Chaitanya Dave

Chaitanya Davé

As intended, the worldwide control of humanity’s economic, political, and social activities is under the helm of U.S corporate and military power. Underlying this process are various strategies of direct and indirect military interventions. These strategies are designed to win and maintain global subordination. US strategists, over the years and especially since 9/11/2001, in an attempt to justify their military interventions in different parts of the world, conceptualized the greatest fraud in US history, namely “The Global War on Terrorism”. Under this fabricated pretext, the US carries out global war against all those who oppose US hegemony. If naked aggression is not possible, economic war against these countries is carried out to force their submission. 

This truth was formulated with brutal candor as far back as 1948, at the beginning of the cold war, by the historian and the US diplomat George Kennan: the US has “50 percent of the world’s wealth but only 6.5 percent of its population. In this situation, our real job in the coming period…is to maintain this position of disparity. To do so, we have to dispense with all sentimentality…we should cease thinking about human rights, the raising of living standards and democratization.” The same mind-set pervades today in the minds of the power elites in Washington DC.

Basically, major elements of the conquest and world domination strategy by the US are designed to gain and maintain control of the global economy and its financial markets and to take over natural resources—namely oil and other rare metals. This is achieved through the activities of its multinational corporations. The US has established its control (military, economic, or both) over most of the world’s governments. This conquest, occupation, and/or otherwise supervision of these various regions of the world is supported by an integrated network of military bases and installations covering the entire planet. All this is achieved by the workings of this extensive empire. Amazingly, most Americans are unaware of these facts.

There is another aspect to the U.S. war machine. In the early 1970s, the United States, in collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia created the petro-dollar which forced all foreign nations to make their payment for oil purchases in the U.S. dollar. The benefactor of this system were the American financial institutions as well as the American corporations; which means U.S. economy. The constant pressure to keep this system intact and going foments a culture of regime change by U.S. wars on other nations through economic sanctions and if this fails, then by military means or vice versa. The idea is to keep the U.S. dollar as the dominant world currency by any means. Any nation that challenges this set-up and tries to bypass the U.S. dollar and trades in other currency becomes a victim of U.S. aggression by military or economic means. Recent examples are Iraq and Libya which were decimated by the American military. Iran is the current example facing ruthless U.S. economic sanctions.

No wonder, as reported by Nick Turse in TomDispatch (January 15, 2019), the US has 95% of the world’s foreign military bases with personnel in more than 160 countries and all 7 continents, while countries like France, Russia, and the UK have perhaps 10-20 foreign outposts each. China and India have just one each. Put another way, the US has a military presence of some sort in approximately 84% of the nations of the world.

The United States is suffering from arrogance of power. Around the world, it acts like an outlaw country, violating many international treaties and the United Nation’s charter; and it is getting away with it. Over the years, the US has either refused to sign, not ratified, or withdrawn from as many as 46 international treaties. Why does the United States have military bases in so many countries of the world wasting hundreds of billions of dollars while close to 40 million of its own people live below poverty line?

As evidenced and exposed by this article, the United States’ foreign policy has been extremely harmful to the rest of the world. 

What is amazing is that after each immoral war on another small country, after having killed scores of people and having destroyed that poor small nation, there is business as usual in the United States. No American president and his cabinet who were responsible for their crimes are punished. On the contrary, some of them get reelected as president like George W. Bush did in 2004. Some of them make millions of dollars writing their memoirs and going on speaking tours.

Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of State, and later National Security Advisor to President Nixon, was greatly responsible along with Nixon for prolonging the Vietnam War; as a result, hundreds of thousands more Vietnamese and some 22,000 more American troops were killed. Yet, after his retirement from politics, he made millions of dollars writing books and going on a lecture circuit. “People with Money” reports that in 2018-19, Kissinger was the highest paid politician in the world pulling in several millions of dollars between November 2018 and November 2019.

Often, our political leaders of either party, once elected, get intoxicated with the power of the presidency and America’s military might and want to look ‘strong’ to the American public. So by any excuse or pretext they undertake invasion, bombing, sabotage, or coups—and if that fails, then brutal economic sanctions—in small vulnerable countries where a little diplomacy would have worked. These politicians in power know that they can brazenly commit crimes on other countries because, after retirement, they will get away with it and live happily ever after with millions of dollars in their pockets. 

On the mainstream news-media, you never hear the discussion of, analysis of, or criticism of these past wars carried out by our ‘leaders’ which brought so much death, destruction, and misery to poor people of the victim countries, not to mention the hundreds of billions or trillions of US tax-payers’ dollars squandered foolishly on these misadventures. No real experts or critics are interviewed on TV to analyze or criticize these wars and invasions. The great experts and critics of US foreign policy, Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, or Ralph Nader are never interviewed on mainstream news media because they know that they will tear apart US foreign policy of wars and invasions of other countries. Mind you, we are spending trillions of dollars on these wars while millions of Americans--11.8 percent--live below poverty line. Poverty rate for blacks is around 21%.

