Summer 2006 Empire
Contents
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Aseem Shrivastava
Tyranny, Empire, and the End of the World as We Know It? (Part 1)“The tendency towards tyranny, inherent in a democratic system, is aggravated by capitalism, at its core a despotic economic system, incompatible with economic, and ultimately political, democracy.”
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Aseem Shrivastava
Tyranny, Empire, and the End of the World as We Know It? (Part 2)“Power is not the same as freedom. Thanks to colonialism and technology, the West is powerful. Thanks to its obsession with power, it is not free. And thus, nor is the rest of the world.”
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Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
The Neo-conservative asabiyya“The institutionalisation of the neo-conservative idea in a myriad of inter-linked, non-for-profit “think-tanks” and lobbying organisations, catered for the structural platform to position suitable candidates in high ranking political, business and academic positions after the election and re-election of George W. Bush.”
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Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Manufacturing External Threats to Ensure War Profits“Under capitalism, where production of military hardware is subject to market imperatives, actual wars are needed in order to generate “sufficient” demand for war-dependent industries and their profitability requirements.”
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Doug Dowd
U.S. Militarism: Talking Peace, Making War“An examination of our wars since 1917 will show that the Iraqi War will be unique in our military history; not because we have “bitten off more than we can chew,” but because this time it will be both more difficult to remain, as we have done in Korea or to leave, as with Vietnam.”
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Ron Jacobs
Bananas to Barrels of Oil: Washington and Wall Street Look Southward“Washington has made it clear, both in historical terms and in its statements over the past decade, that what it can’t get with contracts and IMF loans, it will take by force.”
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Fran Shor
“The Free Man’s Burden”: Racial and Masculinist Dimensions of US Empire-Building“Can we recognize the true burden of freedom is freeing ourselves from the debilitating racial and masculinist constructions embedded in ‘empire as a way of life?’”
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Yifat Susskind
Adjusting to Empire“The national mythology from which Americans’ self-image as defenders of freedom and democracy derives is deeply at odds with Bush’s decision to overthrow a sovereign (albeit brutal) government, install direct US military rule over another country and violate US citizens’ civil liberties.”
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Gideon Polya
1984 and the Human Cost of Empire“While Muslim-origin terrorists have killed some 5,000 Western civilians in the last 2 decades, the post-9/11 US War on Terror has so far made the US and its Coalition allies responsible for 2.7 million post-invasion avoidable deaths.”
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Jyotsna Kapur
India Inc: The Nation on Sale in the New Empire“India’s politicians and elites have shed the Gandhi cap and the rhetoric of “serving” the nation (forget dying or sacrificing for it) to don the business suit and turn themselves into brokers for international capital.”
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David Cromwell
Lining up the Next Victims: The ‘Independent’ Stokes up Fear of Left in South America“People who manage to penetrate the fog of media distortion and indifference are stunned and horrified by what they find, by just how much has been buried by our ‘free press’.”
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“Americans are increasingly attracted towards fundamentalist religion not because it explains the world, but because it explains their suffering.”
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Simon Enoch
Why Are You So Surprised? Democrats and Imperialist Amnesia“While the Bush regime is no doubt uniquely unapologetic in its penchant for unilateral aggression, in its contempt for international law, and in its assault on civil and human rights, these are not traits that recent Democratic leaders would find all that unfamiliar (or undesirable).”
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David Baake
A New Era of Imperialism: Defending the Unipolar Order“It seems obvious that if the United States intends on holding onto unipolar dominance, it will have to act quickly to disrupt the unification of Asia, solidify oil resources under its rule, and perhaps attempt to isolate China by allying itself with India.”
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Tom Crumpacker
Thinking Outside the Box: Empire – the Dysfunctional Political System“In the four years since the Iraq war was planned, very few if any of us have had an opportunity to vote in a serious contest for a House candidate who opposed it.”
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Ron Ridenour
Permanent War Age and Iraq“The rulers’ definition of terror is so broad that it fits most anything or anyone, except the ruling class’ governments and their military officials.”
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“One doesn’t just cross a physical border, one crosses many borders: borders that are in your head, borders between people.”
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Little Big Pine
Uncle Sam Says (Poetry) -
Steven Sherman
The Centrality of State Violence: A Review Essay“The Bush administration has served a powerful reminder of the importance of the exercise of armed might to the maintenance of ‘order’. After all, Bush and his neoconservative congeries have proven far more eager to invade countries than negotiate more free trade pacts.”
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Ron Jacobs
From The Jungle to the Cold War: A Review of Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair“Sinclair’s most popular works deal with topics of war and peace, profit and exploitation, and love and hate. They remain relevant topically and thematically and stand with the best of US political literature.”
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Shepherd Bliss
Former McDonald’s Cook Confesses: Returns to Family Farming“Ronald McDonald’s clown face sits by the check-out counter in the public library. McDonald’s seems to be everywhere, having successfully permeated and penetrated our culture with the goal of selling its products.”
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Stephanie McMillan
Minimum Security 2 (Cartoon)
