Clipmarks | Imperialism Clips

Chauvinism as Nationalism

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:03:04 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns
clipper's remarks: 1. Blind and absurd devotion to a fallen leader or an
obsolete cause; hence, absurdly vainglorious or
exaggerated patriotism.
[1913 Webster]
Note: To have a generous belief in the greatness of one's
country is not chauvinism. It is the character of the
latter quality to be wildly extravagant, to be fretful
and childish and silly, to resent a doubt as an insult,
and to offend by its very frankness. --Prof. H. Tuttle.
[1913 Webster]

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Chauvinism as nationalism

See also: white man's burden

In "Imperialism, Nationalism, Chauvinism", in The Review of Politics 7.4, (October 1945), p. 457, Hannah Arendt describes the concept:

Chauvinism is an almost natural product of the national concept insofar as it springs directly from the old idea of the "national mission." ... (A) nation's mission might be interpreted precisely as bringing its light to other, less fortunate peoples that, for whatever reason, have miraculously been left by history without a national mission. As long as this concept did not develop into the ideology of chauvinism and remained in the rather vague realm of national or even nationalistic pride, it frequently resulted in a high sense of responsibility for the welfare of backward peoples.

Putin: Bush Tricked Me Into Invading Georgia To Help McCain Beat Obama

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:25:39 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Does the US have close ties to Georgia? Yes. Has the US been instrumental in modernizing and backing Georgia’s military? Yes. But did the United States instruct Georgia to use such blunt force against separatists in the areas Russia now wants to be independent? Absolutely not. That was Georgia’s call as a sovereign nation, and Putin’s attempt to lay the blame with President Bush is simply a feint to cover his own country’s aggression in this matter.

A feint that smells suspiciously Soviet. Remember when the Soviets would back rebels and invade countries all over the world and then claim they were just opposing American imperialism? Well we’re back to that again.

Clip Source: sayanythingblog.com

MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Thursday of instigating the fighting in Georgia and said he suspects a connection to the U.S. presidential campaign — a contention the White House dismissed as “patently false.”

[...]

Putin, the former president and architect of an assertive foreign policy that has stoked East-West tension, suggested in an interview with CNN that there was an American presence amid the combat with a potential domestic U.S. political motive.

“We have serious grounds to think that there were U.S. citizens right in the combat zone” during Russia’s war with the U.S.-allied ex-Soviet republic, he said the interview broadcast on state-run Russian television. “And if that’s so, if that is confirmed, it’s very bad. It’s very dangerous.”

It sounds nutty, sure, but you know this will end up in a DNC press release sooner or later.

I think Putin is the one playing the game here.

Tags: putin, president bush, georgia, ossetia

Of Antigone

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:31:12 GMT

clipped by: DennisGahm
clipper's remarks: "impassioned apostrophe"

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

It is striking that a prominent play in a time of such imperialism contains no political propaganda, no impassioned apostrophe, makes not a single contemporary allusion or passing reference to Athens, and betrays no patriotic interests whatsoever.

Just one race - the Human race

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:20:02 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: In Haiti all good people were black (whatever their skin colour)

Clip Source: leninology.blogspot.com

when it comes to subverting the racial order, there is no better example than Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of an independent Haiti

All Haitians, - Ayisyen yo - "shall hence forward be known only by the generic appellation of "Blacks." (See, Dessalines' 1805 Constitution).

Thus, in Dessalines' Haiti, "Black," is deracialized. We all now know that race is purely a social construct with no scientific grounds. The truth is there is just one race, the human race. But back at its creation, the country of Haiti was based on this truth.

those who fought for the abolishment of chattel slavery in Haiti and against colonialism, including the few whites that did fight on the side of the Africans, as "Blacks

a "Black" is a person (no matter his/her skin color

who stands for freedom, human dignity and against slavery, colonialism and imperialism. No ideal in this modern world so directly confronts and conquers the biological fatalism of white privilege

Mission Creep

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:22:45 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Our empire exists so we can exploit a much greater share of the world's wealth than we are entitled to, and to prevent other nations from combining against us to take their rightful share."

