UK History Newswire Archive
Empire as a Way of Life, Part 9
21-06-2007 22:10
The current imperial slaughter in the Middle East, justified by the "Global War on Terror", that has resulted in at least 600,000 deaths in Iraq, is nothing new — the U.S. Empire has a long and sordid history of genocidal mass murder.
The history of the US imperialism and Empire is the subject of a series of ten monthly seminars from Dr John Marciano, "Empire as a Way of Life". Attached is a recording of the ninth of these seminars and the text upon which it was based. The last seminar has taken place and will be posted to the site when the audio is available.
This seminar, recorded on 15th May 2007 by the L.A. Sound Posse, runs for 44 minutes and includes the discussion following. It has been made available under a Creative Commons license. If this recording is broadcast please let the L.A. Sound Posse know. This recording was originally made available on the A-Infos Radio Project site.
The following text has been reproduced here with the kind permission of Dr John Marciano and he can be contacted at johnmarciano@mac.com. He introduced this series of seminars in the following way:
A fundamental purpose of our meetings is to understand the systemic nature of the U.S. Empire and the economic and military imperialism that is its lifeblood. The historian William Appleman Williams argues that empire became "a way of life" in the U.S., a "combination of patterns of thought and action that, as it becomes habitual and institutionalized, defines the thrust and character of a culture and society." This "way of life" has convinced many U.S. "Americans" they have a right or "manifest destiny" to impose their political and economic policies upon others.
Dr John Marciano is Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Cortland, where he taught courses on social and historical foundations of education and class, gender and race.
Previous parts of this series:
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 1 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 2 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 3 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 4 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 5 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 6 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 7 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 8 | mp3 | doc
Political Genius: credit where it’s due
20-06-2007 15:39
Few even know her name but she was responsible for the Roman Empire enduring for another fifteen hundred years as a theological empire. Most people and historical texts mistakenly refer to the Roman Emperor Constantine as the person who transformed the militaristic Roman Empire into the Holy Roman Empire, however, he was only a manipulated mommy’s boy.Flight 77: The Flight Data Recorder Investigation File
19-06-2007 16:16
Calum Douglas presents his investigation into the flight data recorder from Flight 77 to an audience at the Indian YMCA in Fitzroy Square, London on 8th June 2007.The Spanish Civil War: 40 years later: new translation
17-06-2007 03:07
This is a brand-new translation of a text from 1937 that has never been in English before.Iraq's cultural heritage in ruins
16-06-2007 19:59
Iraq's archaeological and artistic culture is in danger of being wiped out due to a lack of protection and targeted assassinations, a group of archaeologists and artists have told Al Jazeera.“Free Education for All” remains a pipedream under the policies of the ‘New ANC’
16-06-2007 02:46
This article argues that by adopting neo-liberal policies, like Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ Party the ‘New ANC’ has also sold out. And because of anti poor policies, on the 31st anniversary of the June 1976 ‘Soweto Uprising’, for poor working class kids, “The Doors of Learning” remain as shut as during apartheid.CASMII calls for ethical journalism in response to Observer article on Iran
13-06-2007 01:00
The Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) is greatly alarmed by the publication in the Observer 10.06.07 of an article "MI6 probes UK link to nuclear trade with Iran", by Mark Townsend, which propagates unfounded allegations and distortions against Iran, similar to the reports in 2003 that paved the way to the bloodbath in Iraq; nearly all of which now discredited.Should Indymedia organise a whip round for the Blairs?
12-06-2007 12:36
How is the poor chap to survive? Perhaps Indymedia readers should orgranise a whip round?
Rockets, Napalm, Torpedoes & Lie: Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited
11-06-2007 13:34
Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. They made eight trips over a period of three hours. The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel.
A few hours later more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns.
A few minutes later a second wave of planes streaked overhead, French-built Mystere jets, which not only pelted the ship with gunfire but also with napalm bomblets, coating the deck with the flaming jelly. By now, the Liberty was on fire and dozens were wounded and killed, excluding several of the ship's top officers.
Forty Years Later: Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty
11-06-2007 13:07
After 40 years of illegal military occupation of Palestine, enough!
