Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Paradoxes of injustice: war and crises

James Petras | 04.08.2002 10:12

This leads to the last and greatest paradox: The Bush Administration's use of war to resolve the domestic crises might just exacerbate all the internal contradictions...

Rebelion: Petras essays in English

Paradoxes of injustice: war and crises
By James Petras

The collapse of major energy and telecommunication multinationals, Enron, World Com, Adelphi and others has prejudiced numerous pensioners and small investors. But it also has led to major losses for many corrupt politicians, narcotrafficers and wealthy individuals in Latin America who illegally transferred and invested billions of dollars in the US stock market. The Latin American rich who fervently trusted the advise of US investment bankers were certain that the US stock market, and particularly the biggest and best connected multi-nationals were worthy of their confidence. These same wealth investors were profoundly distrustful of their local economies and people. The US mega-swindlers simply took their funds and left them with worthless paper â World Com went form $93 a share to 6 cents. A case of the big fish eating the small. An example of perverse justice perhaps but one that only provides emotional satisfaction to the ultimate victims in Latin America.

The deep and far reaching scope of corruption, cover-ups and fraud in the highest spheres of business in the US has deep cultural and political roots and profound economic consequences. In the US the idea that "what is good for business is good for the country" is accepted dogma: the most prestigious and influential figures in the world of culture, politics, the academic world and in the mass media are figures from the business world. Their dominant position is unquestioned, even if sectors of the public may criticize their excesses.

Politicians of both major parties seek their financial support in the electoral campaigns and after the elections prominent investment bankers, financiers and corporate lawyers dominate the cabinet and central bank. Upon leaving office many top officials enter the world of big business.

The failure of government regulators and others to detect fraud at the top was in part because of the belief that big businessmen can do no wrong. And if they do commit crimes, it is best for investigators to look the other way for fear of calling into question the basic trust of the people in the big business system. Only when big business corruption led to a large scale decline of investor confidence did the federal government intervene in an attempt to refurbish the system. The fear on Wall Street is that capitalist swindlers might lead to the withdrawal of investment and the collapse of capitalism. Another casr of perverse morality: injustice leading to justice, of a limited and costly variety.

The third instance of the paradox of injustice in the United States, has to do with providing refuge for notorious torturers. The Center of Justice and Accountability, a lawyers' organization in the US defending victims of torture states that there are over 1000 known foreign torturers and ex-dictators in the US, over 300 in Florida alone. Washington selectively provides a sanctuary for ex-client state terrorists, from all over the world. They include the military official who organized the murder of Archbishop Romero, the Chilean secret police official who assassinated the constitutional General Prats and his wife, the notorious Haitian torturer Emmanuel Constant etc etc.

There terrorists live freely in the US because they worked closely with US intelligence agencies, until they were threatened with prosecution. Washington cannot and will not allow them to be extradited because it would undermine its on- going relationship with torturers and repressive regimes today.

Washington's providing sanctuary for known torturers â terrorists, however severely weakens the current world-wide campaign against "terrorism". What moral authority does the US have to pursue terrorissts abroad when it shelters them at home? The paradox of injustice ( protecting terrorist clients ) leads to justice ( the unmasking of Washington's anti-terrorist campaign as a subterfuge for global domination).

There is an even greater paradox however. The growing moral, political and economic crises of the US is not leading toward any moral revival, political reform movement or serious change in the economic structure of corporate America. Instead the Bush Regime is methodically planning another war, a military invasion of Iraq. A war against Iraq is perceived as a way to distract attention from the profound corporate corruption swindles and the close links between the CEOs and the Bush Administration. War can serve to induce the public to focus their attention on the "morality of a just war" not on the immorality in high places. War can be used to provoke instability in the Middle East and Europe and frighten investors into buying dollars and investing in the US stock market.

The war against Iraq and other so-called "terrorist" countries can be used to silence criticism of Washington's double standards on terrorism. War in other words is seen in Washington as a necessary means of favorably resolving the debilitating effects of the perverse domestic paradoxes.

With a war agenda, the Bush Administration can count on the mass media to replace the focus on the immorality of the corporate elite with horrific propaganda stories about Sadaam Hussein; the decline of the economy with news stories about military victories of the US Armed Forces. With a war the media will cease to comment on corporate moral decay and will eulogize the virtues of "humanitarian intervention".

The thinking in Washington is that the only way to avoid the choice between political reform as a lesser evil to political discredit is by a greater evil: conquering Iraq. War allows Washington to continue to embrace corrupt corporate leaders, past and present client terrorists in the name of anti-terrorism. The conquest of Iraq with the second largest oil reserves in the Middle East is seen in the Pentagon as a means to bring back foreign investors and strengthen the dollar.

The whole history of the Bush Administration is based on fabrication, from 9/11 to today. We now know that Al Queda was not a world wide organization â at most it had 200 members. Despite daily or weekly Government declarations of new terrorist threats â none have materialized. The two arrested "terrorists" are illiterate ex- convicts who can barely tie their shoes. The $150 billion dollars spent on anti- terrorism had led to the near bankruptcy of the airline industry, the massive decline in related tourist trade, the killing of hundreds of innocent Afghans celebrating weddings. State spending on the military and police has led to a decline in public investment which could stimulate growth and revive confidence in the US market. This leads to the last and greatest paradox: The Bush Administration's use of war to resolve the domestic crises might just exacerbate all the internal contradictions: the corporate crooks will continue with impunity, and new and bigger swindles and frauds will occur. This could result in more investors fleeing from the US market causing the dollar to fall. War might temporarily bolster Bush's falling popularity once again but Rumsfeld and Cheney's military exaltation will not prevent a profound plunge in the economy and general insecurity resulting from massive unemployment.

James Petras
- Homepage: http://www.rebelion.org/petrasenglish.htm

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech