This Is My Rifle: Terrorism - Made in America Posted by Jason James on 05/30/12 | Filed under Features, Opinion, This Is My Rifle, Politics

Yesterday a reader sent me an email asking my opinion of the United States' slow decline into totalitarianism under the guise of protecting itself from an external terrorist threat. Although I attempted to respond with a briefly summarized explanation of it all, a few quick paragraphs isn't nearly enough to comprehensively break down how the "war on terror" as we know it came to be.

The idea of terrorism itself is a far more complicated subject than most of us can understand and the media would like us to believe that there are people out there who hate us purely because they hate freedom. But the notion that any human being would hate freedom and would want to destroy entire groups of people (or in America's case, whole countries) based on that reason alone is absurd. Actually, to be honest, it's fucking retarded. No person on the face of the Earth doesn't want to be free. If the supposed terrorists lurking behind every dark corner of the world just waiting to suicide bomb a strip mall truly hated freedom, they would all be lined up at the United States' borders right now, eager to become a citizen and enjoy the Gestapo-esque state slowly coming to fruition within the country.

No, the terrorists don't hate freedom. They just hate the United States. And here's why:

After World War II the USA had established itself as the first true military world power. It was at this time that they began the process of empire building and faced little to no resistance from any of the other countries they sought to control. During this period the United States was perceived as being the hero of the world, having put an end to Nazi Germany and restoring liberty to millions of Jews facing persecution, they were now in a position to build relationships with any country they pleased and their governments were more than happy to oblige the Americans with whatever they needed. Then approximately 10 years later the United States entered the Vietnam War and they set the stage for a foreign policy that would be in place right up until this very day.

During the Vietnam War, the United States, most notably Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, came to realize just how powerful they really were and how useful their military could be when trying to sway the opinions of governments who may not be willing to open their doors completely to American ideals. From this point forward the United States became less of a trade partner and more of a bully in the global arena. As the Military-Industrial Complex grew, the corporations and the banks that owned them did as well. Now, attaining the precious resources they desired in order to become a more dominating force was no longer a case of bartering with the smaller and less powerful countries that possessed them, it was a matter of "work with us or suffer the consequences".

What developed from this attitude towards the rest of the world was a systematic pattern of military intervention and outright abuse of the citizens of the countries unfortunate enough to have something the United States (Britain and Canada) wanted.

Once the western empire had targeted a country for exploitation, they would first send in what are commonly referred to as "economic hitmen". These men were CIA trained agents who worked for firms that functioned as independent companies contracted by the American government to "advise" the governing body of the targeted country, but took their orders directly from members of the US government. Once they were given the specifics of their mission they would then fly into the country in question and attempt to persuade it's leaders into deals that would almost always benefit the Americans and a few of that country's ruling elite. This series of discussions generally ended in one of two ways; they refused the deal and sent the hitmen home empty handed or they accepted and allowed their country to be stripped bare.

In the event that they refused, the American government would then send in what were referred to as "jackals" and would have the leader removed (see: assassinated) or they would attempt a coup d'etat. Upon the removal of the reluctant foreign leader they would then replace him with an American friendly entity, sometimes even CIA agents that they had on their payroll for many years prior like Manuel Noriega.

For those who cooperated, and since many of the countries targeted were impoverished, the hitmen would convince the leaders to accept massive loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that the country would never be able to pay back. Next, the countries would be forced to hire American corporations to build roads, power plants, dams, etc., and over 90% of the money loaned by the IMF and the World Bank would be funnelled back into the American economy with a very tiny portion ending up in the pockets of the ruling class. In every single circumstance where the hitmen were involved, none of the money reached anybody who needed it and the structures built by American corporations were so poorly designed that they were falling apart or didn't work at all. In some cases, development never even began.

Finally, once the flow of money had dried up, the IMF and World Bank would call in their debt and demand to be paid immediately. Because most of the money had been sucked up by American corporations and the ruling class, the country would have to default on their debt and agree to terms set out by the banks. What this resulted in was the privatization of their central banks and public services like water and electricity, the selling off of the country’s natural resources for dirt cheap prices and hyper-inflation so outrageous that a large percentage of the population would be pushed into extreme poverty. Under the direction of the IMF and World Bank, and their American counterparts, these countries would literally collapse under their debt and spend decades being raped by corporations while only paying back a minute fraction of a gigantic debt.

This is where terrorism comes from. It’s only a matter of time before those crushed by western greed eventually pull themselves from the rubble and fight back. We, manipulated by the constant assault of propaganda perpetuated by the mainstream media, are made to believe that we are the protagonists when in actuality we are the villains. We laugh about our cheap goods produced in sweatshops and slave camps in the countries we oppress, violated by our multi-national corporations through this system, and then expect the world to sympathize when they lash out in anger.

This is what we’ve done to Chile, Panama, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Russia and Poland (just to name a few), continue to do to Iraq, Afghanistan and India, and what we will be doing in Iran and Central Africa in the near future.

We wanted the world so we took it. Now we just have to be prepared to deal with the blowback.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)