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 6 Dilemmas of Dominance [p. 145 - 156]

What is the main idea of this chapter?

• The globe appears to be moving toward a tripolar order consisting of the US, Europe and Asia with a concommitant concern in the US that both Europe and Asia may seek a more independent course.

This was a very short chapter with no sub-headings.

Chapter 7 Cauldron of Animosities [p. 157 - 185]

What is the main idea of this chapter?

• In the Middle East, Israel's military power, strongly supported by the US, is considered "dangerous in the extreme".

Structure of the chapter:

• US-Israel Relations: Origins and Maturation
• Camp David II and Beyond: Toward a "Permanent Neocolonial Dependency"

US-Israel Relations: Origins and Maturation

• "Israel has military forces that are off the spectrum of societies comparable in other dimensions." [p. 159]
• "Israel also has a close military alliance with the other regional military power, Turkey. The US-Turkey-Israel alliance is sometimes called "the axis of evil" in the Middle East." [p. 159]
• "After World War II, a high priority of US policy was to ensure its control over a region of such great material wealth and strategic significance." [p. 161]
• "US intelligence expects Gulf energy resources to become even more significant in the years ahead, hence also the drive to maintain control." [p. 162]
• "Until recently, the only fully reliable military base nearby was the British-held island of Diego Garcia, from which the inhabitants were expelled. The US still refuses them the right of return, overruling decisions of the British courts; the issue is unknown in the US, much like the case of Okinawa." [p. 162]
• "The crisis in Indonesia was resolved by a huge massacre, mainly of landless peasants ..." [p. 165]
• "Israel's choices over the past thirty years have reduced its options considerably; on its present course, it has virtually no alternative to serving as a US base in the region and complying with US demands." [p. 165]
• "Israel recognized at once that with the Arab deterrent removed, it could intensify its expansion into the occupied territories and attack its northern neighbour, as it proceeded to do in 1978 and 1982, continuing to occupy parts of Lebanon for almost twenty years. The 1982 invasion and its immediate aftermath left some 20,000 dead; according to Lebanese sources, the toll in the following years was about 25,000. The topic is of little concern in the West ... So matters continued through eighteen bloody years of Israeli atrocities in Lebanon, rarely with even a thin pretext of self-defense" [p. 167]
• "... the goal of the 1982 invasion 'was to install a friendly regime and destroy Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization' " [p. 168]
• "From then to the present the US has blocked the possibility of a diplomatic settlement in the terms accepted by virtually the entire world..." [p. 168]

Camp David II and Beyond: Toward a "Permanent Neocolonial Dependency"

• "During the Bush II-Sharon years, the prospects for a diplomatic solution have declined further. Israel has expanded its settlement programs, with continued US backing." [p. 172]
• " 'In virtually every Israeli settlement, colonization efforts are proceeding apace,' leading to 'revolutionary changes in patterns of transportation and access' aimed at 'consolidating Israel's ability to secure a permanent hold over these lands." [p. 172]
• "In contrast, the dynamic for Palestinians is just the opposite - an ever-increasing network of barricades, obstacles, patrol roads, and prohibitions that isolate them from settlements, from each other, and from places of work, compromising their ability to lead normal lives and impoverishing an entire national community." [p. 172 - 173]

I have never really thought of Turkey as being part of a US-Israel alliance.

I had never heard of Diego Garcia:

http://www.mydiegogarcia.com/

http://pilger.carlton.com/print/133386

I am not familiar with the Indonesian massacre in 1958

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/McGehee_CIA_Indo.html

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0920792.html

The carving up of the Paelstinian land into isolated communities was another idea that was new to me. Sometimes I wonder if I actually live on this planet, given how little I seem to know about international politics and battles.

Chapter 8 Terrorism and Justice: Some Useful Truisms [p. 187 - 216]

What is the main idea of this chapter?

• The US does not apply to itself the standards it imposes on other countries.

