It seems like that the world needs the United States to exist. If you are not one of its trading partners, the future of your your economy is bleak. If you are not recognized by it as a state, then what are you? If you are not one of its allies, then you are one of its enemies. If you do not obey its orders, then you are a renegade, and part of the "axis of evil deviants". Today, Uncle Sam holds us at the palm of his hand, and to add to that, we kiss this hand every time. The United States, as a member of the UN Security Council and being a world superpower has taken upon itself the burden of being the world's superhero. They have taken the responsibility to keep the peace and keep the world safe.

Just recently, after all the terror and the wars, the death tolls, bombing and unrest, the United States have finally conquered and assimilated one of the considered renegade states of the world, Iraq. Today, the G-8 member's troops walk the sandy earth of Iraq to keep the order and peace that they have "brought" to the state after they spearheaded Saddam Hussein's downfall which was symbolized by the proverbial destruction of his monument and his execution. But social unrest is still rampant, and the death count is still seemingly endless. There seems to be an unlimited number of people willing to blow themselves up "for the glory of Allah". Many of the casualties are civilians and US soldiers. The unrest is caused by the factions existing in the state, the Shiite and the Sunni Muslims, fighting over supremacy in the state government. The attacks were said to be caused by the radical Shiite Mahdi Army militia. This is clearly a civil war and so it drives me to ask: what role then, does the United States play in this unrest? What are their troops doing there? Are they really playing the part of the proverbial superhero or are they just plain nosing around? I say they aren't doing any of these two. They are, in fact, taking advantage of the whole situation.

If we look back at the world's war history, in almost every war, the US participated. World War II, Vietnam war, Gulf war, Cold war, Israel vs Arab nations---name a major war in the 21st century, and the US is guaranteed to be in it.

We know from history that US was not considered a superpower before the first world war. European countries such as Britain and Spain were the gods of the world then. It was after the First World War that the US started to pick up. Europe was devastated by the war, and this is where the United States established its power base. It had almost no competitors, so it started to conquer and conquer lands. It was then their "war economy" began to take shape.

Being a nation whose economy is capitalist, there exists a surplus in the goods that they produce which needs to be sold or else they'd face losses. Since their state is the cause of surplus, they started to get out and find other states to dump and sell their surpluses to. To rise to power, they have resorted to Neocolonialism, using wars as its vector. The United States' economy flourish from the ashes of wars, like horsetails sprouting after a forest fire. From selling nuclear weapons and ammunition to involved allies to benevolently assimilating countries as their own territory as a way of "keeping the peace", they have done it all, just to keep their capitalist economy standing. The Philippines was one of the victims of these ploys, and so is Puerto Rico and Cuba. Notice the fact that the United States' targets for Neocolonialism are always poor and underdeveloped countries. It's highly possible that they see these types of countries as weak, poor and gullible to lead into their dirty capitalist ploys.

We remember that during the American occupation, President McKinley implemented a policy that he called the Benevolent Assimilation, wherein the Philippine state was said to be in the good hands of the American government. Roads have been constructed, trade encouraged and education was given to all. They even used us as a military base and established a Commonwealth here in order to "prepare and train the Philippine nation for independence". But we have to see that underneath all these social welfare projects are the unspoken motives that would benefit the US and only the US.

Why was trade encouraged? To drill in our minds that we need American products because they are of better quality. Why were roads constructed? Because the presence of roads would instigate in the Filipino mind the need for cars, which they readily produce (by Ford, the most popular American cars company back then). Why did they give free education everybody, especially to the women and the poor? Because they needed to root their capitalist ventures even to the marginalized because they are also potential markets.

We see the same strategies being done today in Iraq. We see a lot of construction projects, financial and economic aid, help in governance and military assistance and education (especially to their women) in the state. The only difference is that they encountered a nation whose civil unrest is giving them a hard time by killing off their military arm, one troop at a time.

So who's dependent to whom, then? The United States needs to destroy and dismantle nations like Iraq to live and dominate the world to be able to makes it economy exist as one of the most powerful ones in the world. It's not nations like us that need the "Land of Promise", it's them that need us.

I think they United States better rethink their official state seal. To use the American Bald Eagle is an ultimate insult to one of the most beautiful members of Class Aves. They are smart predators, and they fly high and not resort to dead and suffering prey. Eagles are not parasites, which is what the country that it is a seal for is.

An Ascaris or some nematode is more like it.


18 December 2006
Addenda included: 24 February 2007