Philip A. FarruggioPhilip A. Farruggio -- World News Trust
June 22, 2015
To this writer, empire is not exactly what the dictionary defines it as: A group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress or other sovereign or government; usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom.
Another definition can be found stating: A powerful and important enterprise or holding of large scope that is controlled by a single person, family or group of associates.
Putting these two definitions together, one can perhaps begin to understand what our American Empire looks like. The heinous marriage between mega wealth via corporate capitalism and elected government. The first born bastard child they named The Military Industrial Empire!
When the victors of WW1, including the quickly dying British Empire and the up-and-coming American one, chose to push the Versailles Diktat on Germany... the seeds for radical government were planted. The Third Reich was the bad karma to the nth degree resulting from the overbearing decisions at Versailles. Of course, our empire, with its corporate boosters, profited the most from the Nazi horror while our European allies were being beaten down by it... along with of course the multitude of innocent Jews, Communists, Socialists, trade unionists etc.
Those who know the truth of history realize that WW2 helped nurture our current American empire. Then, being like a superstar athlete on mega steroids, America became Amerika, with our imperial machinations causing a Cold War (read Stone & Kuznicks' The Untold History of the United States) and from it our disastrous venture into Vietnam. Yet, we as a nation learned nothing from the Vietnam debacle. Our Military Industrial Empire just chugged along from one overseas action to another, while the Fat Cat war industry and the Pentagon grew into monsters.
Ever ask yourself why our American culture becomes more and more violent every day? Child psychologists can tell you that when the parent is a bully to the child, the child grows up into one as well. When the parent, as role model (or lack of one) reveals a life of rage and violence, the child is more apt to parrot that way of living.
Please read Elizabeth Holtzman & Cynthia Cooper's 2012 book Cheating Justice: How Bush and Cheney attacked the rule of law and plotted to avoid prosecution ... and begin to understand how rot from the top seeps down. It began with the phony and orchestrated lies to justify pre-emptive war on Iraq, and then the terrible occupation with blatant use of torture, more often than not on individuals later deemed innocent of anything.
The book covers the deceptions and outright crimes of trying to use legal mumbo jumbo to circumvent the Geneva Accords and U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996. Men like John Yoo, Jay Bybee and Alberto Gonzales wrote these at the request of Cheney, Rumsfeld and of course Junior Bush (if they even took the time to tell that jackass about it).
Bybee got his just reward by becoming a federal judge. Woo got his with a professorship and Fredo, Bush Junior's lapdog Attorney General, got his as, are you ready for this, the Dean of Law at Belmont University. The Dean of law!!! Alas, the terrible deeds done by all these men (and of course the phony Condi Rice) are, to this writer, resonating with our nation's increased culture of violence and "what's in it for me" mentality of many of our young folks.
When people see, and more importantly, sense that our leaders are literally getting away with murder, or that our corporation Fat Cats are getting mega rich at their expense... **** happens.
Do any of you out there actually think that groups like ISIS would ever exist if not for what Amerika did in Afghanistan and Iraq? Would suicide bombers be so prevalent in Israel if that nation did not continue to treat the Palestinians as they have for 60+ years? Thus, I make the same bold statement concerning the crazy country we now live in.
Yes, there will always be violent, unstable individuals who will do harm to others for no rational reason. Yet, when it is so continuous... we need to see how much bad karma this empire has accrued. Food for thought.
PA Farruggio
June 22 , 2015
(Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC, longshoremen. He is a free ance columnist (found on World News Trust, Nation of Change Blog, Truthout.org, TheSleuthJournal.com, The Intrepid Report, The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25 percent. Philip can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
