Sep 11 2008
When Democracy Failed – A Lesson in History
When the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were hit on September 11th 2001, the fabric of American society changed forever. The consequences of President Bush’s actions both at home and abroad have eerie parallels with the actions of another infamous historical leader. Several years ago, when this program was called The Morning Show, our then producer Christopher Sprinkle narrated a cautionary essay by Thom Hartmann on the program.
Thom Hartmann is a veteran journalist, writer, and radio talk show host. His most recent books are “Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights,” “We The People: A Call to Take Back America,” and “What Would Jefferson Do?”
Today, in commemoration of the September 11th tragedy, I’d like to re-broadcast Hartmann’s essay entitled, “When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History,” narrated, recorded, and mixed by Christopher Sprinkle.
Read Hartmann’s essay here: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0316-08.htm
2 Responses to “When Democracy Failed – A Lesson in History”
Americans Dreaming #55.2
I’d say Americans owe the civilians who brought down the hijacked plane at Shanksville, Pennsylvania a debt of gratitude. But we hear little about what happened there on 09-11-01. Where was the military that has been lavishly funded to protect America on 09-11-01?
McCain is forging ahead in the popularity polls; I am not among the parties who believe there will be any great change from a change in the Executive. I hear the kind of rhetoric I always have heard in Big Presidential Election years.
“This great nation…”
Every time I hear those words from a candidate, I try to keep in mind what the phrase “this great nation” has so often been used for.
To me such words are the prelude to encouragement to “stay the course.” That is, to keep supporting this war, at least until the next one comes along.
When I came to Los Angeles, there were lots of vacant lots around the MacArthur Park area where I live. Necessary schools were finally constructed in some of them. But a generation of students was lost in the fifteen years that it took the schools to appear.
Why did the construction of schools take so long?
Let me answer this way–if nine-one-one had happened in 1996, the new schools would not have appeared at all!
I have arrived at the BIG QUESTION.
Are wars just the means of the dominating classes to suppress their less powerful fellow human beings?
That question is too big for me.
There are smaller questions.
What was the lesson of Vietnam?
No, not “We will brook no resistance among any populace, foreign or domestic.”
We aren’t quite down to that lesson yet.
The Lesson of Vietnam was, “We will not send troops unless we are really attacked.”
Rumors wouldn’t be enough, anymore. The war powers of the Executive were more securely controlled, as far as open-ended engagements went. But the limits inspired by the Vietnam era are now being disregarded, if not discarded.
A footnote in the history of war called the Powell Doctrine appeared with Iraq War I. Unfortunately, the ideas of the Powell Doctrine were not followed. The U.S. could have terminated the current war when Saddam was captured; another opportunity occurred when Saddam was executed.
It’s hard to punctuate a war; from the little I know of history, modern wars end only when governments cease to be able to generate compliance for carrying them out among the populace. This can occur in many ways. Sometimes, as with the Confederacy in the 1860s, the end comes when one side is utterly destroyed. But there is no chance of that at this time. Few can even contend that the operations in Iraq are decreasing the number of terrorists who will operate on the basis of vengeance against the United States. The nation state of Iraq has probably been more destroyed by war than any country. But the perpetrators of nine-one-one were not Iraqis.
So, when does it end?
Let’s check Obama. He isn’t promising withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. He is saying that there will be an end to combat for the Americans in Iraq, with an increased invasion of Afghanistan.
What’s going on here? We need to get away from warfare in the United States. It isn’t a viable way of doing business. Sure, the U.S. military can reduce a city or a country to rubble! But how do you stop terrorism? There is an infinite number of ways to attack a big target, no matter how small your resources are–I don’t need to mention any examples.
There are those who say that the true purpose of wars is to maintain a dominating class that is transnational in nature. I don’t know about that.
Whenever I watch a newscast these days, not much is said about the War. Sometimes, in local broadcasts, there is merely the mention that a few more Americans were killed. Mostly, war news amounts to publicizing happy homecomings.
What are 5 or 10 deaths every few days, to a “great nation” of 300,000,000?
To me, that’s like saying that small things can’t be dangerous. Hey, carry that little piece of plutonium on your key chain! Something that little can’t hurt you! Why worry about viruses? After all, they’re so small! Hey, what if there is a few more parts per million of carbon dioxide (not to mention numerous other heavy molecules) in Earth’s atmosphere? This swing upward in the temperatures is a blessing in disguise! Every wind that blows brings a windfall to someone! It’s the wave of the future! I can hardly stand it–just think of the opportunity of it all! Why, soon the U.S. can start considering annexing the fertile farm land of Canada, if global warming projections are correct.
On this last matter, I am now prepared to bet (figuratively) that I will live long enough to see Greenland ice free. What’s that you say?
