The Bared Teeth of a Frustrated Empire

Joe Lieberman is perhaps the most polite, and probably the cleverest of the club-wielding hands raised to crush Julian Assange as the founder of Wikileaks. But by the number of public voices crying for Assange’s murder, no less, in the US, the aggressive, entitlement culture of this Republic is shaming those of us who live here.

“We should treat Mr Assange the same way as other high-value terrorist targets: Kill him,” says columnist Jeffrey T Kuhner in the Washington Times.

“Why can’t we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are?” asks William Kristol.

Jonah Goldberg asks, “Why isn’t Julian Assange dead?”

Right Wing News posted this line from its writer John Hawkins, “The CIA should have already killed Julian Assange.”

Then comes Sarah Palin aligned with Rick Santorum, in accusing Assange of “terrorism,” Palin equating it to Al Qaeda.

Yet the “terrorism” of which these folks growl has been adjudged as journalism in the public interest by every major newspaper in the world, beginning with the New York Times. It would seem Assange is just a convenient target for the rage of those who believe they have a divine right to dominate, the end justifying every means of staying top dog.  And there can be no doubt his life is truly at risk.

Those calling for his death or imprisonment throw about the word “illegal” with more abandon than during the immigration debates, but no one has been able to say that a single law has been broken.  In the world of psychology this is classic “projection” since every suggested capital remedy –  assassination, murder, rendition –  for the leak of US government documents is illegal, not just in the US but in most other countries.

How long will it take US officials and militant citizens to face their own problem, one that Australia’s foreign minister Kevin Rudd identified – two million government employees or contractors handle these so called classified documents. And we’re surprised in an internet age that this leak happened?  Pinning blame on rogue nations, an axis of evil, terrorists, always an evil “out there” – has for many years now been the default response of US culture to its perceived reversals.

It strikes me quite strange, since the greatest threat to world peace in the past 60 years, an economic collapse which we still experience, was caused by the breathtaking greed we still allow in our Wall Street bankers.

Fear in the heart of the most powerful nation on earth? You betcha. The biggest blindspot of all? We are an exceptional people. Lord, have mercy on the United States of America.

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~ by cgilbertlpmedia on December 9, 2010.