Caitlin Johnstone says it’s strange to spend her life criticizing the depravity of the empire. It’s a job that shouldn’t exist, like working as a vampire hunter.
The Pentagon. (Joe Lauria)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
I shouldn’t be able to do this for a living. Criticizing the warmongering of a single power structure shouldn’t be anyone’s full-time job. No government should be murdering people so consistently and reliably that people can plan their whole lives around it.
Yet here we are. Not only are people like me able to focus on commentary about the mass military violence of the U.S. and its satellite states as a full-time gig, but we usually find there’s too much to talk about from day to day.
Currently we are getting reports that at least 40 people were killed in an IDF massacre on a tented encampment in southern Gaza near Khan Younis, which Israel had previously designated as a humanitarian safe zone. There are videos of families digging frantically in the sand trying to rescue loved ones who were buried by the blast, which was reportedly so forceful that bodies are being found some thirty feet down.
Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp has taken to typing up daily updates on the documented Israeli massacres of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, often with dozens of victims added to the official death toll in a single day.
The Harris platform section on foreign policy, "Keep America Safe, Secure, and Prosperous," shows that the Masters of War that Bob Dylan wrote about so many years ago will remain in control of America no matter who wins in November. Absolutely pathetic. https://t.co/RttxslMUcI
— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) September 9, 2024
Kamala Harris has finally announced a foreign policy platform, and it contains nothing but a promise of more of the same. She promises to:
“ensure that the United States remains the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world,” to “make sure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century,” to “strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership,” to “stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” and to “protect U.S. forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups,” and boasts that she “has worked with our allies to ensure NATO is stronger than ever” in the face of “Vladimir Putin’s brutal aggression.”
In other words, more unrelenting violence and militarism to ensure that the U.S. empire continues dominating the planet. It’s not hard to see why Harris is winning endorsements from some of the worst warmongers on the planet.
Bloodthirsty empire manager Victoria Nuland is now openly admitting that the U.S. sabotaged a peace deal in Ukraine in the early weeks of the war, saying in an interview that Washington pushed Kyiv to reject the deal because it “included limits on the precise kinds of weapons systems that Ukraine could have” if it were agreed to.
This is something people like myself used to get called Russian propagandists for saying happened, despite all the overwhelming evidence that it had.
The horrors in Ukraine are happening because the U.S.-centralized power alliance refused easy off-ramp after easy off-ramp. This whole war could’ve easily been avoided, and it could have easily been ended shortly after it began. But they kept pushing on, because they wanted this war.
Victoria Nuland Admits US Discouraged Ukraine From Signing Peace Deal With Russia in 2022
Her comments are the latest confirmation that a peace deal was on the table in the early days of the war
by Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Ukraine #Russia #Nuland #NATO https://t.co/Qu9x5gDaDX pic.twitter.com/xxBEZKsmUf— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) September 9, 2024
Bernie Sanders, the official face of progressivism in mainstream U.S. politics, actually said the words “I applaud the Cheneys” during an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press in response to the endorsement of Harris by Dick and Liz Cheney.
There is no valid excuse for those words ever to come out of anyone’s face, much less from someone who people regard as the voice of reason and compassion on Capitol Hill. When your progressive hero starts singing the praises of a monster like Cheney, it’s time to find different heroes.
These are just a few of the things happening right now that I could easily have written entire essays on.
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I always run into people who act like my constantly criticizing U.S. foreign policy day after day as a full-time gig is strange and suspicious, and it absolutely is — just not for the reasons they think.
They think it’s strange and suspicious because I must be getting paid by some subversive foreign government, since nobody could possibly want to spend their time criticizing the Western power structure we live under otherwise.
They believe this because they’ve been indoctrinated from birth into supporting the agendas and information interests of the U.S.-centralized empire by the imperial propaganda machine which normalizes and justifies the criminality of our rulers, and trains them to view any information which conflicts with this mainstream worldview as sinister and suspicious.
In reality, it’s strange and suspicious that I can spend my life criticizing the depravity of the empire because the empire is so reliably depraved. It’s a job that shouldn’t exist, whose existence tells you that something freakish is happening that falls far outside of what you’d expect for a normal and healthy society — like if I told you I work as a vampire hunter or something.
