Nemesis
Ronald Reagan coined the phrase "evil empire," when referring to the Soviet Union, which needed to be contained. Today, it is the U.S. that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world forces are gathering to stop us. The Bush regime insists that if we leave Iraq our enemies will "win" or "follow us home." However, by leaving Iraq, we can regain the moral high ground and disavow the need for a foreign policy based on preventive war.
In mythology, Nemesis is the goddess of divine retribution. Chalmers Johnson’s book “Nemesis”, is subtitled: “The Last Days of the American Republic.”
Failure to undertake the reforms Chalmers Johnson suggests in “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic” would mean condemning America to the fate that befell the Roman Republic and all other empires since.
Congress must initiate a timetable for withdrawing our military forces from Iraq and turn over the military bases we have built. Domestically, we will have to reverse federal budget priorities.
Thereby, we would begin to reduce the detrimental influence of the military-industrial complex. We should close at least 700 of the 737 military bases we maintain in over 130 foreign countries. In order to avoid isolationism and maintain a capacity to assist the United Nations in global peacekeeping operations, we should retain 37 of them, mostly naval and air bases.
We should rewrite all our Status of Forces Agreements, which exempt our troops based in foreign countries from local criminal laws and taxes. As a matter of principle American forces stationed outside the U.S. must deal with their host nations on a basis of equality, not of extraterritorial privilege.
Chalmers Johnson insists that America needs to cease being the world's largest supplier of arms and munitions. We should encourage the UN to begin outlawing weapons like land mines, cluster bombs, and depleted-uranium ammunition. We should take steps to recognize Cuba and end our blockade. In the Middle East, we should work to equalize aid to Israel and Palestine, while attempting to broker a real solution to that disastrous situation. We should lead by example and sound arguments rather than resorting to unilateral armed interventions.
In order to halt our economic decline and lessen our dependence on our trading partners, the U.S. must cap its trade deficits through the perfectly legal use of tariffs in accordance with World Trade Organization rules, and it must begin to guide its domestic market in accordance with a national industrial policy, just as the leading economies of the world do as a matter of routine.
Unless we follow the path suggested by Chalmers Johnson, we will lose our democracy and in the words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
In mythology, Nemesis is the goddess of divine retribution. Chalmers Johnson’s book “Nemesis”, is subtitled: “The Last Days of the American Republic.”
Failure to undertake the reforms Chalmers Johnson suggests in “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic” would mean condemning America to the fate that befell the Roman Republic and all other empires since.
Congress must initiate a timetable for withdrawing our military forces from Iraq and turn over the military bases we have built. Domestically, we will have to reverse federal budget priorities.
Thereby, we would begin to reduce the detrimental influence of the military-industrial complex. We should close at least 700 of the 737 military bases we maintain in over 130 foreign countries. In order to avoid isolationism and maintain a capacity to assist the United Nations in global peacekeeping operations, we should retain 37 of them, mostly naval and air bases.
We should rewrite all our Status of Forces Agreements, which exempt our troops based in foreign countries from local criminal laws and taxes. As a matter of principle American forces stationed outside the U.S. must deal with their host nations on a basis of equality, not of extraterritorial privilege.
Chalmers Johnson insists that America needs to cease being the world's largest supplier of arms and munitions. We should encourage the UN to begin outlawing weapons like land mines, cluster bombs, and depleted-uranium ammunition. We should take steps to recognize Cuba and end our blockade. In the Middle East, we should work to equalize aid to Israel and Palestine, while attempting to broker a real solution to that disastrous situation. We should lead by example and sound arguments rather than resorting to unilateral armed interventions.
In order to halt our economic decline and lessen our dependence on our trading partners, the U.S. must cap its trade deficits through the perfectly legal use of tariffs in accordance with World Trade Organization rules, and it must begin to guide its domestic market in accordance with a national industrial policy, just as the leading economies of the world do as a matter of routine.
Unless we follow the path suggested by Chalmers Johnson, we will lose our democracy and in the words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
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