Is America Worth Saving? Part 3

This is the third part of a three-part series aimed at focusing on the above question and the possible answers to it. In the The link to this flash video was removed for security reasons .

A closer look at the adbuster timeline of American aggression in foreign countries shows that the use of US military in other countries is nothing new, and the US is far from the only country to engage in this practice. The difference, however, is that nearly every other nation on the planet has stopped this practice, especially those who were the main offenders over the past few centuries.

It used to be that Great Britain would act whenever and wherever it wanted, alone or in concert with other nations. France would do the same, along with other European powers. But since WWII, only the US has continued this practice on a global scale. Oh, I'm sure others will quickly point out regional conflicts in Africa, or cross-border skirmishes in South America, but outside of the Falkland Islands war between Argentina and Great Britain, there are few skirmishes and none with a global reach. Only the US has made it a practice to be engaged in war, alone or in concert with others, during every single decade since WWII.

3. Any part of the government that relates to stopping pollution or improving the living standard of Americans is bad. Over the past three decades we have seen the EPA become a useless organization with fewer inspectors and a diminishing role. The popular theme now is, "Hands off our industries." Companies are freer now to pollute to their hearts' content without fear of huge penalties. Selling guns on the open market to anyone and everyone, legally or illegally, is common practice. The ATF Bureau has fewer inspectors and a general mandate to turn a blind eye to this practice.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Americans are jailed annually for smoking or possessing marijuana. The trend here is, if you get high you go to jail, but if you sell a lethal weapon illegally, you are considered a model citizen. And this can even be presented as a pure class issue, since White kids snorting coke or taking crack at locally organized parties, and even in the presence of police, are seldom molested, but the poor and minorities who are found with less than a joint are often incarcerated and punished as a result.

Health care in the US, once the at the vanguard of world health care systems, was rated no better than 37th in 2000. Today, we have 50 million people without health care and the trend is for that number to increase. Patients in the US have longer waits than 40 years ago, have more costs to pay for the same service even after adjusting for inflation, and are being denied service at an ever increasing rate. And to top it all off, the US health care is the costliest in the world. Again, this is a class issue as well since the rich can afford the best services and the great majority of Americans must pay ever increasing rates for ever decreasing services until they are finally denied coverage altogether and put out to pasture. Even so, the US propaganda machine tells everyone that any modification to the current system would only worsen it.

Americans are told that Medicare and Social Security benefits for the retired, poor and handicapped are bad. We are constantly bombarded with propaganda that these are some of the main causes for our current deficit and that, by eliminating this help, we could reduce our deficit spending tremendously. There is little news on the importance of these programs and their raison d'Ã ªtre.

4. Americans are told that greed is good. They have been separated from the old definition of greed, "An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth." It is now fashionable to desire and procure that which others need to survive.

During the recent economic meltdown, many Americans blamed those who took out ninja loans to finance their home purchases rather than the banks and mortgage institutions who coerced them and approved their loans, knowing full well that these same home buyers were going to be thrown out into the street in a few years when the loans came up for review. US propaganda is to demonize the average American while deifying the role of the banksters who steal our money.

5. Americans are turning against other Americans. During this same meltdown the media tone was decidedly anti-American and pro-American big business. Time and again they would decry the treacherous lepers who preyed on banks and mortgage institutions forcing them to provide loans to unworthy buyers. The absurdity of this concept is obvious, yet many Americans believe that the banks are innocent and just unfortunate victims of other Americans' desire to cheat the system.

Americans who demand more control over pollution, gun crimes, greedy bank policies, and corrupt government practices are demonized, hated, and attacked in the press, on the internet as well as in real life. Those who flaunt their guns, especially when fully loaded, and who crow that they have stolen money from others through fraudulent practices are labeled "ingenious," "thinking outside the box," "forward moving," and "proving the American Way."

Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly is famously quoted from his February 26, 2003, show, "Once the war against Saddam begins we expect every American to support our military and if they can't do that to shut up." Yet, we have Thomas Jefferson who spoke of this as well, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

More and more we have the main stream media denouncing the wisdom of our founding fathers to replace it with fear mongering, lies and hatred towards anyone else who thinks differently. The Patriot Acts I and II removed habeas corpus protection for us, as well as other liberties now lost forever, yet there is almost no public outrage at this. It appears that fake "reality shows" on TV are far more important than the reality we actually are living on planet Earth.

