"Calling of Our Time"
 
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:43:49 -0600 (CST)

 
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FROM MANIFEST DESTINY AND LEBENSRAUM TO

BUSH'S "CALLING OF OUR TIME"

JANUARY 22, 2005                                                  DAVE
SILVER

A new and profitable fix was sought after the U.S. economic Depression
of 1839 which followed on the heels of the genocide against Native
Americans during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson. (1829-37)   William
Harrison of the Virginia planter aristocracy died shortly after
taking office in 1841.   His successors Presidents Tyler and Pierce
talked about Manifest Destiny, a 19th century form of imperialism
whose aim it was to pump up the economy by "extending the boundaries
of freedom to others."   The conquest and annexation of a huge chunk
of Mexico and the imposition of "our values" was the response

Sounds like G.W.'s  "spread of liberty" as the "calling of our
time."  But Bush is partially correct in pronouncing that the
nation's "vital interests and deepest beliefs are now one."  For
this was so since the highest stage of capitalism, namely imperialism
from about 1900.   That is, whatever is good for capital accumulation
is also good for the people including its morality and values.  Or
to phrase it more elegantly as Marx did; "the ideas of the ruling
class are in every epoch the ruling ideas:  the class which is the
ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling
intellectual force."  As Phyllis Bennis aptly notes in her book
Before and After that U.S. foreign policy in the context of
terrorism/anti-terrorism had its roots in a "permanent war agenda"
long before 9/11.

Meanwhile in Germany in the 1920's Hitler was putting the finishing
touches to his magnum opus Mein Kampf which postulated among other
things the inevitability of war.  Lebensraum or literally living
space was the pretext, but the goal was the strengthening of a
German industrial base, its war making potential and huge profits.
What better way to sell the program to Germans at a time when a few
ounces of butter cost a million Marks and blame the sad state of
affairs on the Bolsheviks and Jews.

Of course today Bush the second no longer can use the Red Devil so
we turn to the Terrorist Devil.  (a Drug Devil was in fashion between
the other two Devils)  Just as the Bush-Bin-Laden financial and
military connections have been adequately documented, we must also
remember that Grandpa Bush, Prescott, was V.P. at W.A. Harriman and
was the head of capital investments which included the pro-Nazi
firm of Fritz Thyssen called Vereinigte Stahlwerke or United Steel
Works.   Fritz along with another Adolph-Krupp, were the chief
providers of necessary materials needed by the Wermacht and Luftwaffe.
(Panzer tanks and Stuka dive bombers for instance)

Pre-emptive strikes, genocidal war and regime change is done in the
name of "freedom" against "tyranny" and those who died in Iraq
according to G.W.

Bush died for "human dignity and idealism."  This is the Big Lie
that the German Chancellor perfected in the 1930's.   "Freedom" has
become the ideological cover for U.S. imperialist adventures seeking
domination and control over resources like oil whether in Baghdad,
the Ukraine, the Caspian Sea or Caracas.   But just as the U.S. had
the Apartheid State of South Africa as a puppet proxy to keep
Liberation movements in check, so today Israel plays that role to
keep order and protect our economic interest in the Middle East.

The reaction to the Inaugural speech by the Paris daily Le Monde,
aptly notes that "in the eyes of Mr. Bush, the criteria for tyranny
would essentially be hostility toward the United States and that
he would be inclined to close his eyes to the democratic failings
of regimes that show cooperativeness."  Yes indeed.