24. WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, JUNE 2, 2021
David
Vine. The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless
Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State.
2020. Summarized by Dick
Bennett
This book gives us a new way to oppose US imperial
expansion.
The US empire differs from earlier empires because control
is exercised through the base network, not through colonies. The US empire has existed as long as the
nation, and the bases have been a crucial imperial tool. From the Continental Army and the first forts
on Native American lands, most US leaders believed in their right to deploy
military to seize the lands of others.
That is, white, male, chauvinist, violent Christians, swept across the
continent fort after fort. George
Washington referred to the new nation as a “rising Empire.” Thomas Jefferson assumed it would expand in
every direction. Their purpose has been
clear from the start: to launch
aggressions small and large for profit and fortunes, for maintaining hegemony
for the benefit of the US and its elites.
“Bases and other military tools have worked in tandem with and
undergirded economic and political tools of empire” (11).
But a huge
liability corrodes this happy arrangement for the stockholders and CEOs of the
corporations: it “has made wars more likely.”
“’If we build [bases and empire], wars will come.’ “ “If we use aggressive military force to build
an expansionist nation focused on dominating and controlling the lands and
lives of others in the pursuit of profit for some, wars will come.” And now the US is engaged in permanent war.
Our leaders have
used our money to build a now self-perpetuating system of endless war
represented by ever-expanding extraterritorial military bases. Here’s the specific liability: these bases,
that serve the economic and political interests of elites, become part of
territorial US, and that relationship locks us into continual war, and leaves
millions dead, wounded, and displaced.
Thus we aren’t
resisting some abstract, undefeatable “empire,” but fort by fort.
We will be returning to this subject you can be sure. Read the book and let your OMNI friends know
what you are doing v. US endless war.
Building a Counter-Culture of Peace
May 18, 1899, the Hague Peace Conference opened
to discuss alternatives to war, leading to the International Court of
Arbitration.
May 14, 1941, first US conscientious objectors
reported to a work camp in Maryland.
May 28, 1961, Amnesty International
founded to strengthen the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UNUDHR).
August 1963, US/SU Limited Test Ban
Treaty prohibiting nuclear testing everywhere except underground.
October 1967, the “Outer Space Treaty”
prohibiting deployment of nuclear weapons in orbit around the earth.
May 17, 1968, 9 people burned draft
files in Catonsville, Maryland, led by Fr. Daniel and Fr. Philip Berrigan.
May 20, 1968, Boston’s Arlington St.
Unitarian Church granted sanctuary to Vietnam War resisters.
May 21, 1971, members of the American
Indian Movement (AIM) occupied an abandoned US naval air station in Milwaukee.
Oct. 2000, the UNSC adopted a
resolution on women to incorporate gender perspectives in all areas of peace advocacy.
Peace Almanac May 14-28
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