The Anti-Empire Report #122
by William Blum
November 7th, 2013
National Security Agency – The only part of the government that really listens to what you have to say
The New York Times (November 2) ran a long article based on NSA documents released by Edward Snowden. One of the lines that most caught my
attention concerned “Sigint” – Signals intelligence, the term used for electronic intercepts. The document stated:
“Sigint professionals must hold the moral high ground, even as terrorists or dictators seek to exploit our freedoms.
Some of our adversaries will say or do anything to advance their cause; we will not.”
What, I wondered, might that mean? What would the National Security Agency – on moral principle – refuse to say or do?
I have on occasion asked people who reject or rationalize any and all criticism of US foreign policy: “What would the
United States have to do in its foreign policy to lose your support? What, for you, would be too much?” I’ve yet to get a suitable answer to that question. I suspect it’s because the person is afraid that whatever they
say I’ll point out that the United States has already done it.
The United Nations vote on the Cuba embargo – 22 years in a row
For years American political leaders and media were fond of labeling Cuba an “international pariah”. We haven’t heard
that for a very long time. Perhaps one reason is the annual vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the
resolution which reads: “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States
of America against Cuba”. This is how the vote has gone (not including abstentions):
YearVotes (Yes-No)No Votes199259-2US, Israel199388-4US, Israel, Albania, Paraguay1994101-2US, Israel1995117-3US, Israel, Uzbekistan1996138-3US, Israel, Uzbekistan1997143-3US, Israel, Uzbekistan1998157-2US, Israel1999155-2US, Israel2000167-3US, Israel, Marshall Islands2001167-3US, Israel, Marshall Islands2002173-3US, Israel, Marshall Islands2003179-3US, Israel, Marshall Islands2004179-4US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau2005182-4US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau2006183-4US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau2007184-4US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau2008185-3US, Israel, Palau2009187-3US, Israel, Palau2010187-2US, Israel2011186-2US, Israel2012188-3US, Israel, Palau2013188-2US, Israel
Each fall the UN vote is a welcome reminder that the world has not completely lost its senses and that the American empire does not completely control the opinion of other governments.
Speaking before the General Assembly, October 29, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez declared: “The economic damages
accumulated after half a century as a result of the implementation of the blockade amount to $1.126 trillion.” He added
that the blockade “has been further tightened under President Obama’s administration”, some 30 US and foreign entities
being hit with $2.446 billion in fines due to their interaction with Cuba.
However, the American envoy, Ronald Godard, in an appeal to other countries to oppose the resolution, said:
“The international community … cannot in good conscience ignore the ease and frequency with which the Cuban regime
silences critics, disrupts peaceful assembly, impedes independent journalism and, despite positive reforms, continues to
prevent some Cubans from leaving or returning to the island. The Cuban government continues its tactics of politically
motivated detentions, harassment and police violence against Cuban citizens.”
So there you have it. That is why Cuba must be punished. One can only guess what Mr. Godard would respond if told that
more than 7,000 people were arrested in the United States during the Occupy Movement’s first 8 months of protest; that
their encampments were violently smashed up; that many of them were physically abused by the police.
Does Mr. Godard ever read a newspaper or the Internet, or watch television? Hardly a day passes in America without a
police officer shooting to death an unarmed person?
As to “independent journalism” – what would happen if Cuba announced that from now on anyone in the country could own
any kind of media? How long would it be before CIA money – secret and unlimited CIA money financing all kinds of fronts
in Cuba – would own or control most of the media worth owning or controlling?
The real reason for Washington’s eternal hostility toward Cuba? The fear of a good example of an alternative to the
capitalist model; a fear that has been validated repeatedly over the years as Third World countries have expressed their
adulation of Cuba.
How the embargo began: On April 6, 1960, Lester D. Mallory, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs, wrote in an internal memorandum: “The majority of Cubans support Castro … The only foreseeable means of
alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship. …
every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba.” Mallory proposed “a line of
action which … makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to
bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” Later that year, the Eisenhower administration instituted
the suffocating embargo against its everlasting enemy.
The Cold War Revisited
I’ve written the Introduction to a new book recently published in Russia that is sort of an updating of my book Killing Hope. Here is a short excerpt:
The Cold War had not been a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. It had been a struggle between the
United States and the Third World, which, in the decade following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, continued in
Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Yugoslavia and elsewhere.
