The End of the Anglo-American
Empire?
by Richard C. Cook
http://globalresearch.ca, June
30, 2008
Much of the world's history over the last
century has been dominated by the United States . But by the
turn of the millennium in 2000-2001, the "American Century"
had begun to descend into a chamber of horrors.
The years since then have been marked
by the huge financial bubbles engineered by the U.S. Federal Reserve
System and the virus of predatory global capitalism. We have the
looming worldwide economic crisis with rising bankruptcies, credit
disruptions, and soaring fuel and food prices. Alongside has been
the thinly-disguised but continuing attempt by the U.S. to conquer
the Middle East by force of arms under the heading of the "War
on Terror."
Some have argued that the U.S. at war
is nothing new and that we have always been a nation of aggression
and militarism. While this may be true, the expansion of the original
thirteen states to cover much of the North American continent
was done with far less violence than the constant fighting among
the European nations over the centuries for domination.
The key event was President Thomas Jefferson's
choice to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803,
thus turning America 's energy to westward expansion rather than
competition with the European powers for colonial empires. The
long-term result has been a nation that has led the world in science,
technology, social and political innovation, and individual prosperity
and freedom.
Still, there seems to have been a critical
change that took place in both America and the world in the early
1900s.
To many, the arrival of the 20th century
seemed to be a time of great hope. There had not been a major
international conflagration since the Napoleonic Wars which ended
with the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Despite inequities in income,
the industrial age showed promise of raising the standard of living
everywhere. Four large nations whose territory had been consolidated
during the latter part of the 19th century-the U.S. , Russia ,
Germany , and Italy -were flourishing.
But by 1914, the worst war in history-World
War I-had begun. A century of conflict and chaos, which has not
yet ended, was underway, with hundreds of millions of non-combatants
eventually losing their lives through war, famine, epidemics,
or genocide. The modern world has seen many holocausts in addition
to the one befalling European Jewry during World War II.
Alongside miracles of medicine, agriculture,
sanitation, engineering, transportation, communications, and information
technology have come terrible weapons of mass destruction, the
latest being depleted uranium. There have been appalling refinements
in the diabolical arts of assassination, torture, propaganda,
mind control, and political manipulation.
Economic crime has occurred on an epic
scale, including currency manipulations, privatization of public
resources, the aforesaid financial bubbles, involvement of governments
in the illicit drug trade, attacks by financiers on national economies,
the creation of offshore tax havens, money laundering, destruction
of entire industries to benefit global capitalism, human trafficking,
cornering of markets on food and other vital commodities, speculative
hedge funds whose managers earn a billion dollars a year, and
looting of private companies and pension funds by highly-paid
CEOs and executives..
What then happened, especially during
the latter part of the "American Century," to turn so
much promise into the continuing spectacle of prosperity for some
side-by-side with recurrent catastrophes for others? Likely this
question will be debated for centuries.
It would appear, however, that once it
became apparent how much wealth the industrial revolution was
capable of generating, the world's economies began to develop
so fast that the traditional means of resolving the distribution
of power and wealth among and within nations and social classes
fell apart. Because human beings were not capable of exercising
the wisdom, generosity, fairness, and restraint to master the
industrial genie that was now out of the bottle, the worst inclinations
of individuals and society exerted themselves. The history of
the 20th century and the battles among nations and blocs for supremacy
resemble nothing so much as neighborhood gang wars among Mafia
dons, the latest being the Bush-Cheney cabal that has controlled
the U.S. government since 2001.
Another gang has been those among the
world's money-lenders who became experts at parasitic high finance
and got rich through the explosive growth of fractional reserve
banking. These people have dominated the economies of nations
through such institutions as the Bank of England, the Federal
Reserve System, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), and
other central and commercial banks, currency and commodity exchanges,
and stock and bond markets.
The bankers on the one hand and the political
racketeers on the other merged over a century ago under the oversight
of figures associated with the creation of the Anglo-American
Empire, such as Cecil Rhodes, Lord Milner, Colonel House, Winston
Churchill, the House of Windsor, and, as examples of families
involved, the Rothschilds, Schiffs, Morgans, Harrimans, Rockefellers,
Myers, and Bushes. Among the major projects of the empire in recent
decades have been the creation and maintenance of both the kingdom
of Saudi Arabia and the state of Israel as Western bridgeheads
of influence, power, and wealth in the Middle East .
This has led to the ongoing campaign by
the U.S. to exercise complete military control of that region,
with Israel the principal beneficiary. It is an astonishing spectacle
to watch the "world's greatest superpower" bankrupt
itself financially and in its world reputation because its politicians
are too corrupt and cowardly to take a stand against the domestic
Jewish lobby.
This campaign of conquest seems to have
had its roots in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
who intended to bring a new era of peace through rapprochement
with the Soviet Union, restraint of Israel 's nuclear ambitions,
withdrawal of combat forces from Vietnam , and dismantlement of
the CIA as an agency of covert warfare. Kennedy's brief presidency
coincided with an amazing period of social and spiritual renewal
among America 's youth in the 1960s.
With the killing of Kennedy, the dogs
of war were unleashed. After America 's disastrous war in Vietnam
ended in 1975, President Jimmy Carter tried to introduce a policy
of civility and restraint in domestic and world political affairs,
but he was swept away in the election of 1980 by the "Reagan
Revolution," whose catastrophic legacy we see today.
