Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism
Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
18 Aug 2021
The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism
The U.S. Empire’s Achilles Heel: Its Barbaric Racism

More than nine years ago the late BAR publisher Glen Ford captured the essential character of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan that is as relevant and revealing today as it was in 2012.

The American atrocities in Afghanistan roll on like a drumbeat from hell. With every affront to the human and national dignity of the Afghan people, the corporate media feign shock and quickly conclude that a few bad apples are responsible for U.S. crimes, that it’s all a mistake and misunderstanding, rather than the logical result of a larger crime: America’s attempt to dominate the world by force. But even so, with the highest paid and best trained military in the world – a force equipped with the weapons and communications gear to exercise the highest standards of control known to any military in history – one would think that commanders could keep their troops from making videos of urinating on dead men, or burning holy books, or letting loose homicidal maniacs on helpless villagers.

These three latest atrocities have brought the U.S. occupation the point of crisis – hopefully, a terminal one. But the whole war has been one atrocity after another, from the very beginning, when the high-tech superpower demonstrated the uncanny ability to track down and incinerate whole Afghan wedding parties – not just once, but repeatedly. Quite clearly, to the Americans, these people have never been more than ants on the ground, to be exterminated at will.

The Afghans, including those on the U.S. payroll, repeatedly use the word “disrespect” to describe American behavior. But honest people back here in the belly of the beast know that the more accurate term is racism. The United States cannot help but be a serial abuser of the rights of the people it occupies, especially those who are thought of as non-white, because it is a thoroughly racist nation. A superpower military allows them to act out this characteristic with impunity.

American racism allows its citizens to imagine that they are doing the people of Pakistan a favor, by sending drones to deal death without warning from the skies. The U.S. calls Pakistan an ally, when polls consistently show that its people harbor more hatred and fear of the U.S. than any other people in the world. The Pakistanis know the U.S. long propped up their military dictators, and then threatened to blow the country to Kingdom Come after 9/ll, if the U.S. military wasn’t given free rein. They know they are viewed collectively as less than human by the powers in Washington – and, if they don’t call it racism, we should, because we know our fellow Americans very well.

The U.S. lost any hope of leaving a residual military force in Iraq when it showed the utterly racist disrespect of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, the savage leveling of Fallujah, the massacres in Haditha and so many other places well known to Iraqis, if not the American public, and the slaughter of 17 civilians stuck at a traffic circle in Nisour Square, Baghdad. What people would agree to allow such armed savages to remain in their country if given a choice?

The United States was conceived as an empire built on the labor of Blacks and the land of dead natives, an ever-expanding sphere of exploitation and plunder – energized by an abiding and general racism that is, itself, the main obstacle to establishing a lasting American anti-war movement. But, despite the peace movement’s weaknesses, the people of a world under siege by the Americans will in due time kick them out – because to live under barbarian racists is not a human option.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. 

This commentary originally appeared in Black Agenda report on March 14, 2012.

Afghanistan
War Crimes

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Biden Lies at the United Nations
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Biden Lies at the United Nations
28 September 2022
U.S. presidents routinely violate international law and the United Nations Charter.
The U.S. Legacy in Afghanistan: War Crimes and Imperialist Double Standards
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
The U.S. Legacy in Afghanistan: War Crimes and Imperialist Double Standards
24 August 2022
One year ago the U.S. was ousted from Afghanistan after making war on that country for 20 years. But the U.S.
Afghanistan News Update #12
Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network Afghanistan Committee
Afghanistan News Update #12
06 July 2022
In this month’s Afghanistan News Update, the Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee includes an interview with
Sanctions: A Sanctimonious Word for Economic Warfare and Outright Theft
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Sanctions: A Sanctimonious Word for Economic Warfare and Outright Theft
09 March 2022
The U.S.
American Liberals Praise Biden at the Expense of True Peace
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
American Liberals Praise Biden at the Expense of True Peace
08 September 2021
Joe Biden is committed to the imperatives of the bipartisan war party.
Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies  
Afghan Crisis Must End America’s Empire of War, Corruption and Poverty
01 September 2021
The U.S.
Out of Afghanistan Today, Out of Africa Tomorrow!
All-African People's Revolutionary Party
Out of Afghanistan Today, Out of Africa Tomorrow!
01 September 2021
The U.S. departure from Afghanistan is a victory against imperialism.
Afghanistan is No 'Graveyard' for U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
Black Alliance For Peace
Afghanistan is No 'Graveyard' for U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
25 August 2021
Black Alliance for Peace analysis on Afghanistan, Haiti and the U.S. effort to maintain hegemony.
Afghanistan
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Afghanistan
18 August 2021
Afghanistan has been at the mercy of U.S. interventions for more than 40 years.
US Joins Past Empires In Afghan Graveyard
Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies
US Joins Past Empires In Afghan Graveyard
21 April 2021
President Biden announced a removal of all U.S. troops by September 11, but he failed to include some important details.

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio January 27, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio January 27, 2023
    27 Jan 2023
    Police killings increase, Nicaragua, and Cuba in Africa
  • Record Number of Police Killings in 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Record Number of Police Killings in 2022
    27 Jan 2023
    Samuel Sinyangwe is founder of the Mapping Police Violence Project.
  • Observations of Nicaragua's Revolutionary Process
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Observations of Nicaragua's Revolutionary Process
    27 Jan 2023
    Erica Caines is publisher of the website Hood Communist. She is also co-coordinator of the Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas team.
  • Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 1
    27 Jan 2023
    Isaac Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the author of the recently published book Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s…
  • The State Repression of U.S. Settler Colonialism in The South: BAP ATLANTA STATEMENT
    Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance
    The State Repression of U.S. Settler Colonialism in The South: BAP ATLANTA STATEMENT
    25 Jan 2023
    The plan for an Atlanta police training facility known as "Cop City" is the latest phase of state repression in that region. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us