Sam Hamod: America As We Knew It Is Almost Gone

“We have one party with 2 names.”
-Jesse Jackson, 1988 

“Not one Democratic senator would sign the Black Caucus inspired bill to question the Florida election fiasco.”
- Maxine Waters, Congresswoman from California in Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11. (In order to open an investigation into the questionable voting results in Florida and other irregularities, it required but one U.S. senator to sign the bill. But, none signed it. What held the Democratic senators back from questioning this stolen election? Ask yourself, as I do, why didn’t they sign it and open the investigation?)

(ICH) "When people start to look at the present situation in America, many whisper, some shout, “conspiracy.” I am not prone to fall into the conspiracy camps, but, certain things are now in play that have given me a new perspective on just how dangerous things are for you and me and what is left of our democracy. No, the nominal U.S. Government as headed by the President and the Congress will not fall, but our role, our rights and are power as voting citizens are soon to be gone if things continue as they are under the Bush administration, with Rumsfeld beating the drums of war and Ashcroft arresting people at will under the Patriot Act. There will continue to be a U.S. “government”, but we’ll have little or no influence in its composition or its policies—we will just keep paying its bills. 
The U.S. taxpayers, the U.S. military, the UN and various puppet governments our U.S. presidents have installed all over the world, are being used in the service of a large controlling entity based in America, the military-industrial-congressional-neo-con-mass media complex. This complex has the financial power to run the politics of the country; to control the media through corporate ownership and the pentagon has control over 80% of our real budget, without real oversight. In this process, our military is no longer being used to protect us, but to enforce illegal and immoral policies that are more imperialistic than defensive. There is even a hue and cry from many top military leaders who object to this behavior (especially when they have retired and can no longer be punished within the military system—i.e., Generals Zinni, General Schwarzkopf, Admiral Crowe and others military men of high standing). 
Many remember General Eisenhower’s warning as he left office, that the military-industrial complex was a threat to America’s future. What he had originally planned to say was that it was a 3 headed monster that included the congress; thus, it was the military-industrial-congressional complex. This has come to pass. But now there are two other factors at play: the oligopoly in the major media (owned by non-news corporations) and the government appointed neo-cons who have a major influence on the executive branch of government and their parallel persons, the neo-con Zionists who are strong in the congress and the senate as well as in both the Democratic and Republican parties, and we have the media at all levels owned by the major non-news corporation; unfortunately, with this predicament, what is called the “news” is nothing more than shallow “news headlines”, nothing in depth and often man of the international stories are full of deception and misleading perspectives. 
Add to this mix the massive outsourcing of jobs from America, with the new jobs paying much less than factory jobs and you can see how this is making the American people more and more powerless. Most people in good paying American jobs fear possible job loss due to outsourcing. The people in America, according to Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard University, are in record debt with foreclosures and bankruptcies occurring at an alarming pace. She has stated frequently that there is no safety net to save these people or the faltering American economy, regardless of what statements are made by Greenspan. In fact, she feels Greenspan is wrong. She won’t say he’s purposely misleading the nation, but she infers it. The new helplessness of the American people is part of a formula to allow the governmental and corporate control groups to push and pull the people whenever and wherever they want. 
I also am sure we will have a new draft so that we have enough military to enforce our rule; regardless of who wins the election. Unfortunately, those generals, colonels, admirals and others who balk our imperialistic policies are either kept off the major media or are ridiculed or black-mailed in some way so they aren’t allowed exposure. Or, they may meet with an “accident” as many military men believe happened to General George Patton at the end of WWII. 
Thus, our military and our workers have become mere pawns in this big chess game run out of the White House, the Congress and Senate, and in the offices of the Extra-National corporations. If you doubt me, just watch over the next few years to see how many more jobs are outsourced and how many “new jobs” are low paying in America. 
Just as a footnote to all this, John Kerry, the man who criticized the Viet Nam war as a quagmire, and who said Iraq was a quagmire, in order to win the Democratic nomination for president, announced today that if he wins, he will send another 40,000 troops to Iraq. Where is he going to get them from? He’ll have to recall all the man who are on “ready reserve” (those who have done their duty and are often already discharged) and extend the duty of those who were supposed to be rotated out of the service (as Bush has already done) and most likely have to institute the aforementioned draft . But even then, Bush/Kerry will find that 40,000 more troops will not be sufficient to stop the Iraqi and the Muslim resistance to the American occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Add to all this that Kerry today, July 17, has said that he basically agrees with President Bush’s “pre-emptive strike” policy. Thus, you can see that America is on course for more war or wars, regardless of which party wins the presidency. That’s why I used the Jesse Jackson quote at the top of this paper; clearly, as time has gone on—we do have one party with two names. As Ralph Nader pointed out, whichever of the parties gets into power, the behavior is similar. None of this bodes well for our democracy or our people. 
