An Example of a "Learning Process" Journal (using the 2 colored box format)

Book: Hegemony or Suvival: America's Quest for Global Dominance.

Source: New York: Henry Holt, 2003.

Book: Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance.

Chapter 3 The New Era of Enlightenment[p. 51 - 72]

What is the main idea of this chapter?

• Three facts need to be recognized as we enter a new millenium:
  • "... the record of terror and criminal atrocities carried out with the decisive support of the reigning superpower and its allies in very recent years, continuing without noticeable change, and suppressed as effectively as in the past within the prevailing intelletual culture"
  • "... over the last millennium, 'ware has been the dominant activity of European states"
  • "... the central, tragic fact is simple: coercion works; those who apply substantial force to their fellows get compliance, and from that compliance draw the multiple advantages of money, goods, deference, and access to pleasures denied to less powerful people." [p. 51 - 52]

Structure of the chapter:

• East Timor and Kosovo
• The Need for Colonization
• Protecting Naughty Children From Infection

East Timor and Kosovo

• "In 1999, Indonesia escalated the atrocities in the territory they had invaded in 1975, killing perhaps 200,000 people with the military and diplomatic support of the US and Britain, assisted by 'intentional ignorance' " [p. 53]
• "Clinton reversed the 25-year policy of support for Indonesia's crimes in East Timor, and informed the Indonesian military that Washington would no longer directly support their crimes. They immediately withdrew from the territory, allowing an Australian-led UN peacekeeping force to enter unopposed." [p. 54]
• "The lesson was crystal clear ... It would have sufficed to withdraw from participation for some of the worst crimes of the late twentieth century to have come to a halt." [p. 54]
• "Kosovo was an ugly place before the NATO bombing, with an estimated 2,000 killed on all sides during the preceding year." ... there were no changes until after the bombing began, when it got much worse. [p. 55]
• "What mattered most was the need to impose NATO's will on a leader whose defiance, first in Bosnia and then in Kosovo, was undermining the credibility of American and European diplomacy and of NATO's willpower." [p. 57]
• "Clinton's resort to force in Bosnia in 1995 and his bombing of Serbia in 1999 were 'not, as claimed, to put a stop to ethnic cleansing or in response to claims of conscience, but to preempt threats to the cohesion of NATO and the credibility of American power.' " [p. 57 - 58]

The Need for Colonization

• "Human rights organizations and the State Department agree that the overwhelming majority of atrocities in Colombia can be attributed to the military and paramilitaries, the 'sixth division' of the five-division Colombian army. ... The proportion of atrocities attributed to the paramilitaries has been increasing as crimes are privatized ... a familiar development elsewhere as well: Serbia used private militias in the former Yugoslavia, as did Indonesia in East Timor, and Turkey in the southeast." [p. 60]
• "Fumigation (in Colombia) is being taken over by 'private' companies consisting of US military officers under contract to the Pentagon, also a pattern that is worldwide, and useful for evading accountability." [p. 60]
• "Why do we persist in our own crimes, either directly or through crucial support for murderous clients?" [p. 61]

Protecting Naughty Children From Infection

• "In its advocacy of the Munroe Doctrine the United States considers its own interests." [p. 64]
• "The doctrine could not yet be implemented fully because of the balance of world power, though Wilson did secure US domination of the Caribbean region by force ... and was able to move somewhat beyond, driving the British enemy out of oil-rich Venezuela and supporting the vicious and corrupt disctator Juan Vicente Gomez, who opened the country to US corporations. ... By 1928 Venezuela had become the world's leading oil exporter, with US companies in charge. The story continues right to the front pages of 2003, with enormous poverty in a country of rich resources and potential, yielding great wealth to foreign investors and small sector of the population.
• "Haitians were 'little more than primitive savages' according to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who claimed to have rewritten the Haitian Constitution during Wilson's military occupation - so as to permit US corporations to take over Haiti's land and resources after its recalcitrant Parliament had been sent packing by the marines." [p. 65]
• "... when Iran's conservative parliamentary government sought to gain control of its own resources, the US and Britain instigated a military coup to install an obedient regime that ruled with terror for twenty-five years." [p. 65]
• " 'Latin Americans are convinced that the first beneficiaries of the development of a country's resources should be the people of that country,' That was unacceptable: the 'first beneficiaries' must be US investors. ... The US therefore imposed an "Economic Charter for the America's" designed to eliminate economic nationalism 'in all its forms'. " [p. 66]
• "... the primary threat posed by Communism was the economic transformation of the Communist countries 'in ways that reduce their willingness and ability to complement the industrial economies of the West,' " [p. 66]

I find the discussion of East Timor to be confusing. They were not invaded and the force that did arrive was under the jurisdiction of the UN.