So why don't our politicians be honest with us? Because they are bought off by special interests in the name of wealth and power and greed. Now that FUCKING pisses me off that they think the American people are so stupid, save the Neocons who never cease to amaze me in any particular area of greed and stupidity.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Imperialism, meaning militarily stronger nations dominating and exploiting weaker ones, has been a prominent feature of the international system for several centuries, but it may be coming to an end

The United States now seems to be the last of a dying species—the sole remaining multinational empire.

Counting domestic military bases and those on US territories, the total is 5,429.

But despite the wartime origins of many overseas bases, they have little to do with our national security.

In fact, the purpose of our overseas bases is to maintain US dominance in the world, and to reinforce what military analyst Charles Maier calls our "empire of consumption."

The United States possesses less than 5 percent of global population but consumes about one-quarter of all global resources, including petroleum.

Pepe Escobar & David Harvey: "The State Of The Empire"

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:29:16 GMT

clipped by: Spiritualmonkey

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

The state of the empire

Added: August 19, 2008 (Less info)

More at http://therealnews.com/c.php?c=080801YT

David Harvey: Exit the neocon global project, enter competing capitalist blocks

n the first part of his interview with Pepe Escobar, David Harvey talks about competing capitalist blocks, the US-China relationship, the neoconservative global project and Barack Obama as the new face of US neoliberalism.

[Video]

Tags: china, the real news, imperialism, neoconservatives, corporations, capitalism, interview, pepe escobar, david harvey, video

So much for American imperialism

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:03:08 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Official: Draft Agreement Struck on Troop Pullback From Iraq

BAGHDAD — Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have completed a draft security agreement that would see American troops leave Iraqi cities as soon as June 30, Iraqi and American officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

In Washington, a senior military official said the deal is acceptable to the U.S. side, subject to formal approval by President Bush. It also requires final acceptance by Iraqi leaders, and some members of Iraq's Cabinet oppose some provisions.

Also completed is a companion draft document, known as a strategic framework agreement, spelling out in broad terms the political, security and economic relationships between Iraq and the United States, the senior military official said. The official discussed the draft accords on condition that he not be identified by name because the deals have not been publicly announced and are not final.

Patrick Buchanan: US views of Georgia "ring hollow"

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:07:25 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "For a decade, some of us have warned about the folly of getting into Russia’s space and getting into Russia’s face. The chickens of democratic imperialism have now come home to roost—in Tbilisi."

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight—Russia finished it

Russia’s response was “disproportionate” and “brutal,” wailed Bush.

True. But did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish

Was that not many times more “disproportionate”?

Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush

But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historical claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia

When the Soviet Union broke into 15 nations, we celebrated. When Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo broke from Serbia, we rejoiced. Why, then, the indignation when two provinces, whose peoples are ethnically separate from Georgians and who fought for their independence, should succeed in breaking away?

Are secessions

laudable only when they advance the agenda of the neocons

whom viscerally detest Russia?

Tags: war, georgia, russia

Welcome Back to the 19th Century

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:13:15 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Apologists for Russia can point to lots of mitigating circumstances, starting with the biggest one of Christmas Day 1991, when the hammer-and-sickle flag over the Kremlin went down for the last time, and up went the Russian tricolor. Poof, and a whole empire from the Baltic to Kazakhstan was suddenly gone. Yes, that chilled the Russian soul, and so did Georgia's love affair with the United States. How dare Georgia, the birthplace of Stalin, sidle up to the EU and NATO?

In the greater scheme of things, though, Georgia's geopolitical crimes pale against a simple historical truth: 8/8 is payback for 12/25, when the Soviet Empire expired.

That, as Mr. Putin has told us, was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century," and ever since he was anointed neo-czar in 2000, he has been working hard, and as time went by ever more ham-handedly, to reverse the verdict of the Cold War -- to regain what Russia had lost.

By JOSEF JOFFE WSJ Europe

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Russia -- like the mad scientist Emmett Brown in "Back to the Future" -- thrust us backward by about 150 years in the Caucasus: into the age of imperialism and geopolitics, resource wars and spheres of influence.