09-06-2007 22:23
Redeye - Co-op Radio: Palestine - 40 years of occupation
08-06-2007 10:20
Hill of Tara on List of 100 Most Endangered Sites
07-06-2007 13:39
The World Monuments Fund (WMF), based in New York, has announced that the Hill of Tara has been included in the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.Swiss government extends freeze on Duvalier's accounts
04-06-2007 07:35
£3.1m has been frozen for the past five years as the Haitian government has argued for its release, but was due to be surrendered to Duvalier on 3 June.G8 is a "democratic" sham,its a trap & a distraction,
04-06-2007 06:39
When not getting cigarettes sold to children in asia as a top man in BAT, Kenneth Clarke Rushcliffe MP & BAT tobbaco magnet is the most regular "democratic" UK member of a shady group of illegal corporate oligarchs.
So Ken why are you smoking cigars at meeting that doesnt exist to most of the mainstream media?
Tara Blocade links and a few photos
02-06-2007 10:29
on Heritage destruction in ireland. There are many sites that have been
vandalised for profit, but the bisection of the Gabra Valley between the
Churches of Tara and Skryne is about the lowest form of abuse for
profit that most of us will ever witness.
One week of Blockade on Tara
01-06-2007 19:04
Today begins the second week of a campaign to have the M3 diverted.The really intelligent governments ministers who stitched up the
Gabhra Valley for their mining and re-zoning maties are taking
full advantage of the hung government.
but we are not all thick.
Empire as a Way of Life, Part 8
31-05-2007 15:24
The current imperial slaughter in the Middle East, justified by the "Global War on Terror", that has resulted in at least 600,000 deaths in Iraq, is nothing new — the U.S. Empire has a long and sordid history of genocidal mass murder.
The history of the US imperialism and Empire is the subject of a series of ten monthly seminars from Dr John Marciano, "Empire as a Way of Life". Attached is a recording of the eighth of these seminars and the text upon which it was based. The first 9 of these seminars have taken place and the intention is to have the whole series published on this site; the last one will take place on 19th June.
This seminar, recorded on 17th April 2007 by the L.A. Sound Posse, runs for 39 minutes and includes the discussion following. It has been made available under a Creative Commons license. If this recording is broadcast please let the L.A. Sound Posse know. This recording was originally made available on the A-Infos Radio Project site.
The following text has been reproduced here with the kind permission of Dr John Marciano and he can be contacted at johnmarciano@mac.com. He introduced this series of seminars in the following way:
A fundamental purpose of our meetings is to understand the systemic nature of the U.S. Empire and the economic and military imperialism that is its lifeblood. The historian William Appleman Williams argues that empire became "a way of life" in the U.S., a "combination of patterns of thought and action that, as it becomes habitual and institutionalized, defines the thrust and character of a culture and society." This "way of life" has convinced many U.S. "Americans" they have a right or "manifest destiny" to impose their political and economic policies upon others.
Dr John Marciano is Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Cortland, where he taught courses on social and historical foundations of education and class, gender and race.
Previous parts of this series:
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 1 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 2 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 3 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 4 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 5 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 6 | mp3 | doc
- Empire as a Way of Life, Part 7 | mp3 | doc
Dreaming of a True Memorial Day
30-05-2007 22:38
I took a visiting friend to view the tomb of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. We went inside Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King once preached, and listened to him give his own oration on how he would like to be remembered:"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, which isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that's not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind."
Deaths In Other Nations Since WW2 Due To US Interventions
29-05-2007 16:41
After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to promote a balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States had also been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in other nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although Americans understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of wrongs committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon overshadowed by an accelerated "war on terrorism."But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered culpable.
The causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than the U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of a war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it. In other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S. had not used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic power of the United States was crucial.
This study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.
The American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows even less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also responsible. In the latter wars there were between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.
But the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the world. The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over half the total number of nations. Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.
The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.
To the families and friends of these victims it makes little difference whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military forces, the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other ways, such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether to become refugees, and how to survive.
And the pain and anger is spread even further. Some authorities estimate that there are as many as 10 wounded for each person who dies in wars. Their visible, continued suffering is a continuing reminder to their fellow countrymen.
It is essential that Americans learn more about this topic so that they can begin to understand the pain that others feel. Someone once observed that the Germans during WWII “chose not to know.” We cannot allow history to say this about our country. The question posed above was “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” The answer is: possibly 10,000.