“The North Pole has been ice free in the past–humanity just never noticed it.”
There’s something lacking in that argument. I don’t think the pole has been ice free for a few million years, but I expect we’ll all learn soon that Columbus explored the Once Upon a Time Open Polar Sea on one of his hitherto unknown voyages.
McCain and Obama are both for nuclear power plants as a measure against global warming. I have a problem with nuclear reactors that generate electricity. How do you secure their waste products?
“We just have to hope for the best.”
McCain has surged ahead in popularity polls.
If these numbers hold for a month, Obama’s defeat will become a foregone conclusion. Popularity is important; that’s a smart money bet. But a difference in policy resulting from the preference of one major party over another is not a safe bet in the U.S.
If I were addressing my fellow Americans, I would tell them to be prepared for a bigger disappointment than the one after the Congressional elections of 2006. We have accepted the tenets of the efficacy of warfare and of the invulnerability of the environment in the United States. Faith is a persistent state of mind; sometimes it trumps reality.
I often have to turn to my MS (Microsoft, that is) software in times like these. Did you know that the edition of Windows that was loaded on my new machine can show how my computer MIGHT look in the future as well as how it actually did look in the past? I’m kind of reticent to check that feature out too much. Even the disclaimer that MS cannot guarantee any particular page to be an absolutely accurate representation of the future is not enough to reassure me. I fear what I might see in the on-line headlines in two or three years–“President Obama reassures Americans that U.S. troops will be out of Iran by 2028.”
What of that other permanent (Domestic) War–the War on Drugs?
Well, we have a police state. It is a nation of offenders and those who chase after them, for an ever growing portion of the populace. That the laws concerning drugs are unjust, and that they are unfairly enforced, seems to make little difference to anyone.
“Money talks.”
The preeminent voice of profit will always create a black market in anything forbidden that is in some way desirable. There is another premise that is operative, too–forbidding something automatically increases its desirability.
I cannot stand to go into too much detail that is merely laboring what is eminently obvious. Let me put it this way.
The War on Drugs is a form of slavery.
Heroin is the shackles.
(Crack) cocaine is the lash.
Millions of Americans are serving unjust sentences. American prisons (our “correctional system”) are best known for one thing: recidivism.
In this environment, a question frequently occurs to me–“Are the time-released narcotics that are legally available a form of euthanasia?”
Don’t remind me that these narcotics are prepared in such a way that they will damage anyone who desperately tries to inject them! It reminds of the days when seatbelts “cost too much” to be standard equipment.
There I go again. Connecting one thing up with another! Comparing apples and oranges!
How can anyone make any sense of it?
I’ve been riding the Red Line for almost fifteen years. You know, it’s getting hard to get a seat on the subway!
Can anything change?
My great-grandfather’s generation knew there would always be canals and barges and steamboats (everything is moved that way)!
My grandfather’s generation knew there would always be railroads and steam locomotives (everything is moved that way)!
My father’s generation knew that there would always be heavier than air flying machines, passenger cars and superhighways full of trucks; (everything is moved that way!)
What do I know?
It’s a Big Election year. McCain might find himself to be an impeachable president. No matter who wins, people with the least will be urged to give up the little they have–“for the sake of the economy.”
What if Osama turns himself in to Obama?
When people ask if we can really trust Obama, I tell them that we can’t really trust anyone in the sphere of the politics of nation states.
When they ask who has suffered enough, my first answer is Jesus has suffered for the things done in His name; my second is the soldiers and others (and their families) who are carrying out a foreign policy that seems to have no attainable goal. The people of Iraq show up on my list third–if I was an Iraqi, they would be first. The true answer is that there has been enough suffering for this generation.
What if everyone in the “free world” (Europe & America, & their allies and dependents) stopped using gasoline except for absolutely essential purposes?
“People will always use gasoline! There’s no other way! My car, my boat, my plane, my life, my god!”
Your invidious consumption is frightening me into gratitude for having enough energy left to draw my next breath.
I’m thinkin’ on inventing two things, but I’m not sure which to work on first. One is my motion-stopping ray that I can claim stills only Iranians who say that they’ll destroy America or Israel. This weapon will require immense funding, whether it works or not. The other is my differential-pressure pavement, roadway, and sidewalk panels. This latter device will produce electricity from people’s footfalls on sidewalks, and harness the wasted energy of the friction of the tires of autos on the roadway. Power plants will be things of the past, once it’s perfected.
I’m going to take the profits from my inventions and buy the biggest lighter-than-air ship I can find; I’ll fit it out with bowling alleys and swimming pools and hydroponic gardens, so the crew can have some place to relax; I’m even going to have a helicopter pad, so that the less fortunate can come up and visit with me whenever I like.
Fastidious response in return of this issue with genuine
arguments and telling everything on the topic of that.