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