- On May 29, 2011, President Obama visited Joplin, Missouri,
the site of a devastating tornado that killed 140 and pronounced it a terrible
"tragedy". But were the deaths the inevitable result of 'natural
events' beyond the human intervention?
-
- Coincidentally the same week Afghan President
Karzai condemned the killing of a family of 14 by a NATO fighter bomber,
running the total to several hundred civilians killed so far this year
and thousands over the decade.
-
- The relation between the civilian deaths
in Joplin and Afghanistan raises fundamental questions
about the priorities, character and direction of the US Empire and the
future of the American republic.
-
- Geography of Tornados
-
- Every year at least 20 major violent tornadoes
with winds exceeding 200 mph hit "tornado alley"
and beyond, including central Texas, northern Iowa, central Kansas, Nebraska,
western Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Each
and every year at least sixty are killed and several hundred are maimed
and injured. This year, through May 2011, over 519 have been killed, 25%
of whom were in mobile homes, almost three times as many as those in standard
houses.
-
- In other words, these tornado-related deaths
are predictable, annual, and region-specific and have a higher incidence
among low income households. Government agencies and academics have compiled
data banks and time series information mapping the route, frequency and
impact of tornadoes.
-
- Information about the nature of killer tornadoes
is plentiful. Nevertheless deaths mount from year to year. Fear and insecurity
stalks the region's most susceptible to the violent whirlwinds, even as
the Congress and White House have increased personnel and funding for 'Homeland
Security' twenty fold over the decade .The current budget is over $180
billion. If we add the deaths caused by other 'natural' disasters like
the flooding of New Orleans, the numbers of deaths are staggering.
What explains this perverse relation between huge public funding for 'homeland
security' and the increased insecurity of vulnerable Americans
in clearly identified danger zones?
-
- The reason is clear: 'Homeland Security'
(HS) is an Orwellian misnomer. The agency is not concerned with domestic,
civilian, American security. HS is part of a military-police response to
imagined overseas threats, which have not materialized or at
least have not produced deaths comparable to tornadoes and floods in the
last 11 years.
-
- HS spends billions and employs thousands
to investigate, spy and harass citizens engaged in legal-constitutional
activities. HS and the Pentagon spend tens of billions on overseas infrastructures
buildings, bases, camps -and over 900 billion in arms. HS and the
Defense Department forcefullyintervene militarily throughout the world
via overt and clandestine operations.
-
- To be precise HS intervenes offensively
overseas, attacking civilian targets, while it fails to engage
domestically to protect American civilians who are left defenseless in
the face of predictable natural disasters.
-
- HS and the Pentagon's sustained violent overseas
operations are rejected and regarded as a hostile imperial intervention
by the civilians in those countries adversely affected. In contrast, defenseless
citizens in the US would welcome large-scale intervention in
the form of community shelters, which would provide survival, security,
life-saving protection and financial aid for rebuilding their lives. Moreover,
Pentagon and HS spending on overseas infrastructure, bases and bombs results
in deficits, whereas investments in tornado and flood shelters would stimulate
jobs, growth and investment in theUS.
-
- The current activity of HS destroys lives
abroad and neglects survival at home: It has nothing to do with our "homeland"
and even less with our "security". Five percent of HS budget
would have prevented many of Joplin's 'tragedy' (and saved us from
Obama's gaseous oratory!) and the other 400 deaths from this year's crop
of tornadoes.
-
- Systemic Bases of Perpetual Domestic Neglect
-
- Death from 'natural' events raises a fundamental
POLITICAL question: Why is the budget of Homeland Security and the Pentagon
directed overseas, toward destructive, offensive, military activity rather
than to domestic, constructive, defensive activity to protect American
lives and productive economic activity?
-
- The problem is systemic not due to some personal
flaw or political idiosyncrasy of the moment. The structures of
the US economy and militaryinstitutions are oriented
'outwardly' to conquering foreign financial markets and building a military
empire. The ideology which informs strategic policymakers is imperial-centered
not republican: They do not speak of developing and deepening the economy
and security of 'middle America'. Every member of the political and corporate
elite talks of 'world' or 'global' leadership a thinly veiled euphemism
for the drive to sustain world dominance. Within the imperial framework
the entire 'security' budget is directed toward maintaining offensive military supremacy.
No wonder there is a steep decline in all spheres of domestic
security natural, social, personal, health and employment a
phenomenon that proceeds with little public debate. The only exception
is when threats to security impinge most directly and forcefully on a significant
sector of the population. For example, witness the storm of protest from
those directly affected when the politicians moved to privatize social
security and Medicare.
-
- Nevertheless, the entire political spectrum, the two
parties, the Congress and the White House over the past 30 years, have
created an artificial consensus in which overseas wars, foreign aid to
patrons (Israel) and clients (Pakistan and Egypt) absorbs the greatest
percentage of budgetary spending. No political or economic leadership
has stepped forward to articulate the obvious connection between global
expansion and domestic decay; to forcefully state that the deterioration
of the republic is a direct product of the vast resources channeled into
military and economic empire building. Who on New York City's Wall
Street or Washington's Pentagon is going to even look at or consider
a 'security plan' with regard to the geography of catastrophes tornado
alley covering a dozen states and the floods and deaths that overwhelm
the lowlands from Montana to Louisiana?
-
- Listen America
-
- Their message is loud and clear:
-
- Small towns and trailer parks do not count!
You have your 2nd amendment (the 'right to bear arms'), you
have your 'small government', and you have your flags: 'Wav 'em and weep'
as tornadoes blow down your houses and your sons and daughters return wrapped
in flags to the Battle Hymn of the Empire!
-
- Conclusion
-
- One might argue that community storm shelters
won't break the Treasury or reverse the empire. More to the point, their absence,
from the federal, state and local political agenda, is emblematic of the
total subordination of domestic America to imperial Washington.
The 'cost' of building community shelters at the strip malls and trailer
parks in Joplin, Missouri is less than a regional training
outpost in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It is not a question of
money.
-
- Conquering Afghanistan villages enhances the
prestige of the Generals, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO officials.
Can saving 145 lives in Joplin,Missouri match that in terms of world politics
or the politics of imperial leadership? For Afghanistan, Washington builds
a thousand military shelters and bomb proof bunkers .For the Americans
living in tornado alley and the flood plains of the Mississippi people
must make do.
-
- When you hear the tornado warning, it's up to you. As
a proud, free American you can find a rock to crawl under and say your
prayer: the Federal government and Homeland Security have the Endless,
World-wide War against Terror to fight and cannot be bothered by a Joplin, Missouri nursing
home in the path of a tornado.
-
- We exaggerate: Obama will jet in and speak before the
cameras in solemn terms of the 'tragedy' and 'courage' of the people of Joplin...
But will any local politician stand up and speak truth to power? Most
of these deaths and (many more to come) are avoidable; under a democratic
American republic, the government 'intervenes' to provide protection, health
and employment for its people.
-
- In the meantime, as the empire continues to grow it destroys
its own people, just like the sow that devours its offspring.
-
-
|
