As American as Apple Pie

Pressure pushing down on me 
Pressing down on you no man ask for 
Under pressure - that burns a building down 
Splits a family in two 
Puts people on streets 
It's the terror of knowing 
What this world is about…
- Queen, “Under Pressure”

The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect.
- Dan Mitrione, Head of the US Agency for International Development’s Office of Public Safety mission in Montevideo, Uruguay, Professional Torturer, c. 1964-1970
 
As the Fifth Anniversary of 9/11 and the mid-term elections approached, Mr. Rove and his fellow puppeteers shifted the fog machines into high gear. The terrorists are definitely coming this time! Grab your NoDoz® and AirWick® and head for the shelters! Only the Republican Party stands between us and TEOTWAWKI*!

One of the most striking - and distressing – events of the past few weeks has been the spectacle of the Great Decider assaulting the sensibilities of the nation with a series of speeches aimed at vindicating and legitimizing a State commitment to torture. The ability of our rulers to self-righteously redefine, disregard, abrogate, and outright reject international laws and treaties which heretofore have served to limit some of the worst excesses of human behavior is remarkable. This all has occurred, of course, behind the usual demonstrably false veil of moral and cultural superiority.

Many years ago, my amateur interest in history led to an ongoing re-examination of what I had been taught in my formative years.  Much to my dismay, this effort at self-education has forced some rather radical changes in worldview over time.  Given the fact that my family has always had a “patriotic” bent (every generation for at least 150 years has seen one or more of us – including yours truly - serving in US or CS uniform), these have often been difficult changes to accept. 

Suffice it to say, that the history of the United States, if properly examined, reveals an ugly and unhappy record of military adventurism clothed in mythic robes of patriotic piety.  Emboldened by a messianic self-image unique among nations in its scale, scope, and chutzpah, our leaders have been embarked on the military “evangelization” of Earth for nearly two hundred years. With a missionary zeal that would be the envy of any modern televangelist, America, secure in its self-pronounced exceptionalism, has actively sought to convert humanity to its unique blend of “democracy”, “freedom”, and “capitalism” - at the point of a bayonet or, lately, a DU round!

Since the birth of our nation, less-than-just wars of opportunity and conquest have been launched against British interests, French interests, Spanish interests, German interests, every Native American nation within the territory of the United States, Mexico, the Confederate States of America, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam (and most of Southeast Asia), Panama, Grenada, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. One can argue with some accuracy that World War II was a unique event – a “just” war, if you will – but the manner in which America was manipulated into participating in that conflict was certainly less than legitimate. Additionally, it was that conflict which brought us nuclear weaponry and the resolve to use it as a combination tool of mass murder and diplomacy. Oy vey! What leverage our foreign policy gurus can obtain with those things! 

These “legal” actions pale into insignificance, however, when one considers just a few of the nations who have experienced covert (sometimes, overt) U.S. government intervention since 1945 alone: China, Italy, Greece, the Philippines, Korea, Albania, Germany, Iran, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Syria, Indonesia, British Guiana, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Haiti, France and Algeria, Ecuador, the Congo, Brazil, Peru, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Indonesia, East Timor, Ghana, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Iraq, Australia, Angola, Zaire, Jamaica, Seychelles, Morocco, Suriname, Libya, Nicaragua, Panama, Bulgaria and Albania, El Salvador, Lebanon, and Venezuela (!). Much of this meddling continues to this very day. No wonder that Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, claimed that he could detect the faint perfume of sulfur clinging to the podium following Mr. Bush’s earlier pontifications to the world leaders assembled at the recent UN forum. For those that may question the veracity of this partial list, ample documentation can be found in William Blum’s superb book, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2. 

The rise of “robust” (to use one of the new favorite words of the Bush Administration) secret service and intelligence communities since the 1940’s has allowed the pursuit of imperial goals on a previously unimagined scale. With the off-budget, “black” nature of these agencies, it has been possible for them to move and act well outside the parameters of civilized society. There is simply no need to be hampered by moral or ethical questions regarding conduct. These entities answer to no one, fight their own wars, and generate their own income streams via such creative techniques as international drug and arms smuggling and eternal war. They are also quite successful in acquiring ample “legitimate” funding via liberal distributions of our own tax money dispensed by our “elected” officials in the U.S. Congress.  It is apparent that our alphabet agencies have been adept at “rewarding their own”, too, when one examines the multi-generational involvement of the Bush Dynasty and those loveable Corporatchiks, Messrs. Cheney and Rumsfeld.  

The on-going efforts of these behind-the-scenes players are driven not so much by some patriotic fervor, as they are by a multi-generational attempt to expand the hegemony of the corporatist entity, Amerika, Inc. Freedom and liberty are only of interest to the ruling elites in so far as they are useful in establishing near monopolies for a relative handful of large cartels.  All of this, of course, is nothing new to anyone who has made even the slightest attempt to research history on his or her own.

“Ah, but…,” some will say, “if we hadn’t done this or that, the bad guys might have done something else. America is more ethical – more moral – than everyone else on the planet!” To conclude that our nation’s centuries long continuing intervention in the business of others has been driven by some pure and righteous motive, is simply irrational and such thinking rejects history and reality. As an aside, I am frankly sick of hearing the grand proclamations of our sanctimonious patriotic oligarchs who have their hands on the levers of power. When will the man in the street finally decide that “enough is enough!” and proceed to throw these bums out of office?

After reflecting on this state of affairs, it began to dawn on me that our present junta’s commitment to defending torture rights is simply a reflection of the corporatist milieu in which we live and move.  Flowing from this realization, I have come to believe that we are all subject to and are experiencing on a daily basis what can only be described as state torture.  This is not to say that there is some evil genius or conspiracy that is consciously guiding such, but rather that it is inherent within the very fabric of our modern neo-fascist state.