Killing For Profit, the American Way

SINCE THE DEATH of the original World Trade Center, the United States has spent approximately six trillion dollars on wars of foreign aggression, and has killed approximately five hundred thousand people waging them, including several thousand of its own people. The stated aim was the usual tripe about defense of liberty and spread of democracy and freedom, the actual motive was the usual; the plundering of foreign resources, in this instance oil, for the enrichment of American corporations and their billionaire owners. These numbers are from the United States government, in particular, the Department of Defense. Although they may not be entirely accurate, they are accurate enough, close enough to be shocking. Even more amazing is that very few Americans seem to know or care, most Americans being utterly absorbed in the details of their own daily lives, or immersed in the various forms of escape entertainment deliberately designed by our corporate masters for the expressed purpose of distracting us from the harsh realities of our nation's foreign and domestic policies. Among these policies are the theft and exploitation of foreign resources, especially mineral resources, and the use of America's mighty military power to accomplish this end. Domestically, the corporate agenda is predicated upon the subjection and exploitation of ninety nine percent of the population for the profit and benefit of the one percent, and the maintenance of a political system perfectly suited to achieve and perpetuate this end. The fact that every successful politician in America is a millionaire, the fact that political offices are all purchased by corporate money and the office holders are entirely beholden to their purchasers is integral to understanding American social reality. For detailed explanations of all this, simply read books by Noam Chomsky, or listen to his lectures on the internet. His most recent book, "Who Rules the World?", is among his best. Of all American intellectuals who study the American social system, Chomsky is by far the mot insightful. The mineral resources of the middle east and other regions of the world, including Latin America, are sufficient to motivate American corporate power to control them. Thus, the Monroe Doctrine of 1824, and the late nineteenth early twentieth century European and American conquest and domination of Africa, Asia, and the middle east. In America's public school system students are indoctrinated with flattering and utterly false accounts of American history and current reality, and any teacher who enters a classroom in the United States to tell the truth about American society, history, and objectives will soon be looking for work. We are spoon fed garbage about freedom, opportunity, and American greatness, even as our corporate rulers send military forces to such disparate places as Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Central America for no other purpose than to plunder foreign lands, dominate and control their governments, enforce obedience to American corporate power, and reap profits from foreign slave labor and stolen assets. In America, poor white and black men are ushered into the armed forces, and used as fodder for the enhancement of billionaire's wealth. Black men are herded into ghettos, or rounded up and sent to prison by a racist criminal justice system. The word "democracy" is a laughable lie we use to disguise our vicious plutocracy as something worth preserving. America's founders, over two hundred years ago, fully intended to install a system of governance by the elite few, but even they would be shocked at the extent to which the American people have been turned into virtual slave laborers, devoid of any power or influence on the system. Thomas Jefferson suggested that only a violent revolution every twenty years would give the people any hope of having any real participation in their own governance. We are long overdo.