51吃瓜

The election of Trump or Clinton is the old illusion of choice that is no choice: two sides of the same coin.

Returning to the United States in an election year, I am struck by the silence. I have covered four presidential campaigns, starting with 1968; I was with Robert Kennedy when he was shot and I saw his assassin, preparing to kill him. It was a baptism in the American way, along with the salivating violence of the Chicago police at the Democratic Party鈥檚 rigged convention. The great counterrevolution had begun.

The first to be assassinated that year, Martin Luther King, had dared link the suffering of African-Americans and the people of Vietnam. When Janis Joplin sang, 鈥淔reedom鈥檚 just another word for nothing left to lose,鈥� she spoke perhaps unconsciously for millions of America鈥檚 victims in faraway places.

鈥淲e lost 58,000 young soldiers in Vietnam, and they died defending your freedom. Now don鈥檛 you forget it.鈥� So said a National Parks Service guide as I filmed recently at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. He was addressing a school party of young teenagers in bright orange t-shirts. As if by rote, he inverted the truth about Vietnam into an unchallenged lie.

The millions of Vietnamese who died and were maimed and poisoned and dispossessed by the American invasion have no historical place in young minds, not to mention the estimated 60,000 veterans who took their own lives. A friend of mine, a marine who became a paraplegic in Vietnam, was often asked, 鈥淲hich side did you fight on?鈥�

A few years ago, I attended a popular exhibition called 鈥淭he Price of Freedom鈥� at the venerable Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The lines of ordinary people, mostly children shuffling through a Santa鈥檚 grotto of revisionism, were dispensed a variety of lies: the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved 鈥渁 million lives鈥�; Iraq was 鈥渓iberated [by] air strikes of unprecedented precision.鈥� The theme was unerringly heroic: Only Americans pay the price of freedom.

The 2016 election campaign is remarkable not only for the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, but also for the resilience of an enduring silence about a murderous self-bestowed divinity. A third of the members of the United Nations have felt Washington鈥檚 boot, overturning governments, subverting democracy, imposing blockades and boycotts. Most of the presidents responsible have been liberal鈥擧arry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.

The breathtaking record of perfidy is so mutated in the public mind, wrote the late Harold Pinter, that it 鈥渘ever happened 鈥� Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn鈥檛 happening. It didn鈥檛 matter. It was of no interest. It didn鈥檛 matter.鈥� Pinter expressed a mock admiration for what he called 鈥渁 quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It鈥檚 a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.鈥�

Obama and Nukes

Take Obama. As he prepares to leave office, the fawning has begun all over again. He is 鈥渃ool.鈥� One of the more violent presidents, Obama gave full reign to the Pentagon war-making apparatus of his discredited predecessor. He prosecuted more whistleblowers鈥攖ruth-tellers鈥攖han any president. He pronounced Chelsea Manning guilty before she was tried. Today, Obama runs an unprecedented worldwide campaign of terrorism and murder by drone.

In 2009, Obama promised to help 鈥溾�� and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.听No American president has built more than Obama. He is 鈥渕odernizing鈥� America鈥檚 doomsday arsenal, including a new 鈥渕ini鈥� nuclear weapon, whose size and 鈥渟mart鈥� technology, says a leading general, ensure its use is 鈥渘o longer unthinkable.鈥�

James Bradley, the best-selling author of听Flags of Our Fathers听and son of one of the US marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima, said: 鈥淸One] great myth we鈥檙e seeing play out is that of Obama as some kind of peaceful guy who鈥檚 trying to get rid of nuclear weapons. He鈥檚 the biggest nuclear warrior there is. He鈥檚 committed us to a ruinous course of spending a trillion dollars on more nuclear weapons. Somehow, people live in this fantasy that because he gives vague news conferences and speeches and feel-good photo-ops that somehow that鈥檚 attached to actual policy. It isn鈥檛.鈥�

On Obama鈥檚 watch, a second cold war is under way. The Russian president is a pantomime villain; the Chinese are not yet back to their sinister pig-tailed caricature鈥攚hen all Chinese were banned from the United States鈥攂ut the media warriors are working on it.

No Change

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders has mentioned any of this. There is no risk and no danger for the US and all of us. For them, the since World War II has not happened. On May 11, Romania went 鈥渓ive鈥� with a NATO 鈥渕issile defense鈥� base that aims its first-strike American missiles at the heart of Russia, the world鈥檚 second nuclear power.

In Asia, the Pentagon is sending ships, planes and Special Forces to the Philippines to threaten China. The US already encircles China with hundreds of military bases that curve in an arc up from Australia, to Asia and across to Afghanistan. Obama calls this a 鈥減ivot.鈥�

Bernie Sanders, the hope of many young Americans, is not very different from Clinton in his proprietorial view of the world beyond the US.