The very fact that someone can become a crowd-funded writer doing commentary on the mass military violence of one particular power structure tells you that something has gone very wrong with this world.
But there are plenty of others like me. And for every person who is making a living from opposing U.S. warmongering, there are thousands making a living from facilitating it. In the military. In the arms industry. In think tanks. In the media. In politics. In government agencies.
There is much, much more money to be made from war than from peace. That’s one of the main reasons the capitalist empire we live under exists in a constant state of mass military violence. Endless violence and the threat thereof is the glue which holds the empire together.
In a healthy world, none of these jobs would exist — people working for peace or people working for war. Peace would just be the natural order of things.
But until that healthy world has emerged, we fight on. Day after day after day after day, for however long such work is necessary.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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The bizarre part is that America calls this, currently, right now, this moment …… as “Peace.”
America, and Kamala Harris, constantly talk as if America was not at war. According to the Democrats and the Republicans, this is a Peacetime Election. But both agree that all money must go to the military because war is on the horizon. One candidate warns of World War III, as if it had not already begun. The other says not to worry, but that she should be elected to ensure that America has ‘the most lethal military.’ America, where candidates no longer run on ‘A Chicken in Every Pot’, but now promise to be an efficient killer. But, this is a Christian Nation, and one that is at Peace.
In America’s minds, war is in the future. If you stopped Americans on the street, and asked, is this War or Peace? … most Americans would answer that this is Peace.
I wish you were a real vampire hunter, then you would hunt a real vampire named putin.
My cashier yesterday at the local coop said to me, “It is not a free country when they have to keep telling you how free you are.” I must assume he was discharged military because he had that perfectly groomed look that one doesn’t see much in Maine!
Caitlin Johnstone, vampire hunter. If I needed one, I’d hire you.
hxxps://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/08/22
@ Katie (dot) au
(:
“Bernie Sanders, the official face of progressivism in mainstream U.S. politics, actually said the words “I applaud the Cheneys” during an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press in response to the endorsement of Harris by Dick and Liz Cheney.”
Yes, but he also said this:
“What I think Dick and Liz Cheney are saying is that in this existential moment in American history, it’s not just issues. Cheney and I agree on nothing — no issues. But what we do believe in is that the United States should retain its democratic foundations.
So, I applaud the Cheneys for their courage in defending democracy.
Obviously, on all the issues we have very different points of view.”
The point of view difference should be that Cheney is no defender of democracy. He in fact stole an election, enabled the suspension of Constitutional liberties, lied to the public to start a war and supports torture.
Bernie’s main problems are his requirement to avoid directly taking on the national Democratic establishment’s preferred narrative when it comes to supporting their effort to maintain their ‘lesser of two evils’ charade and his life-long aversion to authoritarianism (Trump’s – and for that matter the Cheneys’ and in this case it’s convenient for him to ignore that minor obstacle – being pretty much in evidence whereas Kamala’s is just as debatable as the rest of her resume) in order to maintain his ability to function within the party as an advocate of serious progressive values outside of the D.C. political fray.
D.C. politics is a dirty business: deal with it, just as he has to.
Caitlin the vampire slayer.
Now that would make for a kick ass movie.
How did we get here?
A Marxist Analysis of 20th Century U.S. Capitalism
From the New Deal to Neoliberalism
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYxnrNkYx-U
Caitlin Johnstone, vampire hunter.
The western military protection racket has taken over the US via the US military control of NATO then controlling us.
That is so we can save and protect the damsels in distress all around the world for our pleasure and profit. We say let us protect you in order to make sure we don’t attack you with a preemptive strike or just strike you with economic sanction.
One day the Knights in shining armor said instead of protecting we could invade the other neighboring protection racket for yours and our profits. Now they want to protect the whole wide world as their professional empire. We all must be with them no matter how big the lies.
MLK Jr. stated 57 years ago that the United States was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. It has never relinquished that title. And King has a national holiday in his name. So Caitlin, keep on keeping on, no matter what.
Brought to us, along with that godawful statue, by people who have never acted on MLK’s teachings. The holiday and that horrid statue are ways to defang King and turn him into “I had a dream.”
