Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Norman Solomon’s “Objective Look at U.S. Foreign Policy”

Journalist, media critic, activist, and author Norman Solomon is one of just a few commentators on U.S. politics and world events in whom I place my trust. (Others include Phyllis Bennis, Cornel West, Marianne Williamson, and Naomi Klein.)

Recently, Solomon was interviewed by John Rachel of CounterPunch. Following are some of the things he said in this interview that I found particularly insightful and salient.


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Setting the boundaries of dominant discourse – with reiteration and omission – is crucial to guiding and determining U.S. foreign policy as well as discouraging the spread of dissent. The very notion that U.S. military spending is “defense” spending gets any discussion off to a badly distorted start. I wouldn’t be against spending that is truly for defense, but right now only a small proportion of the Pentagon budget deserves to be in that category. The U.S. maintains about 750 military bases overseas and is currently engaged in military operations in 80 countries. As I put it in a recent article for Truthout, “Leaders of the U.S. government never tire of reasserting their commitment to human rights and democracy. At the same time, they insist that an inexhaustible supply of adversaries is bent on harming the United States, which must not run away from forceful engagement with the world. But the actual U.S. agenda is to run the world.” It’s an agenda propelled and implemented largely by corporate power, with tremendous profits being made – mostly by huge corporations; military contracting is a sacred cash cow for the oligarchy. The warfare state is a corporate state.

It’s been said that the United States is in search of enemies, and certainly there’s an unending supply – especially when trying to run the world as much as you can. Of course the world is filled with many people and forces eager to concentrate undue power and oligarchic wealth in the hands of a few, and the United States is hardly responsible for that reality. That said, the U.S. government is the leading international lawbreaker and killer in this century – it’s really not a debatable fact, it’s a matter of looking at the numbers of deaths from the U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Iraq alone. “Do as we say, not as we do” has never been a very convincing message. What the world needs is a single standard of human rights and international law. Hypocrisy in Washington does not justify Russia’s murderous war on Ukraine, or vice versa.

. . . Democracy has always been a combination of mirage and reality even in the best of times in the United States. Virtually every change for the better that we can be proud of in U.S. history came from the bottom up, not from the top down, of the existing power structures. The fight for democracy is never-ending. Joe Hill said, “Don’t mourn, organize!” There’s no better advice available in a few words. . . . Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of the imperative need for militant nonviolent action. Progressive social movements that organize effectively with such an approach have enormous potential to help create a truly better world.


For John Rachel’s complete interview with Norman Solomon, click here.


Related Off-site Links:
NormanSolomon.com
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Institute for Public Accuracy
RootsAction.org
Articles by Norman Solomon at Common Dreams

For more of Norman Solomon at The Wild Reed, see:
Norman Solomon: Quote of the Day – July 14, 2022
Progressive Perspectives on Nina Turner’s Election Loss
Norman Solomon: Quote of the Day – July 8, 2021
Norman Solomon: Quote of the Day – December 16, 2020
Progressive Perspectives on the 2020 U.S. Election Results
Bernie Sanders and the Corporate Media
Progressive Perspectives on Joe Biden’s Presidential Run
Progressives and Obama

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Rallying to End U.S. Militarism
Cultivating Peace
Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – November 11, 2021
Caitlin Johnstone: Quote of the Day – November 11, 2018
Progressive Perspectives on Memorial Day
The War Racket
Saying “No” to Endless U.S. Wars
Vigiling Against Weaponized Drones
Walking Against Weapons
General Strike for Peace
A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking Democracy
John Pilger on Resisting Empire


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