6. Those in government are being forced to spend much more of their time fund-raising for their next election than governing the nation. Elections are becoming more expensive every year and these politicians are being forced to seek more and more money just to stay in office. As with everything, nothing comes for free. Every dollar supplied by a corporation comes with obvious strings attached. A company will not waste its money on politicians who do not send tax dollars their way. Such a company would simply take its money and support the other candidate. Thus, our politicians must kowtow to corporations who pay for their elections and not the people who vote for them. Benito Mussolini described this type of system by saying, "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

So what is the answer? Is America worth saving?

My triad here has brought up those points that are all too often ignored by Americans. The MSM feeds us a steady diet of, "America is the best. America is the greatest. People hate us for our freedoms. Americans are far superior to all other peoples in all other countries. We are not evil, just misunderstood. We own the world and no one can stop us." We are constantly bombarded with how great the US is around the world. While I have noted these analogies ever since my earliest days of recollection, I have never seen them so derisive, so malicious and so evil.

There is a definite split being created in the US and it is one of monumental importance. The very existence of the country is now in jeopardy. Those who would take up arms against other Americans are increasing in size, rhetoric and evil intent. We already have regular citizens on our borders who shoot Americans first, then ask if they are Americans or illegal immigrants.

But our movement towards corporatism and continual warfare has also hastened the day that the US dollar will no longer be the world's currency and the US will have to stand in line and pay for things just like everyone else. Our military is stretched far beyond the breaking point and is now almost totally useless in any other arena around the world that might flare up. Our economic meltdown has pushed the other major economies, led by China, to diversify their holdings of the dollar and to start creating trading pacts among themselves using non-dollar currencies. The writing is clearly displayed on the wall -- the US will not be the world's leader for very much longer.

At the Chinese Olympic Games in August, 2008, the "leader of the free world" was reduced to the role of cheerleader for our swim team. Never before has a sitting president ever attended the Olympics held in a foreign country; yet President Bush stated that it would be an insult to President Hu of China if he didn't attend.

On the last day of the Copenhagen meeting, President Obama had to crash a meeting held by China, Brazil, South Africa and other nations who really did want to see something positive come out of the summit. Our constant, belligerent and bellicose political and economic policies have finally convinced the rest of the world that we are not capable of leading them much farther into this new millennium. We are the last of the empirical dinosaurs who only envision sustaining their way of life through war and economic coercion.

Any America that is salvageable will be so at a much reduced world rank than what exists today. After our economy becomes overburdened with the weight of servicing two wars, an ever increasing health care system that serves fewer and fewer people, and a public that has overused its credit cards to such an extent that they are completely maxed out, we will be reduced to the status of former superpower and will see our impact on other nations greatly reduced. The wheels are already in place and are forcing the issue globally. Iran, China, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, and other nations are increasing their trading in non-dollar currencies with each other on a daily basis.

So why should anyone care? The US has demonstrated how bellicose it can be and has become, not the new and improved policeman of the world, but just another superpower bully pushing its weight around at every opportunity. What could possibly be worth salvaging in the US?

This is also the US:

We have an economy that has remained rather stable over the years, at least until recently. After WWII, there was only one economy that was available to become the engine of the post-war world, the US. Europe was completely decimated, The Soviet Union was equally in ruins, Between 1942 and 1945, UK's GDP contracted by 9%, French GDP contracted by 10%, Italy's went down by 35%, Germany's fell by 25%, Austria's tumbled by over 50%, and Japan's dropped by 27%. In fact, among the principal participants in WWII, only the USSR and the US had growing economies. US GDP grew by 20% and the USSR added 25% to their GDP.

But the major difference between the two superpowers is the size of their economies. In 1945, USSR's GDP stood at $343 billion only, while the US GDP had reached $1,474 billion. By the end of WWII, the US GDP was greater than the other six nations combined. China was in the midst of a bloody civil war that eventually saw Chang kai-shek deposed and Mao Tse-dung in power. No other region in the world had the production power to kick-start the globe after that horrible conflict.