"We have exterminated a bacterium
[Jews] because we did not want in the end to be infected by the bacterium and die of it. I will not see
so much as a small area of sepsis
appear here or gain a hold. Wherever it may form, we will cauterize it. All in
all, we can say that we have fulfilled this most difficult duty for the love of
our people. And our spirit, our soul, our character has not suffered injury
from it,� Heinrich Himmler, Head of the Gestapo, [1] [Emphasis added]
�If we crowd in too many termite killers,
each using a screwdriver to kill the termites, you risk collapsing
the floors or the foundation. In this war, we are using screwdrivers to kill termites because it is a
guerilla war and we cannot use bigger weapons. We have to get the right balance
of termite killers to get rid of the termites without
wrecking the house� Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Commander U.S. forces in
Vietnam, 1967 [2] [Emphasis added]
as
I stated in part 13, comparing two political systems with seemingly different backgrounds and history could present theoretical
difficulties. The reason being, we tend to accept that the resulting
dissimilarities might be evidence that similarities have no relevance. However,
similarities have their own logic, and if methodically analyzed, they may
neutralize or even cancel any other consideration. Consequently, comparing an
entrenched and historically durable U.S. imperialism with the short-lived
Nazi-imperialism is straightforward�both imperialisms thought and acted
similarly in specific ideological and practical areas.
Hitler�s ideological manifestoes: If we exclude Hitler�s biographical
confabulations of Mein Kampf and the more articulate program of the Nazi
party of 1924, there would be no manifestoes left in the ideological storage of
Nazism. This, however, does not exclude that massive Nazi propaganda, speeches,
and edicts have eventually found their way to the German law and constitution
under Hitler. Of course, all of these are important ideological elements that
helped in the implementation of certain practices or in justifying them; but no
Nazi figures promulgated them under names such as national doctrines with
international ramifications, amendments, directives, bills, and acts. In
addition, unlike the U.S. ideology of imperialism that developed over a long
period, Hitler�s ideology of empire did not have sufficient time to implement
on international level.
- Mein Kampf/Imperialism and its
theological and secular motivations: Hitler�s most salient points on the
concept of imperialism are, [3]:
- Racism: �Racial superiority of the
Aryan race, hence of the German people.�
- Sphere
of influence:
Lebensraum (vital or living space for the German people)�in
Hitler�s language this meant either recovering German lands lost in WWI,
or where German-speaking populations lived in regions adjacent to Germany.
But the real meaning of Lebensraum
is the determination to practice colonialism by acquiring new colonies
under the pretext of the growing German population.
- Nazi theology of imperialism: says
Hitler, �Hence today I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of
the Almighty Creator; by defining myself against the Jew, I am fighting
for the work of the Lord.
- Nazi principle of violence: says
Hitler, �Only in the steady and constant application of force lies the
very first prerequisite for success . . . Any violence which does not
spring from a firm, spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain.
The Program of the
German Workers' Party/Imperialism and its theological and secular
motivations: The program of the Nazi Party contains two points out of the
25-point program that refer to the ideology of imperialism, [4]:
- Point
1: �We demand the
unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the
right of self-determination of peoples.�
- Point 3: �We
demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and
colonization for our surplus population.�
U.S. ideological manifestoes: From the Puritans� disembarking on the
shores of America in 1628 to George Bush�s invasion of Iraq in 2003, successive
U.S. presidents, politicians, military personalities, thinkers, historians, and
opinion makers emulated each other to create doctrines and ideas to reinforce
the imperialistic bent of the United States. If we skim through the history of
U.S. doctrines, we will find that Monroe, Teddy Roosevelt via Henry Cabot
Lodge, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Kissinger-Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush I,
Colin Powell, Clinton, and Wolfowitz-Bush II, and many others have all
enshrined U.S. aggressive colonialistic imperialism in documents, studies, and
Union Addresses.
What distinguishes these doctrines is their individual
cumulative value. In other words, each doctrine builds on or adds new details
of empire to the previous ones. Another common characteristic is a recurrent
multi-pronged theme: expansionist military platforms, supremacist or racist
beliefs, planned desire for direct
control of foreign resources, and rationalized theological mystification of
America�s role in the world.
