Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project)

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project) | Chalmers Johnson | Don't call us an Empire

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Nemesis: The Last ...

	Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project) Chalmers Johnson Holt Paperbacks, 2008 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Useful study of American imperialism and its threat to democracy

This is the last volume of American historian Chalmers Johnson's trilogy on the American empire, following Blowback (2000) and The Sorrows of Empire (2003). Nemesis was the Greek goddess of retribution, who punished human transgression and the arrogance that caused it.

Johnson claims that imperial overreach is undermining the USA's democracy. Comparing the US empire to the Roman and British empires, he shows how "imperialism and militarism are the deadly enemies of democracy."

He notes that between 1945 and 2001, the USA carried out 30 major and 170 minor overseas military operations in which the USA struck the first blow. He observes that since 1947, "in no instance has democratic government come about as a direct result."

He describes the CIA as the president's secret, unaccountable private army, which does what the president wants, including taking the rap for his crimes He shows how the current presidency is the most imperial ever, based on a huge standing army, 727 overseas bases, continuous wars and ruinous military spending. He shows how Congress and courts alike have failed to assert their constitutional rights against presidents' usurpation of powers.

Johnson details the recent crimes of the US state, `the systematic killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq', the systematic mass torture of prisoners, sanctioned by Bush and Rumsfeld, and the brutal looting of Iraq's heritage.

He notes the 1,000 CIA `rendition' - kidnapping for torture - flights using Europe's airports, with the complicity of the British, German, Italian, Swedish, Rumanian and Polish governments. The Labour government allowed 210 landings at British airports between September 2001 and September 2005.

The US state's overseas bases are governed by Status of Forces Agreements which Johnson examines through the example of Japan. He shows how the US state has wasted $100 billion on missile defence and space weapons. The World Policy Institute called it the `pork barrel in the sky'.

In all, this is an excellent survey of the threat that militarism and corporatism pose to democracy in the USA.

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Don't call us an Empire

"Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" by Chalmers Johnson is a book based on how America's downfall as a Super Power is based on its military and the economics that surrounds it. Military Keynesianism drives our economy into debt and has stretched our country's influence (or soon to be lack of) to over 737 "known" bases. Johnson takes a comparative look at imperialism from the perspective of both Rome and Great Britain. He informs us of the mistakes these empires have done and relates it to our current status in the world. The ascension of Caesar and how it relates to our current president's drive to consolidate power through, what he calls the president's private army the CIA, has given us examples of the president's lack of respect for the Constitution. The use of torture and the stigma of labeling anyone an "enemy combatant" (who are given no rights) have only hurt our position as the defender for democracy. The use of illegal wiretappings on American citizens and how our own Supreme Court who voted to uphold this practice has shown to us the lack of "checks and balances." Johnson shows us that U.S. Military Bases have become an eye sore and a nightmare to the nations who host us. Our environmental violations, rapes, and attitude as being "above the law" in these host nations, only fuels the anti-American movement (or Blowback). Johnson uses the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) as an example of how we manipulate and bribe countries to agreeing to have bases, as well as, agreeing that we are immune to their laws. He concludes the book by mentioning our desire to dominate space by building space weapons and how our whole economy after WWII is now based on the military's armies (all branches of) and the building of these weapons. It is this guilt conscious that by shutting or downsizing our military would only make people unemployed that has lead us to actually increasing our budget for the military. Like all great empires, we can't have both "guns and butter."

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Modern Rome is us and the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Is America smart enough to avoid hubris and end up like Rome (in a few years instead of centuries)? I doubt it. Anyone who pays lip service to the concept of democracy needs to read this book and get an insight to how we have gone from democracy to plutocracy and the inevitable fall that follows.

Read even if you won't agree.

I thought it was an important and insightful book which should be read even by those who won't agree. I am a confirmed liberal and recommended it to my brother who is a staunch conservative. He read for about 15 minutes and returned it to the shelf. Its kinda like my reading the New York Times editorial page or his reading the opinions page of the Wall Street Journal. You'll like Nemesis or you won't, but the points made and the manner in which they are presented make the book worth reading even if, as sung in The Sound of Music, "A little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down" for the Republicans.

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