Chalmers Johnson 1931-2010

-A comment in Juanita’s non-blog today from Don A in Pennsyltucky:

“We must recognize that the terrorism of Sept. 11 was not directed against America but against American foreign policy. We should listen to the grievances of the Islamic peoples, stop propping up repressive regimes in the area, protect Israel’s security but denounce its apartheid practices in Palestinian areas and reform our “globalization” policies so that they no longer mean that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. If the United States’ only response to terrorism is more terrorism, it will have discredited itself and can expect to be treated as the rogue state it will have become. ”

-Don’s comment included a link to commondreams.org, which ran a bit from Chalmers Johnson, along with the news that Johnson passed away this week. Chalmers was a CIA consultant and Chairman of the Center for China Studies at The University of California at Berkley. Johnson was the author of the Blowback Trilogy, which I’m sure I’ll tell you about after I finally read it. Here’s a note from Wiki:

“Johnson sees that the enforcement of American hegemony over the world constitutes a new form of global empire. Whereas traditional empires maintained control over subject peoples via colonies, since World War II the US has developed a vast system of hundreds of military bases around the world where it has strategic interests. A long-time Cold Warrior, he applauded the collapse of the Soviet Union: "I was a cold warrior. There's no doubt about that. I believed the Soviet Union was a genuine menace. I still think so."[7] But at the same time he experienced a political awakening after the collapse of the Soviet Union, noting that instead of demobilizing its armed forces, the US accelerated its reliance on military solutions to problems both economic and political. The result of this militarism (as distinct from actual domestic defense) is more terrorism against the US and its allies, the loss of core democratic values at home, and an eventual disaster for the American economy.”

-This is the same theme I read in work by Andrew Bacevich, Jeff Huber, Tim Weiner and James Carroll, Three of the four are retired military, Weiner, the exception, won a Pulitzer for his book on the CIA. Heck, this is also the theme of Eisenhower’s farewell address. I don’t feel so out in the woods with sources like this, even living in the reddest of states,working at a university that does $10 million a year in Defense Dept. research and living smack in the middle of NASA and Ellington Field. All that Ike warned us about has come to pass. Now it’s a matter of whether we can turn this country around. Consider the alternative..