The estimated US military spending is $989 billion or close to 1 trillion dollars covering the period from October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020. After Social Security, military spending is the second largest item in the federal budget. The United States spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined. All this staggering amount is spent on defense while there is no enemy like the Soviet Union anymore! All this while 13 million U.S. children—one in six—don’t know where their next meal is coming from or if it will come. 

Then there is the question of NATO, the Western Military Alliance. NATO was created during the cold war to counter the Soviet threat. But ever since 1989, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that threat is gone. If current Russia starts an invasion of a small European country today—which it won’t—the United States and Western European countries can easily counter that by giving a clear warning to Russia to stop or they all can join that victim country in its defense. Russia knows that, so it will not undertake such adventure. So there is no reason for the existence of NATO today. The real reason behind NATO today is to dominate the world which should be unacceptable to Russia, China, and India, I am sure. Another reason for NATO’s existence is to facilitate billions of dollars’ worth of arm sales to NATO countries. It is about money and dominance.

One should note that America is the biggest producer and seller of arms—killing weapons—in the world and keeps producing more and more sophisticated killing machines for its own use on other people.

Ever since its birth in 1776, America has been involved in countless killings around the world. Invasions, wars, sabotage, coups, assassinations and overthrows have been the policy of this country. From the exploitation of Africa, coups, assassinations, overthrows, and invasions in Latin America, to wars and invasions in the Middle East, no country has been immune to the US’ criminal hands. Since World War II, the US has destroyed more than fifty democratic governments or movements. Unfortunately, most Americans and the people of the world except educated academicians and progressives, are unaware of this. As the United States is so powerful, no other nation can stop this global hegemon. Only the people of America can stop their nation from being such a violent nation, but most of them are unaware of the history. So America’s lawless behavior around the world goes on unabated.   

A most recent example of this is George W. Bush’s war with Iraq and Afghanistan. This immoral and unnecessary war will cost this country more than $5 trillion. It has killed, by some estimates, a million innocent Iraqi people and has devastated the country. It also killed more than 4400 young Americans. Yet, what did the US achieve by this war? All this carnage for controlling Iraq’s oil! Mind you, 72% of Americans supported this immoral war! The whole war was based on blatant lies!

Even today, after 17 years, we are still entangled in the Afghanistan war despite the cost of many lives and billions of dollars.

After the disastrous Iraq war, George Bush wrote a book and made millions of dollars. Also after his criminal presidency, he went on speaking tours around the country charging $100,000 or more getting richer and richer. Rather than belonging to a jail cell, he is enjoying his life playing golf. In a just and moral world, the whole Bush cabinet—Dick Cheney and others—should have been tried and sentenced to prison for a long time. But this is not a just world. Americans and the majority of the world forget these crimes. The US continues to manufacture newer and more sophisticated weapons to kill people and dominate the world.

Only the United States has used the most deadly weapon ever produced: the atom bomb. Under inexperienced President Harry Truman’s leadership—despite urging by countless well-known figures—the United States dropped its 1st atomic bomb on the civilian population of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th, 1945 and a 2nd bomb three days later on August 9, 1945 on Nagasaki. These cities had little military significance; they were mainly populated with innocent civilians. The bombs were used to have a maximum psychological impact on Japan’s people and its military. In total, 95% of the combined casualties of both the cities were civilians. Despite the lies by the Truman government, the real reason behind this monstrous act was that the U.S. wanted to demonstrate its newly acquired deadly weapon to the world in order to gain political and diplomatic advantage over the Soviet Union in the postwar settlement in both Europe and Asia.

Depending on which report you believe, about 250,000 Japanese civilians were killed as a result, a heinous crime. Mind you, Japan would have surrendered anyway in a short time. It was only asking to spare the life and title of its emperor who was like God to the Japanese. But Truman refused and used this deadly weapon on civilians anyway. 

Ever since that day, America has been warning every non-nuclear country—with which it has problems—with the threat of nuclear attack. Which decent and peace loving country does that?

Recently, at President Donald Trump’s order, a top Iranian general, Qasem Solemeini—the number 2 man in Iran—along with high Iraqi  military officers totaling ten people were assassinated by a US drone-fired missile. This is an act of war. Only gangsters and criminals assassinate other people. That is not the characteristic of a civilized nation. America has carried out such murders in the past. With this, no leader of another country is safe from America’s assassination policy. As recently quoted in Noam Chomsky in Truthout, “In the eyes of much of the world, in fact, the prime rogue state today is the United States” (Harvard professor of the science of government and government advisor Samuel Huntington; President of the American Political Science Association Robert Jervis. Foreign Affairs, 2001). No wonder, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., more than 50 years ago called the government of the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”.  It is still very true.