Structure of the chapter:

• Truisms and Terror
• The Art of "Disappearing" Unwanted Facts
• Truisms and Just War Theory
• Confronting Terror

Truisms and Terror

• "A few simple truths:
  • actions are evaluated in terms of the range of likely consequences
  • the principle of universality: we apply to ourselves the same standards we apply to others" [p. 187]
• [The above two principles] "... are rejected almost without exception." [p. 187]
• "The actual consequences of an action may be highly significant, but they do not bear on the moral evaluation of the action." [p. 187]
• "It is traditional for states to call their own terrorism 'counterterror' " [p. 189]
• "... terror is primarily a weapon of the powerful." [p. 189]
• "Another problem with the official definitions of terror is that it follows from them that the US is a leading terrorist state. That much is hardly controversial, at least among thse who believe that we should pay some attention to such institutions as the International Court of Justice or the UN Security Council, or mainstream scholarship." [p. 189]
• "To learn about such matters one has to wander into forbidden territory: the historical and documentary record, or marginalized critical literature." [p. 191]

The Art of "Disappearing" Unwanted Facts

• "Keeping to convention, these analyses portray the US as a benign victim, defending itself from the terror of others: the Vietnamese ..., the Nicaraguans ..., Libyans ..., Iranians ..." [p. 194]
• "... the plague of US-backed state terror that spread through Latin America in the 1960's peaked in Central America in the 1980's..." [p. 194]
• In the Middle East, the "worst single atrocity during the 1980's was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982." [p. 194]
• The US media routinely "protects its readers from the complicity of their own government". [p. 197]

Truisms and Just War Theory

• "World opinion strongly favored diplomatic-judicial measures over military action [to apprehend the people responsible for 9-11]" [p. 200]
• The US begfan bombing Afghanistan in late 2001, when "there was overwhelming opposition to Washington's actual policies." [p. 200]
• "In late October 2001, after three weeks of intense bombing, 1,000 Afghan leaders gathered in Peshawar, ... all committed to overthrowing the Taliban regime, ... unanimously 'urged the US to stop the air raids' and appealed to the international media to call for an end to the 'bombing of innocent people'. They urged that other means be adopted to overthrow the hated Taliban regime, a goal they believed could be achieved fithout further death and destruction." [p. 201]
• "It would be hard to find anyone who accepts the doctrine that massive bombing is a legitimate response to terrorist crimes." [p. 204]
• "Clinton's missile attack on the al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan in 1998, which led to 'several tens of thousands' of deaths...' [p. 206]

Confronting Terror

• "Though terrorism is rightly feared everwhere and is indeed an intolerable 'return to barbarism', it is not surprising that perceptions about its nature differ rather sharply at opposite ends of the guns." [p. 208 - 209]
• "Those concerned to reduce the threaat of terror ... will distinguish carefully between the terrorist networks themselves and the larger community that provides a resevoir from which radical terrorist cells can sometimes draw. That community includes the poor and oppressed." [p. 209]
• "... 'unless the social, political, and economic conditions that spawned Al Qaeda and other associated groups are addressed, the United States and its allies in Western Europe and elsewhere will continue to be targeted by Islamist terrorists.' Accordingly, 'the US should, for its own self-protection, expand efforts to reduce the pathology of hatred before it mutates into even greater danger,' seeking to 'moderate ... conditions that breed violence and terrorism.' " [p. 209 - 210]
• "... But their 'support base' has to be approached in radically different ways: by considering grievances and, if they are legitimate, addressing them in a serious way." [p. 210]
• "Northern Ireland ... is vastly improved over the days when Britain ignored legitimate grievances in favor of force." [p. 213]
• "The basic reason ... was the perception that the US supports corrupt and brutal governments and is 'opposing political or economic progress' in order 'to protect its interest in Near East oil.' " [p. 214]

Here is further information on the 1998 Sudan bombing:

http://www.sudan.net/news/press/postedr/42.shtml

http://www.espac.org/al_shifa_pages/al-shifa_1.html

http://thirdtablet.com/InfiniteJustUs/chomsky_on_sudan_bombing.html

Chapter 9 A Passing Nightmare? [p. 217 - 237]

What is the main idea of this chapter?

• Many countries (US, Israel, Russia, China) realized that they could use 9-11 as a pretext for further terrorism and aggression.
• "missile defense isn't really meant to protect America. It's a tool for global dominance." [p. 227]

This has been a very sobering book to read, but I am glad I have made a few notes. I am resolved to do more reading on political history since 1945.

History Index