the government is no match for the private sector in efficiently getting big and important things done-is equally fallacious, for the government has built up an incredible military machine (ignoring for the moment, what its used for), landed men on the moon, created great dams, marvelous national parks, an interstate highway system, the peace corps, student loans, social security, insurance for bank deposits, protection of pension funds against corporate misuse, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the Smithsonian, the G.1. Bill and much, much more. In short, the government has been quite good at doing what it wanted to do, or what labor and other movements have made it do, like establishing worker health and safety standards and requiring food manufacturers to list detailed information about ingredients.

Activists have to remind the American people of what theyve already learned but seem to have forgotten: that they dont want more government, or less government; they dont want big government, or small government; they want government on their side.

None of the above, of course, will deter The Worlds Only Superpower from continuing its jihad to impose capitalist fundamenA talism upon the world.

A couple of more reasons why the jihad may have tough going

Nearly half of adult Americans surveyed by the Hearst Corporation in 1987 believed Karl Marxs aphorism From each according to his ability, to each according to his need was to be found in the US Constitution. 11

Mark Brzezinski, son of Zbigniew, was a post-Cold War Fulbright Scholar in Warsaw: I asked my students to define democracy.

Expecting a discussion on individual liberties and authentically elected institutions, I was surprised to hear my students respond that to them, democracy means a government obligation to maintain a certain standard of living and to provide health care, education and housing for all. In other words, socialism. 12

CHAPTER 27 : A Day in the Life of a Free Country

The question is irresistibly upon us. How do they get away with it?

How does the United States orchestrate economies, subvert democracy, overthrow sovereign nations, torture them, chemicalize them, biologize them, radiate them...all the less-than-nice things detailed in this book, often in the full glare of the international media, with the most stunning contradictions between word and deed.. .without being mercilessly condemned by the worlds masses, by anyone with a social conscience,

without being shunned like a leper? Without American leaders being brought before international tribunals, charged with crimes against humanity?

Its no mystery about the silence and collusion, if not the adora-tion, of other governments and their leaders. It takes buying out only a few men with sleek jet fighters or tons of wheat, canceled debts, the World Bank, the IMF; theyve been intimidated, threatened, extorted, bribed, had their egos massaged, their nationalism patronized and had membership in the exclusive private clubs of NATO, the World Trade Organization and the European Union dangled before them. Only the occasional oddball Fidel Castrotype does not shy away from being shunned by respectable international high society.

But what keeps the vast majority of humanity, including the countless victims, from rising up in protest, spewing gross scorn and skepticism, if not bullets?

Being enamored of the United States-a former colony that made good, with its wondrous New World promise of a new life-goes well back into the nineteenth century, and reached new heights with the victory over fascism in the Second World War, then higher yet with Americas science-fiction technical wizardry, epitomized by walking on the moon. Soviet Cold-War propaganda made scarcely a dent. Nor did Cold-War truths. Or any truths.

For decades after the close of the Second World War, Western visitors to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe regularly brought back tales from their professional counterparts as well as the man in the street-the citizens refused to believe that there was homelessness in America or that there was no national health insurance; they were convinced that that was simply communist propaganda. They believed that in the US and Britain, government decisions were never made secretly, and that if a politician told a single lie he would be removed from office, citing Nixon as an example... We sometimes get copies of the Daily Mail [the London tabloid] from your embassy-it is good to read unbiased world news. 1...After the close of the Cold War, the chief of the Soviet general staff told the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff how impressed he was that enlisted people in the US military were not afraid to speak out and were not intimidated by their officers... 2

Over the years, a number of Third-World leaders, under immi-nent military and/or political threat by the United States, have made appeals to Washington officials, even to the president in person, under the apparently hopeful belief that it was all a misunderstand-ing, that America was not really intent upon crushing them and their movements for social change. Amongst others, the Guatemalan foreign minister in 1954, Cheddi Jagan of British Guiana in 1961 and Maurice Bishop of Grenada in 1983 all made their appeals.3 All were crushed. As recently as 1994, we have the case of the leader of the Zapatista rebels in Mexico, Subcommander Marcos. Marcos said, it was reported, he expects the United States to support the Zapatistas once US intelligence agencies are convinced the movement is not influenced by Cubans or Russians. Finally, Marcos

said, they are going to conclude that this is a Mexican problem, with just and true causes... 4

With all due respect to the considerable courage of Senor Marcos, one must seriously question his degree of contact with history, reality and gringos. For many years, the United States has been providing the Mexican military with all the training and tools needed to kill Marcos followers and, most likely, before long, Marcos himself.

When US bombs fell on Serbia in the spring of 1999, many Serbians expressed their shock and amazement that America- beloved, admired America-could do such a thing. The Washington Post interviewed a family in Belgrade: They regard themselves as proAmerican, said the paper. It is very difficult for us to hate America, the husband declared. We have always aspired to an American way of life, not a Russian way of life. Added the Post: The fact that the United States is bombing their country shocks and bewilders them. 5 A Serbian poet from the Kosovo capital of Pristina, one Alexander Simovich, was deeply upset by the US bombing which was devastating the city and his life. Yet, we were told that he loves Bob Dylan and jazz and lyrical poets. In the moments when he still allows himself to dream, he is living in another country, like the United States. 6

In Russia, most people strongly opposed the bombing and were shocked that it was the United States that was mainly responsible. The US media informed us repeatedly that the level of anti-American sentiment in Russia was easily the greatest in memory. It was as if the Russians were discovering for the first time that the United States had a violent side to it. Such innocence, it must be said, is virtually a form of insanity.

When the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was torn apart by American missiles, the reaction amongst Chinese was disbelief, as they marched in protest. A graduate student at Beijing University said his first thought was that the Americans couldnt have done it. A terrorist must have been to blame. I feel very sad. I have watched so many American movies and other things. I believe America has so much that is so humane, and so just.

You were the ideal for so many of us, added a senior Chinese official. And now your stupid bombs have killed our people.

This attitude was not confined to Chinese who have not set foot in the United States. A Chinese graduate of Stanford University declared that We used to think the United States was a model. But now youve killed our people. This is the end of our honeymoon with America. 7

This naivete, this love affair with the mystique of America , while certainly touching in a way in this tired old world, is not of immaculate conception. The United States, the inventor and perfecter of modern advertising and public relations, the worlds lead-ing producer and distributor of films, TV programs, books, magazines and music, with US Information Service libraries in more than 100 countries, and Voice of America with nearly 90 million listeners...the United States, the worlds only information superpower,