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

Praise for THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE

“Chalmers Johnson is a legendary scholar....In this cri de coeur, he asks us to grasp, before it is too late, that America’s modern militarist empire threatens to destroy the democratic republic. His analysis is powerful and dreadfully persuasive.”

—William Greider, author of

The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy

“When a nation falls into sinful ways, angry words and dire prognostications may be necessary to reawaken people to the truth. In Chalmers Johnson, the American empire has found its Jeremiah. He deserves to be heard.”

—Andrew Bacevich, The Washington Post Book World

“Since the mainstream media have abdicated their responsibility to be watchdogs of government and to serve the public, books like The Sorrows of Empire are essential if we are to defend ourselves against the military-industrial-Congressional complex.”

—Janeane Garofalo

“A fine guide to the way empire works ... Chalmers Johnson is particularly instructive on the institutions of American militarism, on the private military contractors who build and run the overseas bases and prisons, on the actual operations of the more than 725 American bases around the world, on the politics of oil and gas in the Caspian Basin and on the dominant political, military and economic presence in the states of the Persian Gulf.”

—Ronald Steel, The Nation

“Superbly researched.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“Johnson’s book is a stunner. He blows away the Defense Department’s cover story that our empire of military bases exists to support humanitarian intervention. Something funny is happening on the way to the American forum: citizens are discovering they have an empire they never wanted—paid for in casualties, with civil liberties the first victim.”

—Patrick Lloyd Hatcher, U.S. Army colonel (retired), author of The Suicide of an Elite: American Internationalists and Vietnam

“Engaging and provocative ... The Sorrows of Empire’s warnings are serious, and its arguments should certainly be considered in the ongoing debate over American foreign policy.”

—James D. Fairbanks, Houston Chronicle

“This isn’t just another left-wing excoriation of George W. Bush. Johnson’s searing indictments of U.S. policy transcend party lines and extend farther back than the 2000 election....Johnson’s keen eye for historical comparisons is the book’s greatest strength.”

— Seattle Weekly

“There is no more important book to read than The Sorrows of Empire. Like Rome, the United States today is struggling with the consequences of a permanent global military engagement, from which self-dealing political elites derive great benefits at the expense and ultimately the survival of America’s heretofore resilient republic.”

—Steven C. Clemons, executive vice president, New America Foundation

“Chalmers Johnson’s searing indictment of America’s flirtation with an imperial foreign policy should be required reading for all concerned citizens. The Sorrows of Empire is an extremely important and disturbing book.”

—Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president,

Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

“Precisely because he’s probably right, Johnson’s The Sorrows of Empire is as maddening as it is important.”

—Ted Rall, The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Chalmers Johnson’s relentless logic, authoritative scholarship, and elegantly biting prose distinguish The Sorrows of Empire, like all his other work. Anyone who reads it will have a much sharper sense of the costs of America’s new world-girdling commitments—and I hope it is widely read.”

—James Fallows, author of Breaking the News

THE

SORROWS OF EMPIRE

ALSO BY CHALMERS JOHNSON

Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power:

The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1937-1945

Revolution and the Social System

An Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring

Revolutionary Change

Change in Communist Systems (editor and contributor)

Conspiracy at Matsukawa

Ideology and Politics in Contemporary China (editor)

Autopsy on People’s War

Japan’s Public Policy Companies

MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975

The Industrial Policy Debate (editor and contributor)

Politics and Productivity: How Japan’s Development Strategy Works

(with Laura Tyson and John Zysman)

Japan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Developmental State

Okinawa: Cold War Island (editor and contributor)

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

THE

SORROWS OF EMPIRE

Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic

CHALMERS JOHNSON

Owl Books

Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Publishers since 1866

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York 10010

www.henryholt.com

An Owl Book ®and ®are registered trademarks

of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Copyright © 2004 by Chalmers Johnson

All rights reserved.

Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, Chalmers A.

The sorrows of empire : militarism, secrecy, and the end of the Republic / Chalmers Johnson—1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7797-1

ISBN-10: 0-8050-7797-9

1. Militarism—United States. 2. Military-industrial complex—United States. 3. United States—Military policy. 4. United States—Foreign relations—2001- 5. United States—Politics and government—2001- 6. Civil-military relations—United States. 7. Imperialism. 8. Intervention (International law) 9. Official secrets—United States. I. Title.

UA23.J5697 2004

2003056214

355.02’ 13’0973—dc22

Henry Holt books are available for special promotions and

premiums. For details contact: Director, Special Markets.

First published in hardcover in 2004 by Metropolitan Books

First Owl Books Edition 2005

Designed by Fritz Metsch

Maps and graph by James Sinclair

Printed in the United States of America

7 9 10 8 6

CONTENTS

Prologue: The Unveiling of the American Empire

1. Imperialisms, Old and New

2. The Roots of American Militarism

3. Toward the New Rome

4. The Institutions of American Militarism

5. Surrogate Soldiers and Private Mercenaries

6. The Empire of Bases

7. The Spoils of War

8. Iraq Wars

9. Whatever Happened to Globalization?

10. The Sorrows of Empire

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

THE

SORROWS OF EMPIRE

PROLOGUE: THE UNVEILING OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

Our nation is the greatest force for good in history.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH,

Crawford, Texas, August 31, 2002

As distinct from other peoples on this earth, most Americans do not recognize—or do not want to recognize—that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, they are often ignorant of the fact that their government garrisons the globe. They do not realize that a vast network of American military bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire.