Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Manifest Destiny comes to fruition

"It is an awful responsibility that has come to us" declared Harry Truman after he had given the order to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"We thank God that it has come to us instead of our enemy and we pray that he may guide us to use this bomb in his ways and for his purposes."

What has been obvious to commentators since, is that the bomb was not used to force Japan to capitulate. That was in the bag for all intents and purposes. Rather, "his ways and his purpose" was to send a clear message to the godless Soviet Union and to announce the beginning of the Cold War and to launch the subsequent arms race.

As the globe was carved up into spheres of influence from the leftovers of the dwindling colonial empires, Cardinal Spellman of New York was heard to exult "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" while innocent children were blown to bits in southern Asia. At the more colloquial level, there was talk of "killing a Commie for Christ."

John Ralston Saul writes: "When President Reagan stated in 1982: 'We have never interfered in the internal government of a country and have no intention of doing so, nor have we ever had any thought of that kind,' people did not break into titters of laughter and say out loud: 'Hey, we've done it 48 times in Central and South America alone.'"

"Instead", Ralston Saul continues, "they said to themselves. 'Yes, we are good and freedom loving people.'" Shortly thereafter Grenada was invaded.

The U.S. global interference and intervention is to ensure the protection of its political, economic and strategic interests. To that end it has no qualms sleeping with despots, dictators and military juntas while paying little or no attention to the suffering of innocent people.

The hall of infamy of disposed puppets is lined with portraits of dictators who relied on U.S. support to maintain "freedom and democracy." Such friends included Suharto, the Shah of Iran, Mobutu, Pinochet, Trujillo, Batista and Somoza.

Arms supplied to such regimes were used to eliminate legitimate opposition in the name of fighting terrorism and subversion.

"The day is not far off," boasted President Taft in 1912, "that the whole hemisphere, from pole to pole, will be ours. By virtue of our superiority of race, it is already ours morally."

This Manifest Destiny to rule the inferior races, backed by the Monroe Doctrine to intervene when necessary to protect vital interests, was not limited to the hemisphere, but expanded to include much of the globe.

Specific attention was paid to the Middle East and its rich oil reserves where the U.S. has supported both Arab and Israeli reactionary regimes.

In this game the Palestinians are characterized as inferior and subversive by nature. Yet, the long-standing promise of Palestinian independence has been repeatedly subverted by powerful interests. State terrorism goes by the name of retaliation.

American foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky suggests that there is a willful blindness in the public's perception of the U.S. role in that region, in much the same way as there has been a public unwillingness to learn about U.S. intervention in Latin America.

If there is widespread distrust of U.S. hegemony, there are plenty of legitimate reasons.

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