The American Myth Industry

[bemildred]

Within the space of 25 years, Western powers invaded Russia three times -- World War I, 1914-18; the "intervention" of 1918-20; and World War II, 1939-45 -- inflicting some 40 million casualties in the two world wars alone. (The Soviet Union lost considerably more people on its own land than it did abroad. There are not too many great powers who can say that.) To carry out these invasions, the West used Eastern Europe as a highway. Should it be any cause for wonder that after World War II the Soviets wanted to close this highway down? In almost any other context, Americans would have no problem in seeing this as an act of self defense. But in the context of the Cold War such thinking could not find a home in mainstream discourse.

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Another economic idea that is rarely questioned is that of private efficiency vs. government inefficiency. How often have we all read of a call for certain government enterprises to be privatized because they were "inefficient"? To many it must seem so right. But then shouldn't private enterprises which are inefficient be nationalized? The housing industry in the United States, for example, is clearly unable to make a decent profit and at the same time provide affordable housing for all of the American people. Not even close. Many millions are either homeless, living in terribly crowded conditions to save money, or spending anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of their disposable income for rent, thus forced to cut back on food and other necessities.

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For many years, going back to at least the Korean war, it's been fairly common for accusations to be made against the United States that it chooses as its bombing targets only people of color, those of the Third World, or Muslims. Many anti-war activists, in the US and abroad, as well as Muslims have made such an accusation. But it must be remembered that in 1999 one of the most sustained and ferocious American bombing campaigns ever was carried out against the people of the former Yugoslavia -- white, European, Christians. The United States is in fact an equal-opportunity bomber. The only qualifications for a country to become an American target appear to be: (A)It poses a sufficient obstacle to the desires of the American Empire; (B)It is virtually defenseless against aerial attack.

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In the run-up to Washington's war against the people of Iraq the principal need of those planning and selling the war was to whip up enough fear and loathing so that the American people would buy it. Thus it was that a great big stew was cooked up ... September 11 ... terrorists ... chemical weapons ... al Qaeda ... Iraq ... Abu Musab Zarqawi ... biological weapons ... Saddam Hussein ... Osama bin Laden ... ricin ... imminent danger ... nuclear danger ... all part of one vast conspiracy, all part of a very filling dish to feed the public. It's comforting now to realize how many people decided that the meal did not pass the smell test.

CounterPunch

[asthmaticeog]

1. Recommended for greatest.

[jaysunb]

2. Truth almost always ends up being

a casualty.....