MID-EAST REEALITIES - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 27 November 1998 (Thanksgiving Day):

It's not the American self-image, that's for sure. But much of the rest of the world, especially the most oppressed, see contemporary America through far different visions than today's modern-day Romans see themselves.

Even in that bastion of American and Israeli influence, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs writer Thomas Friedman recently warned of "Backlash":

"Do you know what Iran calls America today? Not 'the Great Satan.' Iran calls America 'the Capital of Global Arrogance.' Unfortunately that's also what the French, the Malaysians, the Russians, the Chinese, the Japanese and the Germans call Washington behind its back."

Actually its far worse than Friedman and the NY Times are willing to even consider publishing... for this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Hence, the following MER Editorial which you'll never see on the pages of the NY Times or other American newspapers:

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MER EDITORIAL:

Once again the American Empire prepares for "battle." It does so against a puny enemy; but one it vilifies and magnifies many times over endlessly "preparing" public opinion for the Empire's next round of "enforcement" in the name of "peace" and "order". It does so with technological super weaponry unmatchable by the poor, the weak, the oppressed... other than through what it terms "terrorism" that is.

This is the same country that slaughtered millions of Vietnamese (plus less directly millions of Cambodians and Laotians as well) after its President tricked its Congress into the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

And then a generation later its top warrior of the former day "apologized" for having made a "terrible mistake" (noting primarily the 50,000 Americans killed).

This is the same country that used the first nuclear weapons of mass destruction not on military targets, but on civilian cities. And now today, along with ally Israel, this is the same country that threatens to use them again in the Middle East, thus fueling the very arms race it claims to be halting.

This is the same country that sells more arms internationally than all others, yet insists on sanctions against those who sell a few inferior weapons to "unapproved" locations.

This is the same country that single-handedly, against the opposition of all others, dismisses U.N. Secretary-Generals; issues its "orders" far and wide; and doesn't even pay its U.N. dues preferring threats and blackmail to gets its way. Amazing indeed that the rest of the world continues to allow this demeaning situation to continue; but bribery and threats always have gone a long way when Rome thunders.

And, finally for now, this is the same country that stands alone in the world championing Israeli militancy, camouflaging Israeli ethnic-cleansing policies, covering-up terrible Israeli attacks on U.N. safe-havens, constantly excusing Israeli gross violations of human rights against those who simply ask to be accorded the same rights that the Americans themselves constantly proclaim!

There are many menaces loose in today's world. Among them is the American military-industrial complex which dominates American society, manipulates its press, controls its political parties, frightens its intellectuals -- the very tyranny of power that none other than World War II hero turned President Dwight Eisenhower used his last breathes to warn so eloquently about.

Ah to be a Roman nearing the 21st Century! The Pro-consuls are now in the form of "client regimes" calling themselves Kings, Guardians, and even Presidents. Centurion legions are now in the form of giantair craft carriers and stealth bombers roaming the planet at will, dropping their laser-guided smart-bombs on command. With the ever-present ears of the National Security Agency and eyes of the Central Intelligence Agency modern-day Rome tries to bug, manipulate, and control everything and everyone even while constantly proclaiming its own innocence, bravery and freedom.

Even the giant American press institutions fan the flames of warfare and deception in this brave new American order. Even its senior "journalists" - of late Sam Donaldson and George Stephanopoulos - openly join the generals in advocating the assassination of foreign leaders and destruction of resisting societies. It's President and Secretary of State seem completely oblivious to the genocidal misery they reap on millions who will not bend to their will. And even most of its intellectuals and academics are cowered into submission while government-supported institutes and think-tanks, along with minions of masked agents of the empire, spread deception and chicanery far and wide to justify what has already been, and what is now to come.

The American-hyped road signs all proclaim "Peace Process" and "Democracy", "Freedom" and "Progress". But this U.S./Israeli-created road actually leads to more terrorism, more warfare, more armaments; more repression, more duplicity, more hatred; more exploitation, more domination, and more control.

The level of hypocrisy and the self-enrichment motivations are so omni-present these days that few within the Empire seem able to see clearly through their own society's thick rhetorical and bureaucratic smoke screens.

Yet no wonder there are so many around the rest of the world who now think so much about payback time. MAB