It was strictly 19th-century when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin casually announced that "war has started." In the old days, such pronunciamentos were routine; war, to recall Clausewitz, was just the "continuation of politics with the admixture of other means."

Say hello to Vladimir Putin and his stand-in Dmitry Medvedev. By attacking Georgia, they have raised the curtain on a post-World War II premiere. They have launched the first real war in "Greater Europe" since 1945.

Many are blaming "hot-headed" President Mikheil Saakashvili for having baited the bear, and he is no angel, for sure. Didn't he go first by ordering his army into South Ossetia?

But in 1939, they also blamed the "hot-headed" Poles for refusing to placate Hitler, and so he just had to flatten Warsaw

Tags: georgia, president mikheil saakashvili, vladimir putin, neo-soviet empire

Russian media

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:25:05 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: None of this is or should be about Russia or the Russian people. All of it stinks of Soviet propaganda, Soviet brutality, Soviet morality, and Soviet nostalgia. It is the handiwork of the siloviki clique that currently monopolizes power in Russia through authoritarian politics, kleptocratic economics, and media manipulation. This clique must be shown that war crimes do not pay. The Russian people, too, need to learn that nostalgia for Soviet imperialism is a dead end for Russia.

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

Throughout this calculated aggression, the Russian media has played an inglorious but technically brilliant role. They have used the most modern techniques of journalism and marketing to broadcast the worst lies of the Kremlin. Those lies themselves have been cleverly designed to imitate the West’s own justifications for the Kosovo intervention: “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.” Doubtless the Georgian forces committed crimes in their incursion into South Ossetia. There are plausible reports that they shelled villages. But they were overwhelmed so quickly that they simply could not have committed crimes of the scale alleged by the Kremlin. Besides, Russia’s long patronage of South Ossetian attacks, its invasion across internationally recognized borders, and its relentless bombing of a country that has retreated and offered a cease-fire deprives it of any right to make such accusations. Russian policy is a war crime in itself.

Chaplains Serve Soldiers

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:52:46 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Given that attitude they feel attacked by “the devil” when prayer and Bible readings are outlawed in public schools, when active proselytizing is stopped at the Air Force Academy and now when prayers are requested to be removed from mandatory meals at the Naval Academy. Each of these initiatives is, however, not only correct, but each brings practice into conformity with the Constitution. I rejoice in this decision.

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

Chaplains are in the military to serve the spiritual needs of our service men and women. They are not imposed on those who do not choose to avail themselves of their services. No one should have the religion of another imposed upon him or her involuntarily. Saying prayers at meals that are mandatory is an imposition. This would be especially true if the prayers assume a particular view of God, which all prayers seem to do. The ACLU is absolutely correct to make this request.

America was founded on the principle of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Yet in many parts of America the majority religious viewpoint of the community was imposed upon the public schools and its symbols displayed in public places. Majority religious traditions are delusional in their understanding of imperialism regarding religious truth. That is how we get claims of inerrant scriptures and infallible popes.

Tags: united states, army, religion

135-year old man found in Al Ain

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:50:41 GMT

clipped by: boozich

Clip Source: www.arabianbusiness.com

A man from Al Ain is 135-years old according to the details on his identity card, and he says daily prayers and a healthy lifestyle have helped him reach the ripe old age.

Nasir Al-Hajry says he remembers historical events that occurred more than a century ago such as the Tribes War in the Arab Island, UAE daily Khaleej Times reported on Thursday.

His family plan to contact the Guinness Book of World Records after seeing his identity card.

The man claims to have attended the Arabian Revolution against Turkish imperialism in 1916 and the Arab Island’s wars during the First World War (1914-1918).

Al Hajry said that visiting the mosque five times daily was his only social activity now.

Supreme Court Ruling Inspires New TV Series

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:07:39 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Here is some of what is set to air during the presidential elections in the fall of 2008. Check your local listings.

Fast-paced and wildly comedic, the series confronts social issues, while it indoctrinates the viewers with correct progressive messages.