I have written articles over two years ago showing that there is a method to Bush’s madness in the ways he’s bankrupting America economically and morally. He wants to get rid of what federal agencies that are left or to privatize them so that everything is in private control and thus out of the hands of the congress and the people. Thus, these controlling groups, aforementioned, military/industrial/congressional/media will control the minds and lives of the common people of America. When anyone gets out of line, the Patriot Act I and the new Patriot Act II can be used to jail them without rights of habeas corpus, an attorney, without charges, all for an unlimited amount of time because the “war on terror” will be used as an excuse. Don’t say it can’t happen because it’s already happening in the U.S. and around the world through American puppets or secret arrests and internments. America did this to the Germans in WWI, Japanese and Italians in WWII and it is on track to do this to Arabs (both Christian and Muslim) and Muslims from all parts of the world—and racism against Blacks in America continues along with the new part of the population that is being demonized. 
As to the money to do all this, that is a good question. Most states in America are in the red and some are thinking of declaring bankruptcy. But, with the money already spent in Iraq, the debts of the states could have all been paid off and their economies could have been strengthened. The government also allowed Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, with your tax dollars, to bail out the American banks and others who were speculating in hedge funds and derivatives. The government is treading on thin ice at this time, because of the increase in the money supply with no support behind the dollar, which is creating a stagflation because the real income in the economy, which is the basis of our taxes, is faltering, and will continue to falter. 
But, in order to understand this, one must remember, the Federal Reserve System is actually run by the banks, for their ultimate power; Greenspan is their nominal head. He is but an employee of the largest banks, and they are not beholden to anyone because they are part of a new class of business that I call, THE EXTRA-NATIONALS. These corporations are not simply multi-national, they are outside the ken and power of any country; it’s almost as if they are so autonomous that they exist in a kind of VIRTUAL REALITY, that is as real as the nations of the world—but they are outside and ultimately larger, as a whole, than any nation or its power. This includes General Electric, Exxon-Mobil, General Motors, Ford, Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwell Security, Hewlett Packard/Compaq, etc. Our military is used in the service of these new Extra-National corporations who basically own the politics of America through their huge slush, influence, lobbying and pay-off funds. The U.S. Congress and President Bush have said or done little to help stop the bleeding from outsourcing. I’ve wondered aloud and in print for 3 years about who is going to pay the bills for the huge, bloated Pentagon budget when many of our best jobs have been shipped overseas or turned over to robots and self-correcting and generating computers. But none of this bothers these extra-national corporations because they don’t give a damn about the people of America, nor do their assistant, President Bush,, the Congress and Greenspan. 
Bill Clinton also helped this bad job situation by pulling America into NAFTA and the WTO, thus taking more power away from the American people. He did this in the face of opposition from major economists, social leaders and the general public—all of whom were against NAFTA. Interestingly, President George Bush Sr. during his term in office did not push NAFTA or the WTO, even though Ronald Reagan left them on his desk. Thus, it is not just Republicans who are behind this, both parties are part and parcel of this betrayal of the American people. Even though the American people complain about job-outsourcing, still the media downplays this (aside from Lou Dobbs on CNN) and quotes Greenspan, Snow and Evans who all say, from their multi-millionaire perches on high “Yes, the economy is improving and it will get better..” Yes, it will get better for the extra-national corporations, but not for the American citizens, the American workers. 
Add to this, the inordinate amount of air time the neo-cons have received in order to push their agenda, the whitewash by the 9/11 Select Committee of the Senate in which they absolved the neo-cons and their lackeys (Rice and Powell) and laid the problem at the doorstep of the CIA, and you can see that both parties play the game together on the American people. Aside from Byrd, Nader and Kucinich, not one of the major American political leaders wants to pull our troops out of Iraq. These are men who work from morality and conscience and money and flunky office positions be damned Nader is, and has always been, an independent operator; Kucinich is from a steel mill area and era and does not have the ear of the extra-nationals because he, like Nader, is still fighting for the American people, and Byrd is the senior senator who has seen it all and is speaking out because he’s sick of the way our country has gone from bad to worse in the last 20 years. 