U.S. Principles
of Imperialism Versus Nazi Imperialism
- Racism: at the beginning of the
American state, racial beliefs in the superiority of the British colonists
toward Native American Indians permitted the near extermination of these,
and the enslavement of over 3 million Africans. In modern U.S.A., American
Indians still experience the confiscation of what remained of their lands,
while the culture of discrimination or of racist attitudes against
African-Americans and Hispanics continues unabated despite improvement and
widespread collaboration among diverse racial groups.
- Sphere of influence: although U.S.
ruling elites did not use terms such as Lebensraum, they invented its equivalent: national interests. Because imperialism with limitations
placed on it cannot move forward, it must depend, therefore, on changing
interpretations that serve its purpose. Accordingly, the U.S. used the
�national interest� ruse to expand territorially, economically, and
militarily, thus encroaching on the rest of the world. When the U.S.
imposes on foreign countries to restructure their economies to meet �free
market� rules, when it subverts the realties of every nation on earth, and
when it issues politically motivated reports on the violation of �human
rights� around the world, then it necessarily treats the globe as an American lebensraum.
- U.S. theology of imperialism:
James Wallis in an article entitled
Dangerous Religion writes, �Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist
Convention, recalls Bush once saying, "I believe God wants me to be
president." After Sept. 11, Michael Duffy wrote in Time magazine, the president spoke
of "being chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment."
[5]
- U.S. principle of U.S. violence:
let us cite George Kennan, Director of Policy Planning, State Department,
1948 who aimed at the same objective of the Nazis from a different angle.
Says Kennan, �To maintain this position of disparity [U.S.
military-economic supremacy] . . . we will have to dispense with all
sentimentality and day-dreaming. . . . We should cease to talk about vague
and . . . unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the
living standard and democratization. The day is not far off when we are
going to have to deal in straight power concepts. . . . The less we are
then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.� [6]
- On the concept of self-determination: on
this issue, Hitler and the U.S.
differ only marginally. While Hitler demanded the unification of all
Germans in a Greater Germany based on the right of self-determination of
the German people as a step toward European domination, the U.S. defines
self-determination in different terms. U.S. ideologues want to unify the
world under their imperialistic domination based on their sheer determination to abolish or
subordinate the inherent rights for independence of all other nations to
their exclusive interests.
- On the issue of colonization: the
U.S. beats Germany of Hitler on all accounts. While Hitler prospected the
repossession of lost African colonies and the possession of new ones, the
U.S. history is nothing but a seamless chapter of brutal colonization and
geo-strategic encroachments on the planet and its outer space.
The following is a list of the most important doctrines that
shaped U.S. imperialism:
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823: said President
James Monroe, �We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable
relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that
we should consider any attempt on their [Europeans] part to extend their system
to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With
the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power, we have not
interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have
declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on
great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any
interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other
manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation
of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States� [7]
This address to the Congress is
the progenitor of all U.S. world expansionist doctrines. First, President
Monroe declared the U.S. as the hegemonic power of almost one third of the
globe. Second, as a president of a colonialist power, he acknowledged the
rights of European colonialist powers to own colonies, but omitted freedom
rights of the colonized populations. Third, he interpreted any move by European powers in the Western hemisphere
as a danger to U.S. safety. This interpretation had led, later, U.S. rulers to
camouflage their world expansion under the pretense of security. In the end, we
reached the explosive imperialist point where U.S. rulers began claiming that
anything that happens within world societies is a potential threat to the
national security of the hyper-empire, unless they approve of it.
Invariably, U.S. interpretations are nothing more than
alibis to create colonialistic and imperialistic attitudes that eventually
cemented U.S. interventionist policy worldwide. Furthermore, it is of interest
to note that Monroe used imperialistic psychology to label colonialist
competition as manifestation of unfriendly disposition toward the United
States. George Bush used the same concept in 2001 as when he asked
countries to show their friendliness to the U.S. by taking part in his Zionist
crusade against Arab and Muslim nations.
Manifest Destiny, 1845: Manifest Destiny is a phrase coined by Editor John
O�Sullivan to represent the basic idea of U.S. colonialist expansion. Says
O�Sullivan, ". . . . the right of our manifest destiny to over
spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of
liberty and federative development of self government entrusted to us. It is
right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for
the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth." (Emphasis added) [8]
First, O�Sullivan used the
�Providence� as justification for territorial expansion, whereas in no
scripture has ever the �Providence� gave any such instruction to British white
settlers or their progeny. Second, he translated his �divine� interpretation to
total colonialist greed as in � . . . To possess the whole continent . .
