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Any person or state who gets in the way of the American Empire, beware!

By William Blum - posted Monday, 17 March 2003


After Bosch returned to the US in 1988, the Justice Department condemned him as a totally violent terrorist and was about to deport him but was blocked by the former President Bush with the help of son, Jeb Bush in Florida.

So are George W. and his family against terrorism? Well, yes, they're against those terrorists who are not allies of the empire.

The plane that Bosch bombed was a Cuban plane. He's wanted in Cuba for that and a host of other serious crimes, and the Cubans have asked Washington to turn him over to them. To Cuba he's like Osama bin Laden is to the United States. But the US has refused. Can you imagine the reaction in Washington if bin Laden showed up in Havana and the Cubans refused to turn him over? Can you imagine the reaction in the United States if Havana proclaimed Osama bin Laden Day?

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The only conclusion to draw from all these contradictions is that US foreign policy has no moral factor built into its DNA.

It's not easy for most Americans to accept this. They see our leaders on TV and their photos in the press, they see them smiling or laughing, telling jokes; see them with their families, hear them speak of God and love, of peace and law, of democracy and freedom, of human rights and justice and even baseball ...

How can they be called immoral?

They have names like George and Dick and Donald - not a single Mohammed or Abdullah in the bunch. And they even speak English. Well, George almost does. People named Mohammed or Abdullah cut off arms as punishment for theft. We know that that's horrible.

But people named George and Dick and Donald drop cluster bombs on cities and villages, and the many unexploded ones become land mines, and before very long a child picks one up or steps on one of them and loses an arm or leg or worse.

But our leaders are perhaps not so much immoral as they are amoral. It's not that they take pleasure in causing so much death and suffering. It's that they just don't care.

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As long as the death and suffering advance the agenda of the Empire, as long as the right people and the right corporations gain wealth and power and privilege and prestige, as long as the death and suffering aren't happening to them or people close to them. They just don't care about it happening to other people, including the American soldiers whom they throw into wars.

Our leaders would not be in the positions they hold if they were bothered by such things.

And the regime change they accomplished in Afghanistan has really gone to their heads. Today Kabul, tomorrow the world.

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This is an edited version of a speech given on October 22, 2002. William Blum is in Australia to speak at the Brisbane Social Forum on March 22, 2003. Click here for more information.



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About the Author

William Blum is the US author of Rogue State, a mini-encyclopaedia of US intervention around the world re-released and updated post 9-11.

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