President Ronald Reagan set in motion
the current mudslide of worldwide cataclysms through his huge
military build-up, the "Reagan doctrine" of proxy warfare
in third-world countries, the pathologically paranoid Strategic
Defense Initiative-"Star Wars"-program, and the deregulation
of the financial industry. Since our economy is the largest in
the world, such action was bound to affect every other nation
in making them subservient to the U.S. bankers and financiers
who organized themselves in such institutions as David Rockefeller's
Trilateral Commission.
Bill Clinton, elected in 1992, did little
to stem the tide of barbarism. He completed the destruction of
the U.S. as an industrial democracy by signing the legislation
for NAFTA and opening the floodgates to foreign control of U.S.
business. He also completed the deregulation of the financial
industry by repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act which had prohibited
the merger of investment and deposit banks. But Clinton still
was attacked by the right-wing who wanted him to unleash a new
military assault against Iraq .
When George W. Bush became president in
2000, the grand strategy of Middle East occupation was facilitated
by the skillful exploitation of the 9/11 attacks as the excuse
for military mobilization to be financed by the housing bubble
and the forced sale of U.S. Treasury debt to foreign investors.
The historic jack-up of petroleum prices-including the most recent
ones that have brought gas at-the-pump in the U.S. to $4 a gallon-are
clearly a de facto tax on the American public to pay for these
wars.
It has become obvious in recent months-even
as Bush et. al. plot a possible attack on Iran before the end
of his presidency-that the rest of the world is heartily sick
of U.S. arrogance. Even our allies in NATO have refused to allow
us to build a defensive missile shield virtually to the borders
of Russia .
And there are indications that the European
financial community-headed by the Bank of International Settlements-may
force the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates again
to stem inflation, even if this drives the U.S. domestic population
into an economic depression. Recent signs from the Council on
Foreign Relations are that the U.S. will accept that the dollar
can no longer reign supreme as the world's sole reserve currency
and that it must give way to the Euro and the Chinese Yuan in
sharing this role. Thus the U.S. political leadership seems to
have begun to realize that we will no longer be allowed to posture
as the unchallenged bully of the world.
What we may be seeing-even as the U.S.
military has extended its reach to the insertion of uniformed
personnel in 135 nations-is the end of the Anglo-American Empire
and the birth of a multi-polar world. It appears that the more
level-headed among the U.S. and worldwide elite are tilting toward
Barack Obama as the best choice to manage America 's inevitable
decline.
This decline is by no means a bad thing.
Through graceful acceptance, America may even have a chance someday
to regain its soul. A good place to start would be to establish
a National Historical Truth Commission to investigate such historical
puzzles as the real causes of U.S. entrance into the wars of the
past century; assassinations-such as JFK, Senator Paul Wellstone,
and RFK, Jr.; and 9/11. Another worthwhile proposal is for a tribunal
on "International and Domestic Crimes Committed by High U.S.
Government Officials," which will be discussed at a national
conference planned for Andover , Mass. , in September.
Can anything else be done to ease the
shocks to come? If people took the trouble to read the available
literature, they would see that hundreds of potential economic
and political reforms have been presented and discussed-at least
in books and on the internet-that could make our society more
just, functional, and humane and not just the ugly police state
it is rapidly becoming.
In the mind of this writer, a viable economic
solution would be policies based on government control of credit
treated as a vital public utility, rebuilding of our public and
private infrastructure, radical reduction of pollution and dependence
on foreign oil through green energy R&D, enactment of a basic
income guarantee, and implementation of a national dividend which
would monetize productivity and savings.
The theory of a national dividend, not
dependent on either taxation or government borrowing, is sound
and was worked out decades ago by the British Social Credit movement.
It can be seen on a small scale in the annual residents' stipend
provided by the Alaska Permanent Fund. Such a program would be
more in accord with the largely successful social welfare policies
of the Western European democracies and less with the leanings,
for instance, of the American Libertarians. The manner in which
they view with suspicion any action taken by representative government
to benefit the general welfare-misleadingly labeling it "socialism"-is
an ideological dead end.
Of course the mainstream media ignore
any real reform proposals, because they are afraid to suggest
that there are any alternative political structures to ones that
are controlled by usurers and war-mongers.
Ultimately, we are all responsible for
the current state of affairs, because we have profited from it
in one way or another so must reap the consequences. There is
no use worrying about how we might escape the wave of events while
everyone else goes down with the ship. But those who at least
recognize what is going on have an obvious advantage. From there
the only conscionable approach is what it has always been-diligence,
honesty, and prudence in all our affairs.
Ultimately, mankind must grow up and became
more humane and compassionate. This includes the angry white male
American conservatives who-under the tutelage of conniving European-born
intellectuals like Kissinger and Brzezinski-have been the real
global terrorists for the past generation.
Philosophically, we need to realize that
we live in an infinite universe of abundance where all God's children
can be provided for, rather than one of scarcity where we can
only survive by taking away what belongs to our neighbor. We
can all choose to begin seeing the world in this manner.
We need to understand that we are at an
early point of a new age of humanity. If enough people attain
a sufficient degree of enlightenment-and it won't take that many-real
change in social, economic, and political relations will follow,
just as the flowers bloom in the spring.
Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal
government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S.
Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the
Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His
articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared
on numerous websites and in Eurasia Critic magazine. His book
on monetary reform, entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of
Monetary Reform, will be published soon by Tendril Press.
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