At a time when the ideology of white supremacy is under critical scrutiny across the land, is American supremacy remaining intact and embraced by all? It is possible to wonder how history will judge this current USA military occupation of the world.
Seventy five years ago the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people in the blast and firestorm. Tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days after Hiroshima the U.S. dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Thousands more there died from the delayed effects of radiation poisoning. With Japan on the cusp of surrendering, did the U.S. really need to do that?
Probably yes, if American supremacy is the starting principle.
In the 1990’s a right wing think tank called “Project for the New American Century” (PNAC) produced a document “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” which called for “Full Spectrum Dominance” of land, sea, air and space by American forces—a bold doctrine of American supremacism. PNAC was the brain child of such ideologues as John Bolton, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, non of whom ever saw a war they didn’t like.
The endless war on terrorism, skyrocketing military profits and uncontrollable military budgets which have come in the wake of PNAC seem to be accepted as a reasonable norm for national behavior, noticed by few and deplored by even fewer. One great enabler of this pandemic scourge of war is the annual, unheralded cozy cooperation of Republicans and Democrats in Washington to pass military budgets like $740.5 billion for 2021. Here is one congressional action where all differences are laid aside, and RepDems make something happen. A wonder to behold.
On this another Hiroshima/Nagasaki anniversary, let’s pause to ask whether there will ever be remorse for the greatest of all human evils, war itself. Will we allow American supremacy to replace white supremacy without a second thought?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in his Nobel peace prize speech, “Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle.” This is as true of nations as it is of men.
Stay human,
John K. Stoner
Still refusing to look at the virus as the only thing that matters.