Three Cheers for the United States?

This was written over two years ago and posted on July 3, 2005 on the H-Genocide list, and someone reposted it on the Discussion group for the Association for Humanist Sociology. One discussant, William Du Bois, termed it "Bullshit." Alan Spector submitted a long list of American "evils," and democides, in rebuttal, and claimed I was "the most shallow sort of propagandist for U.S. imperialism." Chomsky, well known for his anti-Americanism, simply claimed I seemed "more like a small time thug than a leading scholar of anything."

Well, so as not to appear patriotic, excessive, right-wing, insensitive, or in whatever other way I hit people's hot buttons, I want to express the following as simply, yet as professionally, as possible. However, all this should have a question mark. Obama’s foreign policy is an old line realist and left wing one, and not the Forward Strategy of Freedom that was Bush/s.

There now is a force in this world systematically doing what we all want done: eliminating democide and its aggressive forces, while trying to supplant it with a way of preventing it in the future.

In 1999, the United States and its NATO allies saved Kosovo from the ongoing mass murder by the Milosevic regime. It had used its military and paramilitary forces to slaughter about 10,000 Kosovo Albanians and drive out of the country perhaps a million of these poor people. The American and allied intervention also paved the way for Slobodan Milosevic to be indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal and extradited to The Hague in June 2001 to stand trial. We should cheer this.

In 2002, United States anti-terrorist war has reduced the number of terrorist attacks to 199, a 44 percent drop from the previous year; in terms of murdered, from 3,300 in 2001 to 725. We should cheer this.

In the last nineteen months, The United States and its allies have swept away two gangs of democidal thugs and prime supporters of terrorism. Saddam Hussein's gang perhaps murdered a million in war and democide; the Taliban gang murdered hundreds of thousands. About 50 million Iraqis and Afghans that were suffering the tyranny, torture, imprisonment, and murder of these thugs are now free and on the way to democracy [which has been achieved]. We should cheer this.

There have been democratic elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, and women have been given more freedom than they had before. We should Cheer this

In the memory of many of us still, the United States and its allies rid the world of the democidal fascist regimes of Japan (over 5 million murdered), Germany (over 21 million), and Italy (over 220 thousand); saved South Korea from the democidal prison-state of North Korea (so far many millions murdered), unsuccessfully tried to save South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from murderous communist bloodbath (ultimately murdering many millions), and saved the world from the democidal horror of Soviet Communism (about 61 million murdered). We should cheer this.

Surely, those who hate democide and the lack of human rights will note that the United States is the best possible ally in our cause. Indeed, we could characterize the United States (its administrations, its congress, and its people) as the swiftest and most effective democide and ruling thug cleanser and human rights promoter we could have wished. We should cheer this.

And what historical regime but the United States would have Western Europe and Asia prostrate under its military power in 1945, and yet work to democratize its former enemies, democratize them, give them independence, and then pull out. By comparison, the Soviet Union, the only other world competitor after it recovered from the war, subjected to its total political control those nations it occupied militarily. Some will put it in these terms: the US is the only nation that tries to devise an exit strategy even before military action takes place. We should cheer this.

What international organizations, international law, and the plethora of intellectual and academic analyses and solutions have been unable to do, the United States with one coalition or another has done. It has often left in its wake democracy or the process of democratization -- the only solution to democide and war that we know of and has worked. We all are better for it. We should cheer this.

Of course, the US has committed excesses. Of course, there is much to criticize. Of course, its foreign policies have not been perfect or always on the side of the angels. Of course, it has domestic problems. It is of and by imperfect human beings. But no matter. As we should be proud and happy over a fireman that has saved families from a burning home, no matter his personal imperfections or that he was clumsy, misplaced his axe, and forgot about the families' valuable antiques, we should cheer over what the United States has done.

Three cheers for the United States?