Philosopher, poet, literary and cultural critic, George Santayana’s nostrum “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” has particular resonance today, especially as it relates to the role Halliburton — the former employer of both President George W. Bush, and Vice-President Dick Cheney — currently plays in the reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
In this article published on TomDispatch.com, Renato Redentor Constantino discusses the correlation between current day events in Iraq — as they unfold as part of the White House’s plan for global hegemony — and historical forays by the United States into the Philippines over a century ago, and more recently in Vietnam.
“White House’s plan for global hegemony”
Oh please…let’s not be drinking too much of the lefty kool-aid.
If America has become the global hegemon it is, as they used to say of the British Empire, largely by accident.
By dint of history, or by design, Mr. Currie, America has, indeed, become the global hegemon that it has. Yes, there is certainly a rhetorical flourish in the writing of “the White House’s plan for global hegemony” but all you have to do is read the various internal “State Department” position papers developed for the White House – written prior to 9/11, I might add – and perhaps you would not think the notion of U.S. global hegemony, by design, quite so ludicrous.
Left-right really has little do to with it (and while writing this I’m enjoying a Sobe, not Kool-Aid, by the way). Either one acts responsibly and well, in the interests of the majority (without tromping on the rights of the minority), or one leaves oneself wide open to all sorts of charges, the least of which is “global hegemony”.