From its colonizers’ first steps onto new land, American freedom has existed as a facade.
This country’s very existence is built upon the spoils of conquest and thievery in the name of preserving imperialist control and spreading global capitalism. If communism, for example, gets too powerful, the American people may become conscious and start to realize the conditions of their own existence — that would cause the fall of the empire! To continue its reign, the United States must follow a specific recipe for war.
First, it must pick an enemy, or multiple. This enemy is chosen strategically — America would never go up against a nation it cannot bomb into submission. It must ensure that its victims cannot retaliate, since America is too busy using its defensive tactics on its own citizens. Over time, the U.S. has used its expensive military and advanced economy to take on bigger and stronger enemies and maintain iron-fisted control over world trade. There is no time for national defense in a country whose biggest war is with its own people — or maybe there just is no plan.
Second, it must convince the people that this is a justified attack. The enemy is a “threat to the American way of life,” and the brave soldiers are “saving democracy.” Contrary to common belief, America’s biggest enemy is itself. Every time the nation wishes to flatten another underdeveloped nation, it must first wage a war within its own bounds: a war on independent thought. This is done through aggressive propaganda and enforced poverty.
A combination of this and “bread and circuses,” as the Ancient Romans called it, keeps the lower class subdued. The U.S. dictator — sorry, president — gives his people the barest minimum of promises to boost trust and morale in his reign. With bread in their stomachs and circuses in their cities, the American people are now ready to sit down for a tender spoon-feeding of our government’s most racist and imperialist propaganda. Its true nature is well masked by the sweet promises of economic growth and opportunity, like hiding the vegetables in a child’s dinner.
Once this enemy is strategically chosen and the people are on the state’s side, it’s time to fight. The next move is to take this hand-picked nation and run it into the ground until they can no longer progress as a society. This is what keeps the U.S. on top. Capitalist interests rely on the fact that the people are destitute and dependent on the state, and total annihilation makes this easily achievable.
Finally, history must be written by the perpetrators of the violence. It’s less obvious than it seems sometimes: we still learn about the terrible wars, but with crucial details left out. Many of us were purposefully misled to believe that the United States got involved with World War II out of a desire to stop the Nazis’ oppressive reign. How many times has the U.S. gone into a country under the guise of liberating them from themselves? Iran? Congo? Guatemala? Cuba? Vietnam? Are they ever truly liberated, or just colonized?
In a nation built on “liberty and justice for all,” where its own citizens do not know liberty or justice, it must be our duty to bring humanity to these underdeveloped countries. For the state, it is crucial that America is framed as the more advanced, generous party in every conflict, helping these nations with our excessive resources. You know, just like when we so generously turned the Indigenous Americans into true U.S. Americans — oppressed, robbed and stripped of culture and wealth.