Gallup runs regular polls of international opinions. In 2013, for the first time it asked which country is the greatest threat to world peace. The US won. No other country even came close. Far behind in 2nd place was Pakistan. Iran, the greatest threat to world peace in US opinion, was scarcely mentioned.

As you can see from the details of this article, the United States’ policy for more than 200 years, but especially since World War II, has been nothing but domination by violence and by interfering in the internal affairs of so many other countries around the world. Like Britain before, they have messed up the world and hundreds of millions of people globally are suffering as a result. Who can stop this hegemon? Only we, the American people, can. Or with the passage of time, like all other empires of history, this violent empire too will fade away due to overstretch.

According to Transcend Media Service, the U.S. has killed 20 to 30 million people since World War II. Adding to that the millions killed by the U.S. since 1776 and other casualties—number of injured is always much higher than the numbers killed in any war--how many millions have been injured, many permanently, over so many of the US’ immoral wars? The numbers are staggering. What should we call such a record of this superpower? I will leave that for the reader to judge. 

Chaitanya Davé

Majority of Americans want “Single Payer Healthcare System” or free healthcare but our elected representatives won’t go for it.

Most Americans want stricter gun control laws. But our politicians controlled by The National Rifle Association and other die-hard gun lovers, won’t allow it to happen.

Fair minded and decent, most Americans prefer minimum wages raised to a living wage, but our powerful corporations and their Republican friends in Washington DC do not want to do it.

According to Forbes.com (March 19, 2015) report, unionized workforce in the private sector was 35% in the 1950s. But now it has fallen to 11.3% of all workers and 6.6% in private sectors. American corporations have successfully gotten rid of unions and have reduced their labor costs since 1980. Weren’t the unions who were fighting for the American workers’ rights? Now there is nobody to protect them except a small percentage of these unions. The American workers’ livelihood is at the whim and mood of their corporate bosses today.

Bribed with huge political donations by the powerful Aerospace and Armament Industries’ lobbyists, our politicians unnecessarily keep squandering billions of dollars on the so called “defense” budget, constantly inventing and building more efficient weapons to dominate other nations.

Majority of us would rather prefer our government to spend less on our gloated defense budget, and spend those billions saved on public services for American people.

Vast majority of Americans would love to have lower drug prices like other developed countries but our government, succumbing to Pharmaceutical Industries’ largesse, refuses to negotiate lower drug prices for us Americans.

Most of us prefer and need free school and college education for our kids like they have in most developed countries of Europe and Scandinavia but our elected representatives don’t listen to us.

Majority of our working women need and would prefer to have paid maternity leave like they have in the Scandinavian countries but our corporate controlled politicians could care less for this.

Most Americans prefer to have our president, the most important office in our land, to be elected by a simple majority vote but our legislators knowingly won’t do away with our screwed up Electoral College.

Every four years, we vote for our president even though we don’t like either party candidate often but vote for one of them anyway because we dislike the other only party candidate more. Often we have a choice between a bad and a worst candidate. Our corporate controlled media won’t allow a third or a forth party candidate even to a national debate. They are intentionally deprived of much coverage by our mainstream news-media. Why? Because these 3^rd or 4^thparty candidates often challenge corporate rule who control our news-media. Is this a genuine democracy? Why can’t we have more choices in such an important election?

Besides voting for our president and our Senators and Congressmen every few years, do we Americans have any say in how our country is run?

Whenever America goes to war, or invades or bombs another country (which happens quite often), do we Americans have any say in these major decisions? Because these immoral wars would likely result in thousands of deaths of innocent civilians abroad and many of our young soldiers would be killed, not to mention billions of dollars of our tax-payer money that will be squandered. Are we consulted?

Warren Buffett is so right when he said: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

According to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), as of March, 2016, $2.4 trillion are stashed away abroad in safe haven countries by US multinationals to avoid American taxes totaling $695 billion. Who are the losers? American people, as the government is deprived of these billions that could be used by our government for public projects benefiting average Americans. Our politicians of both parties are aware of these loop holes in our tax-codes but they knowingly allow them because they are paid by the same corporations in donations for their re-elections and they dare not offend them.

No surprise, a study conducted by Princeton and Northwestern University in April, 2014 confirmed America being an oligarchy. It concluded: “When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose.”

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement of 2011 was a 99% against the 1% movement. It was crushed with force. Why? Because it challenged the corporate and the Wall Street power.

In the 1950s, we had a thriving democracy. The middle-class was robust. The unions were strong and consisted of 35% of the workforce. But since then, the super-rich wielding enormous influence on our politicians have managed to steer many laws in their favor. The middle-class is decimated. Majority of workers have nobody to fight for their rights.

To an astute observer unaffected by corporate controlled media propaganda, it is obvious: Our democracy is hijacked by the corporate super-rich CEOs and other economic elites.

What we have today in America is not a democracy, but rather an oligarchy: A small group or class of super-rich and powerful people who exert total control over the general population.