. etc.� This meant severing Native Nations from their natural environment and
disconnecting their socio-historical and geographical continuity.
The
Carter Doctrine, 1980:
President Carter is a precocious hyper-imperialist, and a hegemonic
Monroe-ist from top to bottom. In what has become his doctrine, Carter stated
the following: "Let our position be absolutely clear: an attempt by any
outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an
assault on the vital interests of the United States of America. And such an
assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." [9]
The most interesting thing about
the Carter Doctrine is that a zealot crusading president (Bush) had changed its
premise. Instead of the imagined Soviet takeover of the Middle East, we ended
up with the U.S. takeover of the same. Bush clearly settled, temporarily, the issue on which among
imperialist powers can have the means to rule Iraq and the Middle East. I said
temporarily, because the U.S. with its farce of Iraqi sovereignty completed on
June 28, 2004 and with the tireless Iraqi uprising against its imperialist
rule, is yet to conquer the country; but in order to do so, the U.S. has to
factor the implacable forces of history in its calculations.
As a doctrinaire, Carter is one
among the many architects of American aggressiveness in the world�he created
the Rapid Deployment Force, by which U.S. imperialists could quickly intervene,
as they wish, in the so-called �hot spots� of the world.
The Reagan Doctrine, 1985: Ronald Reagan, who once
attributed atmospheric pollution to C02 emitted from trees, is the
godfather of Evangelical American military interventionism. Ted Galen Carpenter, foreign policy
analyst at the Cato Institute explains the Reagan Doctrine as follows:
The Doctrine surfaced at the
president's February 1985 State of the Union Address when he affirmed, �We must
not break faith with those who are risking their lives�on every continent from
Afghanistan to Nicaragua�to defy Soviet aggression and secure rights which have
been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense.� [10]
Carpenter adds: "Secretary of State George P. Shultz [11] expanded on
this embryonic policy assumption in a February 22, 1985, speech before San
Francisco's Commonwealth Club. There and in a subsequent Foreign Affairs
article, Shultz asserted that a wave of democratic revolutions was sweeping the
world. He contended that for years the USSR and its proxies have acted without
restraint to back insurgencies designed to spread communist dictatorships. Wars
of national liberation �became the pretext for subverting any non-communist
country in the name of so-called socialist internationalism.� At the same time, the infamous
�Brezhneve Doctrine� proclaimed that any victory of communism was irreversible.
According to Shultz, the Soviets were saying to the world: �What's mine is
mine. What's yours is up for grabs� (emphasis by Carpenter)
Reagan, being the progenitor in
using the theological word evil in
modern U.S. politics (evil empire, i.e., USSR), paved the way for George W.
Bush to use the same in his infamous phrase �axis of evil.� Psychologically
there is either a distinct intentional dualism in the thinking of U.S.
politicians when they view aggressions by others and aggressions they make or a
calculated strategy aimed at preventive accusations for initiating aggressions.
The passage where Regan declares,
� . . . and secure rights which have been ours from birth� is the essential imperialistic creed of
the United States. Obviously, Reagan considered controlling the world and its
population, the birthright of American imperialists. In this regard, he
equalled Hitler when he declared the Arian race the fittest to rule over
others. (Emphasis added)
George Shultz, on
the other hand, is a tactician of imperialistic distortions. First, he
considered any popular uprising or war of liberation against tyranny,
neo-colonialism, and U.S.-backed fascist dictatorships in developing countries
as communist subversion. Second, Shultz, an imperialist skilled in the practice
of obliterating the freedom of choice of other nations, spoke of �democratic
revolution,� without providing a clue about what he meant by �democratic.�
Third, and this is an American demogogic practice, he considered the USSR world
policy as an attempt to spread Soviet influence in name of socialist
interventionism; but, as expected, he completely ignored U.S. world
interventionism that is habitually made in the name of �democracy.� As for the
pharse, �what is mine is mine, etc.,�
This is risible American propganda, as the U.S. history is nothing but naked
piracy, and had always for a motto, �what yours is up for grab,� of which, the
seizer of Iraqi oilfields is the latest episode.