The claim that Kosovo is now likely to support a "European Taliban" since radical Islamic groups have taken over the distribution of food, clothing and shelter is also new to me.

I need to check google for some history on Venezuela from about 1900 - 2000.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/south_america/venezuela/history.htm

It is sobering to think that one of the largest oil reserves is the Athabasca tar sands. It is also sobering to think of the stock market, and in particular mutual funds that support companies that plunder third world countries.

I need to check a bit more about Haiti's history since 1940...

I need to check a bit about Iran and how the Shah came to power. ...

I need to check out "The Economic Charter for the America's" ...

Chapter 4 Dangerous Times [p. 73 - 108]

What is the main idea of this chapter?

• History is crafted by the powerful.

Structure of the chapter:

• One Word Away From Nuclear War
• International Terrorism and Regime Change: Cuba
• Successful Defiance
• Guiding Principles
• International Terrorism and Regime Change: Nicaragua

One Word Away From Nuclear War

• "... a principle that must be close to a historical universal of intellectual culture: We are 'good' (whoever we happen to be), and they are 'evil' if they stand in our way." [p. 76]
• "The subordination of the ideological system to power ensures that virtually any action - international terrorism ... , overt aggression ... , participation in mass slaughter to destroy the only mass-based political party ...., will either be dispatched to oblivion or reshaped into an act of legitimate self-defense or an act of benevolence that perhaps went astray." [p. 76]
• Adlai Stevenson's "moment" (when he showed images of missiles in Cuba) is not balanced by similar "moments" when the Russians showed images of missiles in Turkey. [p. 77]

International Terrorism and Regime Change: Cuba

• "Eisenhower's March 1960 plan called for the overthrow of Castro in favor of a regime 'more devoted to the true interests of the Cuban people and more acceptable to the US' ". [p. 82]
• "Kennedy was aware that allies 'think we are slightly demented' on the subject of Cuba, a perception that persists to the present." [p. 82]
• "After the crisis ended, Kennedy renewed the terrorist campaign. ... 'only once in these nearly thousand pages of documentation did a U.S. official raise something that resembled a faint moral objection to U.S.-government sponsored terrorism' " [p. 85]
• "US economic warfare against Cuba has been strongly condemned in virtually every relevant international forum." [p. 89]

Successful Defiance

• "In July 1961 the CIA warned that 'the extensive influence of Castroism is not a function of Cuban power ... Castro's shadow looms large because social and economic conditions throughout Latin America invite opposition to ruling authority and encourage agitation for radical change' for which Castro's Cuba provided a model." [p. 89]
• "Kennedy feared that Russian aid might make Cuba a 'showcase' for development, giving the Soviets the upper hand throughout Latin America." [p. 90]
• "Outrage over defiance goes far back in American history." [p. 90]

Guiding Principles

• "The world did not suddenly become extraordinarily dangerous on 9-11, requiring 'new paradigms' that dismantle international law and institutions and grant the White HOuse the power to disregrad the domestic rule of law." [p. 91]

International Terrorism and Regime Change: Nicaragua

• "The attack against Nicaragua was one of the highest priorities of the war on terror launched as the Reagan administration came into office in 1981." [p. 96]
• "Washington's terrorist war had reversed the considerable economic growth and social progress that followed the overthrow of the US-backed Somoza dictatorship, driving the highly vulnerable economy to disaster." [p. 98]
• "In 1986, the World Court found in Nicaragua's favor, ... condemning Washington for 'unlawful use of force' - international terrorism". ... The decision had little detectable effect. [p. 99]
• "Following the US rejection of the World Court orders, Nicaragua ... took its case to the Security Council, which endorsed the court's judgement and called on all states to observe international law. The US vetoed the resolution, Nicaragua then approached the General Assembly, which passed a similar resolution with only the US, Israel and El Salvador opposed, ... Little of this was even reported, and the matter has disappeared from history." [p. 102]
• "Latin Americans ... 'know better than perhaps most people that the US government is one of the biggest sponsors of terrorism.' " [p. 108]

History Index