compatible with liberal market economies. At the
current rate, no human being will experience any other way of
life within a few generations. Far from generating global
prosperity, Market liberalism intensifies inequality and
generates millions of unnecessary deaths.
This is the destiny of the US; to become a
crusading hegemonic superpower. Its history is one of
expansionism, with a long list of conquests. Few of the
populations in countries conquered by America have become
‘liberated’. Their relationship with the colonial power is one
of subservience, dependence, inequality, and more often than
not, poverty. America exports its values, but it does not
redistribute its wealth – not even amongst the needy in its own
society. Foreign populations are not even a consideration. To
Americans they are just a stinking mass, inferior in every way,
and particularly in relation to their values.
But resistance is growing, and it is vital
that we recognize the problem, and unite against it. The
two-pronged Hot War/Cold War American approach is designed to
divide and conquer. It does this by emphasizing its values,
which is posits is a common Western one. No such thing exists.
No two European countries have the same values; each one is
distinct. There is no monolithic Islamic ‘values’ , nor Asian
‘values’ either. It is propaganda to lull us into a false sense
of security.
When America wants to sideline opposition
to its program, its emphasizes common values; which can exist in
isolation. Christian Countries can have certain characteristics
in common, and Muslim or Buddhists can have elements in common
with other similar nations. That does not prevent Christian
States warring against each other, nor does it prevent Muslim
and Buddhists fighting their co-religionist. So, when America
wants to sideline European opposition to its constant wars
against others, it emphasizes a common European/Western
heritage. If it wants Attack a nation, it does so by emphasizing
the ‘otherness’ of the people of that nation, while at the same
time proclaiming the universality of its own ‘values’.
But ‘values’ have nothing to do with it;
America attacks countries that are incompatible with its Market
Liberal policies. It does not attack Pakistan, because Pakistan
has consented to be force-fed liberal market economic policies.
Nor does it attack Saudi Arabia for it’s different values;
control of Saudi Arabia is the hands of people who have
consented to the looting of it treasure by market forces. The
Taliban were attacked because they were utterly incapable of
recognizing the true intent of the forces ranged against them,
and were oblivious to the nature of rapacious market liberalism.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe is a target because his pan-Africanism is a
hindrance to the implementation of market liberalism in
Zimbabwe. South Africa is not attacked, because the ANC has
surrendered to Market liberalism completely, and privatized
virtually every enterprise that was vigorously and religiously
held in public hands during the reign of the Apartheid
government.
Because of the growing awareness of the
nature of the struggle against global hegemony, more people are
communicating with others outside their cultural boundaries.
During these discussions, it has become common for people to
project the same ‘values’ driven ideology of the forces that we
are fighting. People bring their particular ideological and
cultural baggage along with them, and the discourse often turns
nasty. American dissidents in particular have a tendency to
disregard the nature of the people they correspond with, and
display a distinct lack of solidarity, amongst themselves, and
with others. This is the World Wide Web folks, not America
Online. We are not here as your guests. We are here because
Global hegemony is a serious threat to people on this planet.
Your ‘freedom’, as represented by your ‘values’, is a stinking
carcass that has been dragged into our living rooms. It is the
problem, not the solution.
If you would stop your chattering for just
a second, and cease projecting your ‘values’ onto others, you
will realize that alternative information does not have to be a
unipolar alternative. A unipolar world is what we are fighting
against. We are not fighting a war against misogyny, or against
religion; nor are we fighting a war against the poor,
downtrodden and helpless – America is. If you have a problem
with religion, or are struggling for woman’s liberation, or are
fighting to promote democracy; you are an enemy, not a friend.
These are American ‘values’, and American values are priori
rejected in toto, on principle, and in solidarity with other
non-Americans. If you suspect that this is declaration of
anti-Americanism - you bet it is.
JohD
20/02/05
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