Chalmers Johnson - The Sorrows of Empire - Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic

39. “Weighing the Evidence,” New York Times, February 15, 2003.

40. The transcript is online at . Also see “Star Witness on Iraq Said Weapons Were Destroyed,” Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Media Advisory, February 27, 2003; John Barry, “The Defector’s Secrets,” Newsweek, March 3, 2003; Andrew Gumbel, “Anthrax, Chemicals, and Nerve Gas: Who Is Lying?” Independent, April 20, 2003; and “So Where Are They, Mr. Blair?” Independent, April 20, 2003.

41. The most useful statement from Ritter is his interview with the PBS television program Frontline in 1999, .

42. Jonathan Rugman, “Downing Street Dossier Plagiarized,” Channel 4 News, February 6, 2003, ; and Alexander Cockburn, “The Great’Intelligence Fraud,’” CounterPunch, February 15, 2003.

43. “U.N. Inspectors: U.S. Used Forged Reports,” Guardian, March 8, 2003.

44. Joby Warrick, “Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake,” Washington Post, March 8, 2003; Stephen Fidler, “Niger Documents Fake, Says ElBaradei,” Financial Times, March 8–9, 2003; Louis Charbonneau, “’Proof That Iraq Sought Uranium Was Fake,” Reuters, March 7, 2003; Bob Drogin and Greg Miller, “Intelligence Value in Iraq Questioned,” Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2003; Mark Phillips, “Inspectors Call U.S. Tips ‘Garbage,’” CBSNews.com, February 20, 2003; Congressman Henry A. Waxman to President George W. Bush, March 17, 2003, ; Dana Priest and Karen De Young, “CIA Questioned Documents Linking Iraq, Uranium Ore,” Washington Post, March 22, 2003; and Seymour M. Hersh, “Who Lied to Whom?” New Yorker, March 31, 2003, pp. 41–43.

45. Quoted by Ray Close, “A CIA Analyst on Forging Intelligence,” CounterPunch, March 10, 2003.

46. Ray McGovern, “CIA Director Caves In,” CommonDreams.org, February 13, 2003.

47. Seymour M. Hersh, “Selective Intelligence,” New Yorker, May 12, 2003, pp. 44–51. Also see Paul Harris, Martin Bright, Taji Helmore, and Ed Helmore, “U.S. Rivals Turn On Each Other as Weapons Search Draws a Blank,” Observer, May 11, 2003; Barton Gellman, “Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq; Task Force Unable to Find Any Weapons,” Washington Post, May 11, 2003; and Harold Meyerson, “Enron-like Unreality,” Washington Post, May 13, 2003.

48. Thorn Shanker and Richard W. Stevenson, “Pentagon Wants $10 Billion a Year for Antiterror Fund,” New York Times, November 27, 2002; Leslie Wayne, “Rumsfeld Warns He Will Ask Congress for More Billions,” New York Times, February 6, 2003. Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., “War and the Economy,” Mises.org, March 10, 2003.

49. David R. Sands, “Allies Unlikely to Help Pay for Second Iraq Invasion,” Washington Times, March 10, 2003.

50. Edmund L. Andrews, “Federal Debt Near Ceiling; Second Time in 9 Months,” New York Times, February 20, 2003.

51. David Hale, “Are the Financial Markets Ready for One War or Two?” Zurich Financial Services, March 12, 2003.

52. Vincent Cable, “The Economic Consequences of War,” Observer, February 2, 2003.

53. Laton McCartney, Friends in High Places. The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World (New York: Ballantine, 1989); “U.S. Invites Bids for Iraq Reconstruction Work,” Reuters, March 10, 2003; Joshua Chaffin, “Halliburton’s Links Sharpen Bids Dispute,” Financial Times, March 27, 2003; Oliver Morgan and Ed Vulliamy, “Cronies Set to Make a Killing,” Observer, April 6, 2003; Stephen Glain, “Halliburton Unit Could Make $7 Billion,” Boston Globe, April 11, 2003; and David Ivanovich, “Pentagon Defends Halliburton Job,” Houston Chronicle, April 10, 2003.

54. Robert Higgs, “Free Enterprise and War, a Dangerous Liaison,” Independent Institute, January 22, 2003, .

55. Fred Kaplan, “Star Wars Spending Spree,” Slate, November 7, 2002; and Seymour Melman, “In the Grip of a Permanent War Economy,” Bear Left!, March 9, 2003, .

56. Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History (New York: Scribner, 1952); quoted by Joseph C. Hough Jr., “President’s Newsletter,” Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, March 2003.

57. “U.S. Plans Death Camp,” Herald Sun (Australia), May 26, 2003, ; “Guantánamo Courtrooms Being Prepared,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2003.

58. Michael Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict (New York: Owl Books, 2002); Ken Silverstein, “The Crude Politics of Trading Oil,” Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2002.

59. Loring Wirbel, “U.S. ‘Negation Policy in Space Raises Concerns Abroad,” EETimes, May 22, 2003.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was not easy to write. I do not like what it has to say about my country. But I am convinced by the course of events leading up to and the developments following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that this analysis is fundamentally correct. It is because I do not like stating that the United States is probably lost to militarism that this book is so heavily documented. I want to ensure that readers know how I claim to know something. Of course, I leave it to others to decide whether I have been convincing and whether my alarm about the course our country is taking is well-founded. I do not think we shall have to wait long to find out.

In the course of writing, I received much editorial help and many useful comments from Sheila K. Johnson, my companion for forty-six years and herself a gifted writer and intellectual. I owe a great debt to Tom Engelhardt, my editor, who has himself been deeply involved in trying to find the analogies and precedents that might throw light on the suicide of the United States as a democracy. Sandra Dijkstra, my agent, and her associate, Babette Sparr, worked tirelessly to see that my ideas got a public hearing. Others who have drawn my attention to aspects of imperialism and militarism I did not know about or might have overlooked include Kozy Amemiya, Maricler and Alfredo Antognini, Walden Bello, Steve Clemons, Patrick Hatcher, Barry Keehn, Brian Loveman, Thomas Royden, Odete Sousa, Yoshihiko Nakamoto, and the editors of antiwar.com.

INDEX

Page numbers in boldface refer to maps and tables

Abacha, Sani, 274

ABC news, 153, 304

ABC-TV network, 113

Abernethy, David, 29, 30, 192

Aboimov, I. P., 69

Abraham, Spencer, 175

Abrams, Elliott, 228

Abu Dhabi (UAE), 222, 250

Abu Sayyaf (“terrorist gang”), 213

Adams, Brooks, 192

Adams, John Quincy, 190–91

Afghanistan, 251

anti-Soviet war in, 11, 17, 18, 33, 139, 174, 178, 222, 253

military bases in, 168, 172–73, 181–83, 189, 214, 215, 242

military personnel in, 155, 288

military recruitment ads and, 113–14

oil and, 170, 172–73, 176–80, 226–27

private military training and, 140–41

Taliban takeover of, 177–80

war of 2001, 11, 13, 26–27, 62, 67–68, 70, 72, 79, 80, 88, 108–9, 115, 118, 146, 176, 179–82, 185, 214, 221, 226–29, 233, 236, 241, 247–48, 280, 286, 310

war of 2001, Guantanámo prisoners and, 42, 77

Africa, 81, 140, 266, 311

African Americans, in military, 103–6, 110

Agency for International Development, 64

Agent Orange, 100, 300

“Agreed Framework” (North Korea), 89

agriculture, 258, 267, 269–72

Aguinaldo, Emilio, 43

Ahmed al Jaber Air Base (Kuwait), 243–44

Air America (CIA airline), 134