Letters to the Editor

• Re: Empires of Terror

  [Read the article: New disappearance revelations]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Tit for tattness. They do "X", we do "X+" -- and then to make double sure they get it, we do it to their kids and pets and aged grandmothers, too.

  Surely the British, in the Glory Days of Their (Late) Empire, had no compunction about... ahem... "treatment" of the Natives, so why should we?

  After all, the British Empire is the model, is it not?

  I note with interest that elsewhere at Salon, Gary Kamiya ponders the ponderings of the Imperial Might of America ("Are We Rome?), and what it means for the World and Ourselves, with some digression into considerations about whether the American Empire is on the Rise or deep in Decline. What's rather striking about it is that the premise of Imperial America is taken for granted. No consideration at all about whether such a state is advisable, desirable, accidental, intentional, worthwhile or disastrous, or anything in between. No, Kamiya's premise (and that of his ponderers) is that it just is.

  In an earlier posting, I observed that the American People have nothing to say about this latest bout of Imperial Fever, for it has never been a topic of general discussion, and even if it were, nothing the American People had to say about it would make the least bit of difference, because our Government is institutionally organized and bound to ignore the People on this and many other topics. Our Government as an institution is also committed to the precept of Imperial America, whatever it means in practice, and has no intention whatsoever of retreating from it. Popular will and sentiment is of no consequence at all under these circumstances.

  I suppose it is possible for an Empire to be benign, but neither the Roman nor the British models were any such thing. Both were brutal -- often extremely so -- and rapaciously exploitative primarily in the interests of a minority of high ranking individuals and their families.

  The American Empire today seems to be organized primarily to serve the interests of a relatively few well placed corporations, with the principal intention of securing and holding access to and control of critical resources such as petroleum and water and illicit drugs and so forth, so as to keep them out of the hands of potential rivals (Chinese, Russian, et al).

  Belligerence is the constant state of mind, and Jack Bauer is the Imperial Heroic Figure, and detention, disappearance and torture is routine in that Imaginary-cum-Reality Based World.

  But this is the thing: It's not going so well. The Iraq and Afghanistan exploits are falling to pieces or have completely gone to shit. They were supposed to be the Shining Examples of American Imperial Might and Beneficence, and both are imploding on a good day. This is supposedly the consequence of Bushevik incompetence, not errors in judgement that set the course of conquest to begin with. That course is not even subject to question, except on the very fringes of political debate.

  The only topic allowed for discussion is "competence" in conquest and rule of Native Peoples, seizure and control of their resources, and propagandizing the American People, and the Busheviks have shown themselves to be wanting. Replacement is called for, and in the meantime, the Busheviks must be controlled somehow. No easy task.

  The People's Say in this, for example: Get Out of Iraq Now, is rigorously ignored. No, the Issue being bruited in the halls of power is, "How are we going to make this work?"

  Beforetimes, the British East India Company continuously fucked up in its conquests of the Indian subcontinent, culminating with the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. The rebellion was eventually put down -- with a level of savagery that has rarely been witnessed since the days of Ancient Rome -- but the upshot was that the mercenaries, merchants and contractors to whom the conquest of India had been let were dismissed, replaced by the authority of Crown and Parliament, direct rule from London, etc. This was considered a vast improvement, and Queen Victoria is said to have quite liked being styled Empress of India.

  At any rate, in this instance private sector incompetence was replaced with governmental competence and British India endured for almost another 90 years. And the British and Indian peoples and governments maintain close relations to this day.

  However, in our latest Imperial chest thumping adventures, it is apparent that governmental (military and civil) conquest and control is failing, worse and worse every day. There of course is a parallel private sector corps in the mix, but we don't hear much about them, except when the military is sent in to punish the Natives for getting uppity with the mercenaries and contractors. Whereas the government of Britain replaced the "incompetent" British East India Company (and other privateers) back in the day and managed to partially tame the resistant Natives in its far-flung Empire, it seems likely that the latest experiment in American Imperial expansion will result in the replacement of an "incompetent" government exercise with highly motivated private, corporate armies and bureaucracies and so forth. And then just watch how "efficient" the detentions and tortures will become.

  Permalink Saturday, June 9, 2007 06:40 AM