To Hate America or Not To Hate America

Scanning these posts you'll notice that a lot of them focus on the United States and that they tend to be unfavourable toward America. I want to make it clear, I do not hate the United States of America but, like a great many Americans, I have come to loathe what it has turned into and where it apparently is heading.

Time was it was considered extremely rude to pronounce judgments on someone else's country. That will explain why you see so few references on this blog to the Norwegians and their beastly ways. I won't even go into the Tongans. But you see, the United States is different and, because of those differences, it directly and dramatically affects each and every one of us and that makes it fair game. Washington knows it affects us, in fact it wants to reach everyone on the planet. Think I'm paranoid or delusional or making this up? If you have any doubt I'd invite you to take a stroll through the pages of The Project for the New American Century which you'll find at www.newamericancentury.org.

PNAC is the viper's nest from which the American neoconservative movement slithered. It has, in turn, spawned spin mills like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. PNAC was formed in the wake of Bush I's decision not to invade Iraq lest America get dragged into a quagmire. What was that old nancy boy thinking? The PNAC'ers believe America must dominate the planet, thwarting, by military force if necessary, any nation that evolves to become its military, political or economic rival. Now I know that sounds insane but it's there for all to read on their web site. Remember, PNAC is a group founded by such obscure types as Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and others, the same group that succeeded in seizing control of the White House. We know where that has taken the world, don't we?

The bright lights of PNAC are, collectively, the Darth Vader of American democracy and, thanks to the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks, they have brought out the very worst in the United States and transformed it into a genuine, rogue nation that has destabilized the Middle East and endangered the security of the rest of the planet, and that includes you. It's their America I can't stomach.

Fact is I love Americans... all the thinking, questioning, decent and honourable Americans and they are a large and growing segment of their population. Among their ranks you'll find Bill Moyers and Paul Krugman, Jon Stewart, Al Franken and Chris Hedges and many, many more. I hope to introduce you to these people who carry the banner of moderation and, with it, their nation's promise of progressive reform.

There was a time when the world was in a healthy state of balance, swinging a little bit left for a while and then a little bit right, and somehow becoming a better place through what it learned from both sides. Now we have this perverse force that is dragging our societies, our nations toward the far right and we're paying an awful price for that. They want to take us to an extreme where thousands of years of history and countless tyrants have shown we cannot live as free men and women. This problem may sound daunting, a hopeless challenge but the truth is that you already have the power to change all this if you'll only take the time to learn about it and come to understand it.

There is a reason these people are fearmongers and wanton dissemblers. If they can't keep you confused, frightened and off-balance they can't prevail. You don't have to put up with that and, if you don't, your world will be a much better place for it.