We need to end the insanity of global empire building at the expense of democracy at home and save ourselves the agony of imploding from within like all empires inevitably do.

Read Chalmers Johnson’s latest book, DISMANTLING THE EMPIRE, for further background.

Here is a short quote from the author himself: “If…we were to dismantle our empire of military bases and redirect our economy toward productive, instead of destructive, industries; if we maintained our volunteer armed forces primarily to defend our own shores…if we began to invest in our infrastructure, education, health care, and savings, then we might have a chance to reinvent ourselves as a productive, normal nation…”

In his previous book, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, he states: “Specifically, I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent. The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government – a republic – that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire…”

We can either do it by (relative) choice like the British, or watch our country destroy itself for the sake of empire, like the Romans. We could save BILLIONS of dollars that could be used constructively for the betterment of all Americans. Free education, free healthcare, free housing, jobs for all…

Yeah, I know. Crazy.

Fiddles, anyone?

(Just for the sake of argument, before the crazies go on about what a communist/socialist/liberal/whatever else Johnson must be, here is his bio: Chalmers Ashby Johnson (born August 6, 1931) is an American author and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean war, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967–1973, and led the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley for years. He is also president and co-founder of the Japan Policy Research Institute (now based at the University of San Francisco), an organization promoting public education about Japan and Asia.²)

He was reporting on how China has now surpassed Japan to become the world’s 2nd largest economy (as measured by GDP output) after the USA. They did this, as you know, largely by its cheap labor market for mfg. But, he asks, how long can China maintain this competitive advantage? As China’s middle class grows, they will demand higher wages and more material goods. The rapidly growing economic base will require more infrastructure spending by the Chinese government. This will lead to inflation and rising wages in China, and even now some American companies that had exported their mfg to China are thinking of bringing those jobs back to the USA.

One can only hope that will start a trend.