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Knowing Your Enemy
At the Occupy Wall Street campgrounds in lower Manhattan, you can find just about anything. Like the sign held by a Marine vet wearing a "Don't Tread on Me" t-shirt (with a "Ban Fracking Now" sticker on one sleeve) and military pants: "2nd time I've fought for my country, 1st time I've known my enemy." It could give you chills.
And then there were the older women who cornered me on a visit to the encampment. They were noticeable in part because Zuccotti Park is largely a stakeout for the young and in part because they were insistently shoving a petition at me. It was a call to stop fracking -- the practice of injecting water and potentially dangerous chemicals into rock formations to release natural gas, which can poison local drinking water. (I signed.)
That vet and those women are living reminders that, along with the Wall-Street-focused economic grievances of the new movement, there are other things “too large to fail” in this country which threaten to bring us all down. If they, too, get swept into this movement, it may truly prove a moment to reckon with. After all, our wars, including the now decade-old one in Afghanistan and the drone-fed global war on terror (as well as the military-industrial-homeland-security profiteers who accompany them) have proven a quagmire of corruption and failure, as well as a drain on the national treasury.
At the same time, big oil’s mad pursuit of every last drop of fossil fuel anywhere in the Americas or on Earth, no matter how dirty or destructive to the environment, threatens -- as our last year of rampaging weather may indicate -- to destabilize the planet itself and further degrade our lives. In the case of the environment, there is already a kind of “occupy” movement forming, in particular to protest the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline that is to bring the dirtiest “tough oil” from Canadian tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico. For its construction to begin, however, its “environmental impact” must be assessed by the State Department and then the president must give it the thumbs-up.
As on Wall Street, as in our wars, here, too, corruption is proving almost too deep to fathom. The New York Times recently reported that the State Department assigned the supposedly impartial environmental impact study “to a company with financial ties to the pipeline operator [TransCanada]... At TransCanada’s recommendation, the department hired Cardno Entrix, an environmental contractor based in Houston, even though it had previously worked on projects with TransCanada and describes the pipeline company as a ‘major client’ in its marketing materials.”
You can’t get much seedier than that. As Bill McKibben, who has been at the forefront of the environmental “occupy” movement, writes in his latest post, “Obama’s Failing Emails”: “This is… potentially the biggest scandal of the Obama years. And here's the thing: it's a crime still in progress. Watching the president do nothing to stop it is endlessly depressing.” (Although McKibben’s idea of being “depressed” is to organize a demonstration around the White House on November 6th!)
Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050. His other most recent book is The United States of Fear (Haymarket Books). Previous books include: The End of Victory Culture: a History of the Cold War and Beyond, The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.
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13 Comments so far
Show AllGlenn Beck was telling his culties yesterday that the demonstrators would break in and grab them and drag them away and kill them to take away their stuff. That's really what they believe; that's their main fear. I guess they're sure that's what they'd do if the roles were reversed. They're certain that anyone they see as liberal (anyone who isn't part of the cult of conservatism) is lying, saying all that progressive stuff (we're all in it together and all can help and deserve to be able to ask for help) to make excuses so as to rip them off. Their take on things is the hysterical defensiveness of the Junior High schoolyard: "You're just jealous!"
Their minds are not easily changed. Look at how eager they are to resurrect the International Socialist Conspiracy as if they haven't been happy since they lost social permission to yell "Commie!" at people.
I would not want to kill them or take their toys away from them (they don't believe me when I tell them this). But I don't think they'd show me the same courtesy. I don't doubt for a moment that they would enthusiastically lethally inject me or shoot me if they could get the unfettered power to do so.
Damn right they're nervous. They've been angry for decades. NOW, the "99ers" (those who are awake) are busy sharpening their focus, sorting out their justifications, and "getting their blood up", in preparation for whatever must be done to prevail. The right's been spoiling for this fight. The battle is now joined. They'll be sorry they EVER pressed matters this far. Historically, THEY are always the losers (where are the royals & ALL the old empires, the slavers, the new empires of the fascist/communist 20th century? ALL in the dust. We the people, the 99ers, PUT them there. The global bankster empire will now join them).
45,000 die every year because of lack of access to health care.
The voters put those in power who have failed to get a Single Payer System. Therefore, the voters are the enemy ???
"The voters" are not a majority. The actual percentage of people who vote is quite low and for those who do, the fix has been in for many years. And no, the people who aren't voting aren't at fault because they have to vote a certain way to be counted and not voting for the lesser of two evils is a moral act. The voters put those in power who "said" they would do xyz, and look at how that always works out. Obama anyone?
aliensoup... I always vote my conscience. Have voted NADER for more than 30 years. Things might be different if more voters did that. Voters must be held responsible. Nobody gets a free pass these days. Too many innocent people are being killed by the U$A.
It is time for voters to accept some responsibility. Sure governments lie, the media lies, I have to work too hard to study the issues, the dog ate my homework... I get that. If we continue to make excuses, and continue to allow dem/repubs to call the shots, OWS will be one of the most massive failures in our history.
"...(as well as the military-industrial-homeland-security profiteers who accompany them) have proven a quagmire of corruption and failure, as well as a drain on the national treasury."
Condottiere arose out of the unwillingness or inability of the Italian City States to carry on their incessant wars; flash forward, enter Blackwater. We must have a military draft lest we end up, as did some of the Italian City States, consumed by the monster they created.
"2nd time I've fought for my country, 1st time I've known my enemy."
Best line I've seen yet.
"I have met the enemy and it is us." Po Go
The Tom Englehardt POV resonates mightily with 99% percenters......the MIC must be infiltrated and gradually diminished, defanged, and defused!
On Inauguration Day 2009, Obama became Public Enemy #1 when he failed to have BushCo arrested for its many crimes and adopted those same crimes as his own. THAT's the Biggest Scandal of the "Obama Years," not the BAU corrupt authorization of another project poisoning the public--why does fracking get a pass while the pipeline's condemned, not to mention all Obama's other crimes like murder?
I think any essay attempting to focus on Obama's criminality needs to have an ongoing list of his crimes to-date in the header; and yes, they are many, with the list growing daily.
The Teabag Party was no movement (they are/were mostly Bircher-like). I say was because you can't find them now. Just the few knuckledraggers they elected remain along with those who threaten them to stay in line. They can't sell a rally until the Koch's decide to fire up the busses again. It's establishment media that can't figure out who OWS is but still persists with the Teabag as a movement.
OWS is an example of what it's like when folks have seen too much but are still trying to be nice.
I laugh inside when I hear people mention the lack of a clear demands. Look at the articles and comments on this site. If we put them all in a list, it would look like one of those endless scrolls of Christmas wish-lists in holiday pictures.
And since it seems those demanding a list are so clueless as to what's been going on, I am sure they would be bewildered and then bored within reading or hearing the first few items.
"What are they demanding? I demand to see a list of their demands!"
Here's the list.
Oh, it involves reading and thinking? Never mind.
But it IS about starting a conversation with your neighbors. Someone said that OWS was a manifestation of conversations happening at kitchen tables and on threadbare couches across the USA. Indeed, I have had these conversations in the safety of my own home with participants who are somewhat required to agree with me or at least be sympathetic to my POV--my wife and kids.
But the discussion needs to be moved to the coffee shops and water coolers, to the family get-together and at church gatherings or what have you. The protesters at OWS have afforded us that opportunity now.