Ironically, one of the most disrespected media barons, Rupert Murdoch, in order to help cut Kerry’s pull, has come out full-tilt for Ralph Nader on his Fox (faux) Network. He was allegedly also the one behind the false announcement that Kerry had chosen Dick Gerbhardt as his VP. This was meant to cause some consternation in the Kerry and Democratic camp; instead, it backfired on Murdoch. But this new move, clearly is to help Bush, not Nader. We shall see what Nader does with this. I know it bothers Nader to have Murdoch supporting him. Though he wants Bush out of office, Nader sees little difference at this time between Bush and Kerry. What Nader is trying to do is to help save what is left of our democracy through a 3rd party, but also trying to move Kerry to be more than Bush-lite. 
All this time, the military is being used and taking tremendous casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, Bush is continuing his policy of not letting the people see the coffins coming back ; it is as if the war is over, no one is dying, except abstractly on the evening news. Not seeing the coffins return, nor the maimed and wounded, allows Americans to believe in the “precision war”, and that our troops are triumphant and nobody dies. I’ll never forget the WWII movie, based on a novel by Harry Browne, A WALK IN THE SUN; a GI machine-gunner keeps saying, “Nobody dies, Nobody dies…” The sarcasm of his statements are continually being shown through the actor, Richard Conte, and the sorrow of it is repeated by another buddy of his, John Ireland, who is continually writing an imaginary letter home to his wife.
In Bush’s movie based war that he’s selling to the American people, nobody dies—but in truth, from what Al Jazeera and other TV stations from around the world have shown, many Americans, Iraqis and others do die—even women and children in large numbers as America bombs houses always hunting for “terrorists” that most of the Iraqis say don’t exist and have never been in the area. But our media and our military in Iraq toe the party line and keep saying, “The terrorist - (whoever is our terrorist of the momen) - used this as a safehouse, that’s why we bombed it. Of course there will be collateral damage, but American leaders shrug this off, saying it can’t be helped. But, as if it’s alright, America does pay some of the Iraqis for these deaths and injuries—but this is but a sham to cover the guilt and a method of trying to neutralize the anger of the Iraqis and Afghans. 
No honest, intelligent American should believe this garbage. Would you be satisfied being paid a small sum of money for the bombing of your child, mother, father, or whatever family member was killed by an occupying enemy. Knowing the Muslim and Iraqi mentality, I know that no amount of money can compensate for the unjust killing or maiming of one of their own. This is but another American fiction used to salve and deceive the American public and the conscience of those military people who are doing these nefarious deeds. That is why the suicide rate in Iraq is 3 times the normal combat duty suicide rate; America is doing things in Iraq and Afghanistan that contradict all the myths we have been taught to believe in about how good, moral and just we are—and this is causing our kids to lose perspective or be unable to carry the burden of the sins they have committed by following the orders of their officers. It’s a shame more officers don’t speak up against Rumsfeld, Abizaid, Sanchez, Kimmit an others who are shaming America in front of the whole world. 
So there you have it. We, as a people are getting cheated, lied to, and are fast losing our civil rights and liberty under Ashcroft, the right hand man of Bush. Our military is being used for imperialistic aims, we have over 127 bases on foreign soil at this time. Don’t you remember, THE COLD WAR IS OVER; WE HAVE NO REAL PHYSICAL ENEMY, BUT WE ARE MAKING MORE AND MORE STATELESS ENEMIES NOT ONLY IN ISLAM AND THE ARAB WORLD, BUT IN OTHER COUNTRIES SUCH AS THOSE IN AFRICA AND IN LATIN AMERICA WHO ARE RESISTING OUR DESIGNS FOR POWER. And, we are becoming poorer morally and financially as a nation by the day. Too soothe us, we given escape mechanisms through TV, we are given enough television to keep us occupied, and pseudo-news stories and shows (reality TV; Dr.Phil; Jerry Springer;Dateline;Wolf Blitzer;Bill O’Reilly;America’s Funniest Home Videos; 6 Feet Under: The Sopranos; Sex in the City; Survivor I, II, III, Bernie Mac;White Chicks;X Factor;NYPD Blue;Oprah;Abrams Report, The Bachelor; Marry a Millionaire; Extra; etc. etc.). Most of our fellow Americans spend more time on TV entertainment shows than they do examining what is happening to our country, to our troops and to our moral and economic policies. As one person said to me, 
“I don’t need any more bad news; I just want to watch these junk shows and relax.” 
