It's biblically ironic that on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the U.S. Empire is tottering towards final implosion...
I read with faint interest this piece of propaganda from Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal on the failed century of Communism. It didn't help that I had just watched three hours of Oliver Stone's "The Untold History of The United States", which gives a slightly different interpretation to everything claimed by the WSJ author.
I could go point by point and indicate how American actions in Southeast Asia, Latin America and elsewhere in the Third World have caused equivalent if not far greater devastation. However, the fraud of this one-sided WSJ piece is embedded right in the title itself. Because Communism never had a full century. Communism died with the fall of the Soviet Union 27 years ago and the conversion of China to capitalism 25 years ago. Both of those are now Fascist states. Therefore, this was in fact the American Century. The U.S. "won" the Cold War against Communism, and it was a pyrrhic victory to say the least.
What this past quarter century represents is Pax Americana taken to level '11'. The fall of the Soviet Union should have brought global peace and nuclear disarmament. But instead it led to NATO expansion, Russian isolation, and ever-escalating tension and global risk. In addition, U.S. blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan count as the two longest entanglements in U.S. history. Both make Vietnam seem like a minor quagmire by comparison. The destabilization of the Middle East now contributing to the largest mass migration in world history.
Meanwhile, throughout this "Pax Americana", approximately 20,000 children have died every day worldwide for want of a few dollars worth of food and medicine. That's an ancient Rome equivalent number of people every decade.
America's support for fascist regimes and foreign entanglements reads like a 10 episode Oliver Stone series. However, it's bad enough to inflict poverty and misery on foreign populations, but the misery inflicted on Americans via the reverse effects of corporate colonialism, in some respects is as bad or far worse. Ironically, most foreign countries, certainly across the developed world, enjoy far better worker protections than those enjoyed by Americans. Universal healthcare, higher minimum wages, four week vacations are standard across Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. In other words, the American worker is far more exposed to third world competition than most developed nations. In reality, the United States is the only country in the world that actually believes in Free Trade. Europe doesn't trade openly with Asia. Nor does Canada. And of course all of Asia itself is mercantilist, meaning they have a policy to sell to the U.S. but to buy as little as possible. Therefore American trade policies are solely to the benefit of multinational corporations which assume the right to divest in America in order to invest elsewhere, all while retaining full unfettered access to the U.S. market. Supply and debt having replaced supply and demand, per the theorem of trickle down Ponzinomics.
No, I understand that it must be difficult for today's Cold Warriors and NeoCons to see decades of their own life's work dissolve into an historical fentanyl-induced wasteland right before their own eyes. And as we've seen for this entire year straight, there's always another chance to double down again on failed policies, such as tax cuts for the bailout class in the face of record wealth inequality. Critics of the Stone series would say that he's biased and pro-leftist. Obviously. Someone has to be on the left, it's certainly not the Democrats and CNN. The perpetual "red scare" and communist fear-mongering eliminated America's left a long time ago. Locked up and otherwise blacklisted using techniques taken from the Gestapo. Despite his bias, Stone has one overwhelming fact on his side, which is that the American Century has nothing to show for it except extreme poverty in every direction.
But as I always say, don't take my word for it:
Paul Ryan this week:
"Half the country is living paycheck to paycheck. And a lot more people are one paycheck away from living paycheck to paycheck"
