empires

first a couple of observations re. the video linked below. as noted at the opening, it's of a speech given back in may 2007, 19 years ago when george w. bush was president and the u.s. was at war in iraq and afghanistan, so it's a little dated. for example, the speaker michael parenti (who died earlier this year age 92) observed indignantly that the u.s. had 380 military bases overseas (now it's over 800) and that the bloated defense budget was over 400 billion (now it's about 1 trillion (1,000 billion) and if trump gets his way it will be 1.5 trillion very soon). but besides that, the observations he made then are just as relevant today: that empires are rather admired and respected by the american establishment, and the fact that they're built upon imperialist aggression, war and intimidation, and that they enrich oligarchs and are harmful to most everyone else, including the lower classes residing in the empire (in this case, the u.s.), is largely ignored or obfuscated by our mainstream corporate media. in short, this is the sort of in depth, intelligent, and well informed analysis that is anathema to our mainstream corporate media, which seems designed to provide just the opposite sort of analysis, shallow, poorly informed, and frankly often misleading, making it seem as though the imperialists are the good guys and their victims (the 'terrorists') the bad guys.

i can't vouch that every claim made here is true, but i'm pretty sure the gist of the argument is. to have developed this view one must have previously done independent reading and research far off the beaten path of mainstream discourse, read books like Manufacturing Consent and learned that it's supported by facts.

about 20 minutes in he draws comparisons between iraq and iran and how both of these countries resisted american-israeli regional dominance and imperialism, and thus had to be crushed. perceptive and prescient.

although this talk was given 19 years ago, this video wasn't posted to youtube until 14 years ago, according to the info. provided. interestingly, the vast majority of the comments to it have been posted in the past 10 days, suggesting that it's viewing was suppressed until quite recently when it hasn't been, for some peculiar reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXoHTEkCgBs

more on american empire from the incomparable abby martin ("the mask is completely ripped off"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBA8EfQ-wYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSZGeDkynOI

a couple of great memoirs from robert mason dealing with his experiences in the vietnam war as a helicopter pilot, CHICKENHAWK, and how the severe PTSD he suffered afterwards affected him for decades afterwards, CHICKENHAWK: BACK IN THE WORLD