One time I came into my kitchen for something in the middle of the night. On the counter there were six roaches in a circle feeding on a tiny scrap of meat. There were two large, two medium and two small roaches, all eating peacefully. As I watched, it occurred to me that the two large roaches could have chased the others away had the food to themselves. Or one large and one medium roach could have done so. But no. They were all peacefully sharing what was there, large medium and small. I wondered if in a similar situation, we humans would have been capable of such “civilized” behaviour.
I doubt it.
Read Viktor Frankl’s book about surviving the concentration / death camps. No, we humans at least in the west are not capable of the roaches’ behavior. As Frankl said, no good people survived the camps, only the people including himself willing to steal food from the disabled and the sick.
Are you comparing humans to roaches?
Stop insulting the roaches!
The sad truth, as I’m sure you know, is that if capitalism prevails, we are all doomed. Homo Sapiens will in all probability, prove to have been one of natures mistakes. A non-viable species.
Non-viable because we allowed capitalism and the greed it induces in all but the very exceptional. And the exceptional people are being murdered in Gaza and elsewhere like the indigenous protecting their lands in South America.
But Caity, we’ll elect “joy” soon and all will be well …
Some guy a long time ago said “if something has to end……..it will”. No timeline, but certainly of result. That’s US hegemony at this moment in time. Washington DC has bet the farm on Ukraine and so far its worked out quite well for DC. Not so good for Ukraine, for the EU, and specifically not good for Germany, the largest economy in Europe. But almost every Global South government knows that DC wanted this war for two decades, and those governments are slowly but surely distancing themselves from DC/EU. Can’t blame them. When DC finds itself unable to sell US 10 year Treasury Notes at 3 to 4%, and BRICS countries collectively say they are not going to ” honor” US sanctions, the end of hegemony will come quickly.
“It was not long before numerous US corporate giants, including Du Pont, Ford, General Motors, Texaco, General Electric, Union Carbide, Westinghouse, Goodrich, Standard Oil of New Jersey, J.P. Morgan, IBM and ITT were doing a booming business in the Third Reich, unable to resist the low wages, low business taxes, and high profits. Henry Ford, Irenee Du Pont, Tom Watson of IBM, Torklid Rieber of Texaco, and other plutocrats became great admirers of Hitler. ‘American corporations made a lot of money in Hitler’s Germany…'”
-Michael Parenti
SUPER PATRIOTISM p.118
“If the acts of political terror and mass murder perpetrated by the Fuhrer disturbed the US plutocrats, they gave little sign of it.”
-Ibid p. 118
I suspect it’s because 9/11 had been years in the planning that some in the Republican Party had to steal the 2000 election from Al Gore. The security agencies under a Gore White House would surely have uncovered this treasonous plot as the day approached and related activities increased, so being in control of the White House was an imperative. I also wonder if this is why the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton a couple of years earlier, to try and spoil the Democrat chances two years later. When Gore won anyway they had to go in and steal it using friends in the justice system to swing it their way in Florida. The judges wouldn’t have known anything about 9/11, but it’s likely they are anti-democratic enough to think it only right if their party takes power and they would act to make that happen.
You realize that the WH was controlled by the Dems and that Gore was VP prior to the 2000 elections, right? So what was Gore gonna do in early 2001 that he and his boss Bubba weren’t doing for the years before that?
Great insight .
I can’t find anything to dispute or disagree with here, as usual. Caitlin Johnstone points out the hard truths that most others can not or will not. Thank you for featuring her articles regularly, she is one of the best in the entire Anglosphere
The rank hypocrisy of Bernard “the Sheepdog” Sanders, is sickening. He “applauds” Dirty Dick Cheney, applauds Joyful Genocide, and he is busy fundraising for the KH genociders. With “progresiives” like him and AOC, we don’t need no stinkin far-right authoritarians.
2000 was the first 9/11
Amen.
Cheney is very dirty indeed and it is too bad most Americans do not know the he and Donald Rumsfeld assigned several Zionists, some who had been caught leaking classified documents to Israel in the late 1970s, like Richard Perle, who was assigned chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and Douglas Feith, who was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy during the Bush administration under whose watch 9/11 occurred. The corruption, as some know, runs very deep indeed.