Three major American networks are about to launch new legal drama series that feature lawyers litigating in defense of armed Muslim bystanders picked up on the battlefield and wrongly accused of being enemy combatants. Quick spin-offs of such successful shows as Law & Order and Boston Legal are in the works at ABC and NBC, while CBS promises an original sitcom about a lawyer who not only defends accused terrorists, but is himself a terrorist.

Clip Source: thepeoplescube.com

James Spader and William Shatner play Alan Shore and Republican loony tune (aren't they all?) Denny Crane, unlikely kindred spirits who defend Taliban's peaceful workers, peasants, and intelligentsia who have fallen victims to American imperialism.

A Law & Order spin-off, it follows Guantanamo detainee cases, often ripped from current headlines, from two different viewpoints. The first half of every episode focuses on the tainted and biased investigation, while the second half shines the light on the successful defense in court

Watch the drama as progressive defense attorneys disrupt and impede US military operations around the globe.

By day he defends terrorist suspects; by night he plans and executes terrorist acts. As lawyer for accused combatants he is given access to information, which he then uses to his advantage.

Hi-jinx and laughter ensue as Ali terrorizes, beheads, and blows up witnesses, judges, and prosecutors.

Tags: satire, humor, supreme court, habeas corpus ruling, gitmo detainees, new network series'

Palestine: The State History Forgot

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:37:18 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Is it a joke of history that before there was the states of Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Syria, etc there was Palestine? Now they all exist and Palestine doesn't yet.

You will read that there never was a Palestine from a certain quarter and how can you miss what you never had. How you know they are lying! They'll say that as they are all Arabs that there's enough room for them all. It's like saying that the Scots Welsh and Irish are all Celts and one state would do them all! Yes, there was a time when such thinking was regarded as valid. If we had the Age of Imperialism back then the Brits might validly have a claim on the USA and most of the rest of the world.

In the present imperialism, if the existent holder of the gunboat diplomacy role, the USA, decided to sort out Palestine's present difficulties it could in a breath. Hopefully in a more honourable fashion that the last gunboat holder did.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Mandate of Palestine

was a League of Nations Mandate created after the First World War when the Ottoman Empire was split up by the Treaty of Sèvres.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

The approximate borders of the British Mandate circa 1922. In September 1922 Britain organized the territory east of the Jordan river, "Transjordan," as an autonomous state.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Clip Source: faculty-staff.ou.edu

Clip Source: www.palestinianisraeliconflict.com

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

At the 1920 San Remo conference of the Allied Supreme Council, at which the Mandates were granted, the precise boundaries of all territories, including that of the British Mandate of Palestine, were left unspecified, to "be determined by the Principal Allied Powers"^[1] and were not completely finalized until four years later

However, it was clear that the boundary of Britain's mandate for Palestine was to extend eastward to the western boundary of its mandate for Mesopotamia.

In 1921, following Churchill's negotiations with Emir Abdullah, Transjordan (later Jordan) was accepted into the Mandate

separated from the area on which a Jewish National Home could be establish

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Clip Source: farm2.static.flickr.com

Tags: palestine, israel, history

American SOldiers, The Philippines, and Waterboarding: A History

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:02:17 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: A century ago, American soldiers conquering a foreign country to secure "vital American interests" used torture against the locals who resisted being occupied.

Are we surprised the same thing happened in Iraq?

Clip Source: www.newyorker.com

The Water Cure

Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom

A letter by A. F. Miller, of the 32nd Volunteer Infantry Regiment, published in the Omaha World-Herald in May, 1900, told of how Miller’s unit uncovered hidden weapons by subjecting a prisoner to what he and others called the “water cure.” “Now, this is the way we give them the water cure,” he explained. “Lay them on their backs, a man standing on each hand and each foot, then put a round stick in the mouth and pour a pail of water in the mouth and nose, and if they don’t give up pour in another pail. They swell up like toads. I’ll tell you it is a terrible torture.”

Tags: philippines, torture, history, military, waterbaording, iraq, imperialism