The Cold War had not been a worldwide crusade by America to halt Soviet expansion, real or imaginary. It had been a
worldwide crusade by America to block political and social changes in the Third World, changes opposed by the American
power elite.
The Cold War had not been a glorious and noble movement of freedom and democracy against Communist totalitarianism. It
had typically been a movement by the United States in support of dictatorships, authoritarian regimes and corrupt
oligarchies which were willing to follow Washington’s party line on the Left, US corporations, Israel, oil, military
bases, et al. and who protected American political and economic interests in their countries in exchange for the
American military and CIA keeping them in power against the wishes of their own people.
In other words, whatever the diplomats at the time thought they were doing, the Cold War revisionists have been
vindicated. American policy had been about imperialism and military expansion.
Apropos the countless other myths we were all taught about the Soviet Union is this letter I recently received from one
of my readers, a Russian woman, age 49, who moved to the United States eight years ago and now lives in Northern
Virginia:
I can’t imagine why anybody is surprised to hear when I say I miss life in the Soviet Union: what is bad about free
healthcare and education, guaranteed employment, guaranteed free housing? No rent or mortgage of any kind, only
utilities, but they were subsidized too, so it was really pennies. Now, to be honest, there was a waiting list to get
those apartments, so some people got them quicker, some people had to wait for years, it all depended on where you
worked. And there were no homeless people, and crime was way lower. As a first grader I was taking the public
transportation to go to school, which was about 1 hour away by bus (it was a big city, about the size of Washington DC,
we lived on the outskirts, and my school was downtown), and it was fine, all other kids were doing it. Can you even
imagine this being done now? I am not saying everything was perfect, but overall, it is a more stable and socially just
system, fair to everybody, nobody was left behind. This is what I miss: peace and stability, and not being afraid of the
future.
Problem is, nobody believes it, they will say that I am a brainwashed “tovarish” [comrade]. I’ve tried to argue with
Americans about this before, but just gave up now. They just refuse to believe anything that contradicts what CNN has
been telling them for all their lives. One lady once told me: “You just don’t know what was going on there, because you
did not have freedom of speech, but we, Americans, knew everything, because we could read about all of this in our
media.” I told her “I was right there! I did not need to read about this in the media, I lived that life!”, but she
still was unconvinced! You will not believe what she said: “Yes, maybe, but we have more stuff!”. Seriously, having 50
kinds of cereal available in the store, and walmarts full of plastic junk is more valuable to Americans than a stable
and secure life, and social justice for everybody?
Of course there are people who lived in the Soviet Union who disagree with me, and I talked to them too, but I find
their reasons just as silly. I heard one Russian lady whose argument was that Stalin killed “30, no 40 million people”.
First of all it’s not true (I don’t in any way defend Stalin, but I do think that lying and exaggerating about him is as
wrong)*, and second of all what does this have to do with the 70s, when I was a kid? By then life was completely
different. I heard other arguments, like food shortages (again, not true, it’s not like there was no food at all, there
were shortages of this or that specific product, like you wouldn’t find mayo or bologna in the store some days, but
everything else was there!). So, you would come back next day, or in 2-3 days, and you would find them there. Really,
this is such a big deal? Or you would have to stay in line to buy some other product, (ravioli for example). But how
badly do you want that ravioli really that day, can’t you have anything else instead? Just buy something else, like
potatoes, where there was no line.
Was this annoying, yes, and at the time I was annoyed too, but only now I realized that I would much prefer this
nuisance to my present life now, when I am constantly under stress for the fear that I can possibly lose my job (as my
husband already did), and as a result, lose everything else – my house? You couldn’t possibly lose your house in Soviet
Union, it was yours for life, mortgage free. Only now, living here in the US, I realized that all those soviet nuisances
combined were not as important as the benefits we had – housing, education, healthcare, employment, safe streets, all
sort of free after school activities (music, sports, arts, anything you want) for kids, so parents never had to worry
about what we do all day till they come home in the evening.
* We’ve all heard the figures many times … 10 million … 20 million … 40 million … 60 million … died under Stalin. But what
does the number mean, whichever number you choose? Of course many people died under Stalin, many people died under
Roosevelt, and many people are still dying under Bush. Dying appears to be a natural phenomenon in every country. The
question is how did those people die under Stalin? Did they die from the famines that plagued the USSR in the 1920s and
30s? Did the Bolsheviks deliberately create those famines? How? Why? More people certainly died in India in the 20th
century from famines than in the Soviet Union, but no one accuses India of the mass murder of its own citizens. Did the
millions die from disease in an age before antibiotics? In prison? From what causes? People die in prison in the United
States on a regular basis. Were millions actually murdered in cold blood? If so, how? How many were criminals executed
for non-political crimes? The logistics of murdering tens of millions of people is daunting.
