I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.
Noam Chomsky
US President Donald Trump has threatened to employ the army to end nationwide riots that have engulfed his administration and the nation, The Guardian reports.
“Today, I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the national guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets,” Trump said. “Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming presence until the violence is quelled.
And adds: “If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
Trump’s promise to quell the riots with military might is the same law-and-order tactic that dictatorships use to justify their power.
The eroding of civil rights, social and economic inequality, which have been crudely exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lynching of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, are just chickens coming home to roost in USAmerica.
The social and moral implosion we are witnessing in the US is not Trump’s fault since he is only one of its symptoms. Dr. Cornel West said, “We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment.”
In Latin America, as in other parts of the world, the United States was and is directly responsible for waging wars and installing dictatorships that would care less about the rule of law and human rights.
Wasn’t the United States the first country in the world to use nuclear weapons against humans? Let’s not forget the horrendous crimes committed against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945?
USAmerican exceptionalism is at fault and plays a prominent role. Waging war throughout the world and being directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people means that your hands will become drenched with blood.
The lies perpetrated by USAmerican exceptionalism may help us to become partially color blind and not see dripping red blood from our hands, but the injustices are there socially camouflaged. Like Trump’s battle cry, it is only a distraction; police brutality, social inequality, among many other issues, are still real and unresolved.
In Argentina, where the military restored “law and order” with the help of a dictatorship (1976-83), there was peace because everyone was terrified. There was silence too, but it was an eerie one, resembling that of a cemetery.
If USAmerica looked at itself in the mirror, it would see itself as a broken system combing its soul with the brush of self-deceit.