[GPSCC-chat] Independence Epistle

Wed Jul 4 09:59:40 PDT 2012

A few of you may remember the polemic below from a year ago -- updated 
with footnotes.  Enjoy.  Spencer

*I Pledge Allegiance to Liberty and Justice for All *

I pledge allegiance to liberty and justice for all, not restricted to 
the flag of the United States of America nor to the republic for which 
it stands, because when we allow that restriction, we give license to 
media executives and politicians to support state terror 
internationally. Without US troops in Saudi Arabia, the suicide mass 
murders of September 11, 2001 would not have occurred.^1 
<#sdfootnote1sym> If the US had not given weapons of mass destruction to 
Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, he could not plausibly have had them in 
2002.^2 <#sdfootnote2sym> US actions against democracy in countries 
around the world convinced generations of third world politicians that 
the US would not allow them put the interests of their people above the 
concerns of US multinational businesses.^3 <#sdfootnote3sym> I know of 
no major enemy the US has other than ones we have earned by opposing 
liberty and justice for all. I pledge allegiance to liberty and justice 
for all.

Spencer Graves

copyright 2011-2012 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 
license.

1 <#sdfootnote1anc>Thousands of articles and hundreds of books have been 
written on the suicide mass murders of Sept. 11, 2001. The overwhelming 
majority rearrange popular nostrums without any substantive empirical 
grounding. Two summarize serious, relevant research: Robert A. Pape 
(2005) /Dying to Win /(Random House) created a database of 315 incidents 
of suicide terrorism 1980 - 2003. All but 14 were classified as part of 
one of 18 different campaigns by 10 different organization, which shared 
two features: Opposition to a foreign occupation by a democracy. All but 
one (the Kurds in Turkey) had a different religion from the occupiers. 
The suicide mass murders of Sept. 11 contain all 3 of these elements. 
(Wikipedia, "Dying to Win", accessed 2012.07.02.)

2 <#sdfootnote2anc>Wikipedia, "The Riegle Report", accessed 2012.07.02.

3 <#sdfootnote3anc>This claim is so different from the dominant 
narrative disseminated by the mainstream commercial media in the US that 
it requires the introduction of substantial evidence. This footnote 
briefly discusses one example, Cuba, then cites sources that provide 
overviews of many other cases. Regarding Cuba, the US had 60 years from 
the end of the Spanish-American War, 1898, to the Cuban Revolution of 
1959 to instill a culture of freedom and democracy there. Instead, 
through the 1930s, each Cuban government that displayed more concern 
about the well-being of their own citizens than US business interests 
was overthrown by a US troops (Wikipedia, "Cuba--United States 
relations", accessed 2012.07.04). In the 1930s, the US began supporting 
a Cuban military leader, Fulgencio Batista, who responded appropriately 
to US dictates. Batista decided to hold an election in 1952. When polls 
indicated he would lose, he canceled the elections -- and was 
immediately recognized as the head of state by Harry Truman's 
administration. Fidel Castro was a candidate for congress in those 
elections. (Wikipedia, "Fidel Castro", accessed 2012.07.03) Meanwhile, 
Che Guevara was involved in the democratically elected Arbenz regime in 
Guatemala, which was overthrown by a CIA-assisted coup in 1954 
(Wikipedia, "Che Guevara"). A similar coup destroyed democracy in Iran 
in 1953 (Wikipedia, "1953 Iranian coup d'état"). And elections scheduled 
for 1956 in Vietnam were canceled when US President Eisenhower concluded 
that the Communist Ho Chi Minh would get 80 percent of the vote (Dwight 
David Eisenhower, 1963, /The White House Years: Mandate for Change/, 
Doubleday, ch. XIV. Chaos in Indochina). From these events, it 
understandable that someone like Castro might conclude that the US would 
not permit democracy to exist in Cuba. This evaluation of US foreign 
policy since the founding of the republic is bolstered by numerous other 
works based on declassified US government documents, reports of 
congressional committees, and articles written by public officials and 
government employees, many after they had left government and other 
seemingly reputable and authoritative sources. One is Noam Chomsky 
(2006) /Failed States /(Metropolitan), which discusses "Thomas 
Carothers, who identifies his stand as neo-Reaganite. ... Carothers 
found a 'strong line of continuity' running through all administrations 
in the post-Cold War era ... .: 'Where democracy appears to fit in well 
with US security and economic interests, the United States promotes 
democracy. Where democracy clashes with other significant interests, it 
is downplayed or even ignored.'" (pp. 149-150) Carothers is troubled by 
this "inconsistent" support for democracy, missing the obvious 
/consistency/in support for "security and economic" interests, i.e., US 
international business interests. (Carothers, 2004, /Critical Mission/, 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, pp. 7, 42) See also William 
R. Polk (2007) /Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, & 
Guerilla War, from the American Revolution ti Iraq /(Harper) and William 
Blum (2004) /Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since World 
War II /(Common Courage Press). This tradition extends earlier 
traditions in Britain and elsewhere of governments supporting a local 
aristocracy at the expense of everyone else (David Graeber, 2011, /Debt: 
The First 5,000 Years/, MelvilleHouse). It includes, for example, the 
decision by President Washington to send US tax money to plantation 
owners in Haiti (then called St. Domingue) to help them suppress a slave 
rebellion during the French Revolution (Wikipedia, "George Washington 
and slavery"). This history is understandable from Tip O'Neill's comment 
that "All politics is local" (Wikipedia, "All politics is local") with 
the understanding that the primary constituency for foreign policy is 
people with substantive business interests outside the country, because 
foreign policy is "local" for them. The general public hears very little 
that is contrary to the short term perceived interests of major 
advertisers, because the media companies would likely lose advertising 
revenue if they exposed too much information that displeased those who 
controlled adverting budgets. (Wikipedia, "Conflict of interest") See 
also Wikipedia ("Republic, Lost") and "The Crisis in US Politics and 
Economics" under "Systemic Corruption" at occupy.pbworks.com 
(http://occupy.pbworks.com/w/page/51535688/Systemic%20Corruption).

Also available on occupy.pbworks.com -> Pages & Files: Public: Issues: 
Systemic Corruption: Liberty and Justice for All 
(http://occupy.pbworks.com/w/page/55119685/Liberty%20and%20Justice%20for%20All). 

-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.structuremonitoring.com

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