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Failed States:
The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
"Jeffrey Winters . . . writes that Wolfowitz's main achievement
in the economic sphere as ambassador to Indonesia was to help
"set the stage" for the 1997 "collapse of the Indonesian
economy under Suharto, a tragedy that plunged tens of millions
into abject poverty.""1a
"The
major task in the subversion of Iraqi democracy is to
pressure political elites to accept "vague promises" and to
retain as much as possible of the illegal economic regime
imposed by the invaders, based on the standard principle of
opening the country and its resources to foreign control
(primarily US and UK), under the guise of "economic
liberalism.""1b
" .
. . [T]he Palestinians silently endured brutality,
torture, degradation, and robbery of their lands and resources.
Israel's US-backed refusal to accept a peace settlement in 1971
led to much misery and near disaster. . . An early opponent of the
occupation, the renowned Orthodox scholar and scientist Yeshayahu
Leibowitz, was famous for his prediction that oppressing another
people would lead to serious moral degeneration, corruption, and
internal decay."1c
HITLER
" . . .
Nazi propaganda techniques were borrowed from
business doctrines and practices that were mostly pioneered in
the Anglo-American societies. These techniques were
based on resort to simple "symbols and slogans" with
"tremendously reiterated impressions" that appeal to fear
and other elementary emotions in the manner of commercial
advertising, a contemporary review observes."1d
LE BON
GHENT
HITLER
"Bush's
second term quickly justified a Wall Street Journal
headline "Bush Starts to Deliver for Big Business." Its
first legislative triumph was a bankruptcy law, "crafted
with industry help and backed by President Bush," the
Journal reported. . .
"The guiding principles are much the same as
for international lending. The World Bank and others
stimulate borrowing by the rich and powerful in the poor
countries, the risky loans yield high returns, and when the system
crashes, structural adjustment programs transfer the costs to
the poor, who never borrowed the money in the first place.
"The problems caused by financial industry avarice
are severe. Bankruptcy filings "rose eightfold over the last
30 years . . .""1e
"Unlike
Europe, China refuses to be intimidated by Washington, a
primary reason for the growing fear of China on the part of US
planners. Much of Iran's oil already goes to China, and
China is providing Iran with weapons, presumably considered a
deterrent to US threats."1f
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