Let’s not repeat the Barack fuckup with Hillary
Not that it really matters who the Democrats nominate for the presidency in 2016. Whoever that politically regressive
and morally bankrupt party chooses will be at best an uninspired and uninspiring centrist; in European terms a
center-rightist; who believes that the American Empire – despite the admittedly occasional excessive behavior – is
mankind’s last great hope. The only reason I bother to comment on this question so far in advance of the election is
that the forces behind Clinton have clearly already begun their campaign and I’d like to use the opportunity to try to
educate the many progressives who fell in love with Obama and may be poised now to embrace Clinton. Here’s what I wrote
in July 2007 during the very early days of the 2008 campaign:
Who do you think said this on June 20? a) Rudy Giuliani; b) Hillary Clinton; c) George Bush; d) Mitt Romney; or e)
Barack Obama?
“The American military has done its job. Look what they accomplished. They got rid of Saddam Hussein. They gave the
Iraqis a chance for free and fair elections. They gave the Iraqi government the chance to begin to demonstrate that it
understood its responsibilities to make the hard political decisions necessary to give the people of Iraq a better
future. So the American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions
which are important for their own people.”
Right, it was the woman who wants to be president because … because she wants to be president … because she thinks it
would be nice to be president … no other reason, no burning cause, no heartfelt desire for basic change in American
society or to make a better world … she just thinks it would be nice, even great, to be president. And keep the American
Empire in business, its routine generating of horror and misery being no problem; she wouldn’t want to be known as the
president that hastened the decline of the empire.
And she spoke the above words at the “Take Back America” conference; she was speaking to liberals, committed liberal
Democrats and others further left. She didn’t have to cater to them with any flag-waving pro-war rhetoric; they wanted
to hear anti-war rhetoric (and she of course gave them a bit of that as well out of the other side of her mouth), so we
can assume that this is how she really feels, if indeed the woman feels anything. The audience, it should be noted,
booed her, for the second year in a row.
Think of why you are opposed to the war. Is it not largely because of all the unspeakable suffering brought down upon
the heads and souls of the poor people of Iraq by the American military? Hillary Clinton couldn’t care less about that,
literally. She thinks the American military has “succeeded”. Has she ever unequivocally labeled the war “illegal” or
“immoral”? I used to think that Tony Blair was a member of the right wing or conservative wing of the British Labour
Party. I finally realized one day that that was an incorrect description of his ideology. Blair is a conservative, a bloody Tory. How he wound up in the Labour Party is a matter I haven’t studied. Hillary Clinton, however, I’ve long known is a
conservative; going back to at least the 1980s, while the wife of the Arkansas governor, she strongly supported the
death-squad torturers known as the Contras, who were the empire’s proxy army in Nicaragua.
Now we hear from America’s venerable conservative magazine, William Buckley’s National Review, an editorial by Bruce Bartlett, policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan; treasury official under President George
H.W. Bush; a fellow at two of the leading conservative think-tanks, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute – You
get the picture? Bartlett tells his readers that it’s almost certain that the Democrats will win the White House in
2008. So what to do? Support the most conservative Democrat. He writes: “To right-wingers willing to look beneath what
probably sounds to them like the same identical views of the Democratic candidates, it is pretty clear that Hillary
Clinton is the most conservative.”
We also hear from America’s premier magazine for the corporate wealthy, Fortune, whose recent cover features a picture of Clinton and the headline: “Business Loves Hillary”.
Back to 2013: In October, the office of billionaire George Soros, who has long worked with US foreign policy to
destabilize governments not in love with the empire, announced that “George Soros is delighted to join more than one
million Americans in supporting Ready for Hillary.”
There’s much more evidence of Hillary Clinton’s conservative leanings, but if you need more, you’re probably still in
love with Obama, who in a new book is quoted telling his aides during a comment on drone strikes that he’s “really good
at killing people”. Can we look forward to Hillary winning the much-discredited Nobel Peace Prize?
I’m sorry if I take away all your fun.
ENDS