Yes, we shall relax into TV, into skateboards, into video games that make people think their kids are smart, and raise a nation wherein 70% of the high school kids 2 years ago did not know who Eisenhower was. I’m sure, in a couple of years, they won’t know how Gore was cheated in Florida, or that he had a majority of the voters on his side but still lost the election,, or why we went into Iraq. This last point is important because the media each night keeps showing Bush and Cheney saying, “Yes, he did have WMDs, but we haven’t yet found them, and yes, there was a connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda that’s why we know Saddam had a lot to do with 9/11.” These two and their supporters like O’Reilly keep lying, even in the face of the CIA, the 9/11 Commission’s findings and other experts who keep saying, “NO, there was no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, and certainly no cooperation.” Most experts also note that there was enmity, not cooperation between Saddam and Bin Laden, who were trying to kill one another for years. As most real experts know, Saddam was a secularist and Bin Laden an ardent fundamentalist—enemies to the core. 
Also, don’t be surprised if Bush pulls John McCain in as his VP before the Republican convention. Of late, McCain, instead of criticizing Bush and his imperialistic policies, has come one board, praising Bush as a man of vision, as a great leader, a warrior. He has even said those things about Cheney! It is clear that the public is wary of Cheney, but they have trust in McCain, more than in Bush. Bush also saw how hard the Democrats tried to get McCain for their ticket. I wonder what blackmail they are using on McCain? Or, has McCain been invited into the inner-circle, usually reserved for the Skull and Bones group, like Clinton, Bush and Kerry and told to toe the line so that he may also get rewards. In other words, has McCain lost his long held integrity? It appears that way. I will not be surprised to see him as a VP candidate in order to strengthen the Republican, Bush ticket for the presidency. 
Thus, this powerful complex can co-opt anyone or anything, they’ve got the money and power to do it—in business, in health, in medicines, in trade, in military power and in terms of using our armed services to do their dirty work. The armed forces are loyal to the administration, but the administration is not loyal to them, That is why Bush is cutting veterans benefit, cutting VA hospital staff, and keeping pay for the men serving in Iraq at non-combat levels because he claims “the war is over.” That is why these leaders don’t care about how many American troops die in these wars of conquest; mislabeled as “wars of defense” and “the war on terrorism”. They keep saying, “It’s for the nation’s good.” Ironically, we have become the world’s most fear nation—many others see us as terrorists. As Pogo said, long ago, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Sad, but I fear true, today more than the decades ago when that line was first published. 
Our country has not always lived up to the myths of its freedoms and “equality” and “moral leadership,” but at least we had a semblance of real democracy and some progress in equality and moral leadership under people like Lincoln, FDR and Eisenhower—but this administration has washed all this away. During the Viet Nam war, Robert Bly put out a small, but powerful book, THE TEETH MOTHER AT LAST, which showed that America’s teeth were bared in Viet Nam, not its hand of charity or love. The teeth are even more visible now, but it is ironic that neither of our presidential candidates nor do most of the congress want to even apologize for the sharp, cruel and immoral teeth we show at this time. Those who criticize from within America are called “traitors,” and those who criticize from without (like Germany and France, are called “ungrateful”). Sadly, most of the American people believe in the demonization process that has been used against people who resist our imperialism and accept them being called “terrorists or insurgents’, when in fact, to the indigenous people of those countries like Iraq and Afghanistan we are seen as the “invaders,” the “crusaders,” as the “terrorists.” If you have a chance to watch Chinese or other foreign TV stations on cable, you’ll see that we are no longer the “good guys” with the “white hats”, we are now the bad guys. When you get to Europe, Asia or Africa—you’ll hear the same negative opinion of our behavior in the world.
Are we in a terrible mess? Yes, and it is about time we wake up, before it’s too late. Pass this article on, it may awaken some; at least I hope it will.

~Sam Hamod is former editor of 3rd World News (Wash, DC); advisor to the State Department; professor at Princeton, Michigan, Iowa & Howard; he may be reached at shamod@cox.net"