As a direct consequence, China reportedly has changed its nuclear weapons policy from no-first-use to high alert and put to sea submarines with nuclear weapons. The escalator is quickening.

It was Hillary Clinton who, as secretary of state in 2010, elevated the competing territorial claims for rocks and reef in the South China Sea to an international issue; CNN and BBC hysteria followed; China was building airstrips on the disputed islands. In its mammoth war game in 2015, Operation Talisman Sabre, the US practiced 鈥渃hoking鈥� the Straits of Malacca through which pass most of China鈥檚 oil and trade. This was not news.

Clinton declared that America had a 鈥渘ational interest鈥� in these Asian waters. The Philippines and Vietnam were encouraged and bribed to pursue their claims and old enmities against China. In America, people are being primed to see any Chinese defensive position as offensive, and so the ground is laid for rapid escalation. A similar strategy of provocation and propaganda is applied to Russia.

Clinton, the 鈥渨omen鈥檚 candidate,鈥� leaves a trail of bloody coups: in Honduras, in Libya (plus the murder of the Libyan leader) and Ukraine. The latter is now a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) theme park swarming with Nazis and the frontline of a beckoning war with Russia. It was through Ukraine鈥攍iterally, borderland鈥攖hat Adolf Hitler鈥檚 Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, which lost 27 million people. This epic catastrophe remains a presence in Russia. Clinton鈥檚 presidential campaign has received money from all but one of the world鈥檚 10 biggest arms companies. No other candidate comes close.

Bernie Sanders, the hope of many young Americans, is not very different from Clinton in his proprietorial view of the world beyond the US. He backed President Bill Clinton鈥檚 illegal bombing of Serbia. He supports Obama鈥檚 terrorism by drone, the provocation of Russia and the return of Special Forces (death squads) to Iraq. He has nothing to say on the drumbeat of threats to China and the accelerating risk of nuclear war. He agrees that Edward Snowden should stand trial and he calls Hugo Chavez鈥攍ike him, a social democrat鈥斺�渁 dead communist dictator.鈥� He promises to support Clinton if she is nominated.

The Media

The election of Trump or Clinton is the old illusion of choice that is no choice: two sides of the same coin. In scapegoating minorities and promising to 鈥渕ake America great again,鈥� Trump is a far right-wing domestic populist; yet the danger of Clinton may be more lethal for the world.

鈥�,鈥� said Stephen Cohen, emeritus professor of Russian History at Princeton and NYU, one of the few Russia experts in the US to speak out about the risk of war.

In a radio broadcast, Cohen referred to critical questions Trump alone had raised. Among them: Why is the United States 鈥渆verywhere on the globe鈥�? What is NATO鈥檚 true mission? Why does the US always pursue regime change in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine? Why does Washington treat Russia and Vladimir Putin as an enemy?

The hysteria in the liberal media over Trump serves an illusion of 鈥渇ree and open debate鈥� and 鈥渄emocracy at work.鈥� His views on immigrants and Muslims are grotesque, yet the deporter-in-chief of vulnerable people from America is not Trump but Obama, whose betrayal of people of color is his legacy: such as the warehousing of a mostly black prison population, now more numerous than Joseph Stalin鈥檚 gulag.

This presidential campaign may not be about populism but American liberalism, an ideology that sees itself as modern and, therefore, superior and the one true way. Those on its right wing bear a likeness to 19^th听century Christian imperialists, with a God-given duty to convert or co-opt or conquer.

In Britain, this is Blairism. The Christian war criminal Tony Blair got away with his secret preparation for the invasion of Iraq largely because the liberal political class and media fell for his 鈥渃ool Britannia.鈥� In The听Guardian, the applause was deafening; he was called 鈥渕ystical.鈥� A distraction known as identity politics, imported from the US, rested easily in his care.

History was declared over, class was abolished and gender promoted as feminism; lots of women became New Labour MPs. They voted on the first day of Parliament to cut the benefits of single parents, mostly women, as instructed. A majority voted for an invasion that .

The equivalent in the US are the politically correct warmongers on The听New York Times,听The听Washington Post听and network TV who dominate political debate. I watched a furious debate on CNN about Trump鈥檚 infidelities. It was clear, they said, a man like that could not be trusted in the White House. No issues were raised. Nothing on the 80% of Americans whose income has collapsed to 1970s levels. Nothing on the drift to war. The received wisdom seems to be 鈥渉old your nose鈥� and vote for Clinton: anyone but Trump. That way, you stop the monster and preserve a system gagging for another war.

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.

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