National Space Policy Doctrine,
1996: a reading
in the basic philosophy of space exploration guidelines of the United States
would show the many hegemonic sides of U.S. imperialism and its ideological
making. In September 1996, the National Science and Technology Council issued
general directives on the matter. [12] The following are the main points
attesting to imperialistic intentions to dominate outer space, as reported in
the introduction.
. . . We will maintain this leadership role by supporting a strong,
stable and balanced national space program that
serves our goals in national security, foreign policy, economic growth,
environmental stewardship and scientific and technical excellence. Access to and use of space is central for
preserving peace and protecting U.S. national security as well as civil and
commercial interests. The United States will pursue greater levels of
partnership and cooperation in national and international space activities and
work with other nations to ensure the continued exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes.
Among the goals that related to implementing imperialism are
items (b) and (e):
(b) Strengthen and maintain
the national security of the United State.
(e) Promote international cooperation to further U.S. domestic,
national security, and foreign policies.
Although the U.S. concept of imperialism is vast, its
ideological keywords are limited and immutable. Among these are American
values, national security, vital interests, freedom, democracy, market economy.
In short, any U.S. official document or declaration, that contains these words
or similar is necessarily relevant to U.S. imperialism as it proceeds to
exercise its control and expansion.
Rebuilding
America�s defenses: Strategies, forces and resources for a new American
Century, 2000 (by the Zionist think-tank, the Project for
the American Century)
Clean Break: A new Strategy for securing the realms, 1996 (a
study conducted by Richard Perle for Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel)
The National Security
Strategy of the United States of America (NSSUSA), 2002 (By the National
Security Agency)
Among all American doctrines, none can beat the three
doctrines I just mentioned. Collectively, these represent the pillars of U.S.
hyper-imperialism. Because these
doctrines are inseparable and form a unified core (Zionists of all extractions
wrote and implemented them), I shall analyze them as a unit in an upcoming part
of this series. In particular, the NSSUSA 2002 is the culmination of Zionist
control of U.S. foreign policy and hence of U.S. imperialism. By all accounts,
the authors of the NSSUSA and its principle argument�war of preemption�have
prepared it with the specific intent to conquer Iraq and the Middle East on
behalf of Israel and of U.S. Zionists.
The NSSUSA 2002 is not about American national security at
all. It is an affirmation of U.S. supremacist posturing; a declaration of
permanent war against the rest of world; a military warning that only the
American model is the viable model for humanity; and it is a blueprint for
military domination of the globe. Technically, the NSSUSA 2000 is a reminder
that Hitlerism as ideology of nationalist superiority and military force can
change its name and time, but cannot change its fundamental nature. Here, I shall
only cite the first sentence of the introduction as signed by President George
W. Bush:
The great struggles of the
twentieth century between liberty and
totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom�and a single sustainable model for national
success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise� [13]
U.S. doctrinaires of the hyper-imperialism who wrote the
document used three rhetorical elements of propaganda. First, they shrewdly
applied the religious theology of the antipodes on politics as in �liberty vs.
totalitarianism.� This is equivalent to �good vs. evil.� Second, while they
imperialistically cancelled all other possible socio-economic models of
development of world societies, they consecrated capitalism, as in �a single sustainable
model� as the only logical model. This is pure ideological dictatorship, as no
economist, freethinker, or politician can provide evidence that capitalism as
dictated by the United States is the only economic answer to the needs of
humanity.
NOTES
[1] Quoted in Jeremy
Noakes and Geoffrey Rodham, ed., Documents
on Nazism 1919�1945, (New York: The Viking Press, 1975), p. 493.
[2] Quoted in Richard Drinnon, Facing
West, (Schocken Books, 1980),
p. 448
[3] http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/muson/AP%20Mod/World%20War%20II/mein_kampf.htm
[4] http://www.hitler.org/writings/programme/
[5] http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0309&article=030910
[6] http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/RevealingQuotes1.html
[7] http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/monrodoc.html
[8] http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/manifest/manif1.htm
[9] 1980 State of the
Union address
[10] Cato Institute�U.S. Aid to Anti-Communist Rebels: The
'Reagan Doctrine' and Its Pitfalls
[11] George P. Shultz
[12] http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/national/nstc-8.htm
[13] http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html
Next: Part 16: American Modified and Accepted Hitlerism:
Comparisons and conclusions (4 of 4)
B. J. Sabri is an Iraqi-American anti-war
activist. Email bjsabri@yahoo.com.