By Gary Flomenhoft
December 02, 2014 - "ClubOrlov -The final days of US empire are fast approaching.
Perhaps its end will pass slowly and gradually, or perhaps the event will unfold
rapidly and catastrophically. Maybe chaos will break loose, or maybe its demise
will be organized well and proceed smoothly. This nobody knows, but the end of
empire is coming as surely as day follows night and sun follows rain.
Overexpansion, overreach and over-indebtedness will take their toll—as all past
empires have discovered. Empires are like bacteria in a Petrie dish; unthinking,
unseeing, unfeeling, they expand until they run out of food or contaminate their
environment with their waste, and then they die. They are automatons, and they
just can’t help it: they are programmed to expand or die, expand or die, and, in
the end, expand and die.
What does the empire feed on? It feeds on money
and fear; your money and your fear, both obtained with your cooperation. It is
bigger now than when it faced an actual adversary in the Soviet Union. Russia is
no adversary; all it wants is to be a normal country, at peace with the world.
But the empire won’t let it, will it? It must create enemies. Who are our
enemies? According to the authors of endless war they are North Korea, Iran,
Syria, and Islamic terrorists. Are any of them actually capable of threatening
the US? Well, yes, but they are all quite easy to deter. But the plan of the
authors of endless war is not to deter them; it is to back them into a corner
with political instability and sanctions, while whipping up the population on
both sides into fear-filled frenzy.
We all know that the US
military-industrial complex has become a self-perpetuating and uncontrollable
organism, just like Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us in 1961. Everyone knows the
phrase and Eisenhower's warning—it is part of our collective memory. At a
trillion dollars a year and growing, with over 1000 bases ringing the planet, it
has expanded far beyond what Eisenhower could have imagined in his worst
nightmare. We can’t say we didn’t know: he warned us. After the
National-Socialist episode in Germany, many good Germans voiced regrets at not
speaking up, claiming that they didn’t know what was being done in their name.
But we do not have that excuse: we all knew all along.
 Nor was it the first time we were warned. General Smedley
Butler told us before, in 1933, and his words are still with us, posted online. Why is it
that everyone, generals included, suddenly gain wisdom immediately upon reaching
retirement? Butler offered an explanation: his “mind was in suspended animation
while serving as a soldier and following orders.” In 1933 Butler told us that
he “was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” He said:
“I helped make Mexico,
especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti
and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the
benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify
Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912…I
brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In
China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”
This empire is nothing new, and we knew what it is and what it does
all along. We can’t say we didn’t know. We have watched throughout our lives as
the US put down every popular uprising against local autocrats and oligarchs,
placed countries under US control, then helped organize and train the death
squads that killed off the opposition. Think of Indonesia, Argentina, or
Honduras. We watched as the empire crushed every democratic government that
threatened US business interests under the false pretext of “anti-communism,”
starting with Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, and proceeding to Congo, Haiti
(numerous times), and most notably and infamously Chile in 1973 (assassinating
president Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973), Nicaragua in the 1980’s, and
many, many others. (For details see William Blum’s Killing
Hope.) And of course, many of us lived through the epic lies and
genocide of millions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the so-called “Vietnam
War.” We knew, we watched, and we paid taxes that paid for the bullets and the
bombs.
More recently we’ve seen the barefaced lies of empire laid out
for all to see in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Georgia, Pakistan,
Yemen, Ukraine... they never end! But the trouble we stir up in other places
never seems to come home and ring our doorbell, does it? Maybe that’s why it
keeps on going. We think that we can just ignore it and go on with our
lives—that it won’t affect us. Or does it?
Let’s leave aside the
destruction of democracy that always accompanies a militarized, fascist police
state that the US has gradually turned into. And let’s ignore the violence that
pervades US society, or the vast gulag of incarceration that disposes of our
useless eaters. Consider that the only military attack on US soil that actually
scored a palpable hit since Pearl Harbor was 9/11. Pearl Harbor was on the
periphery, way out in the Pacific, “A Day that will live in Infamy,” the more so
since FDR knew it was coming and did all he could to provoke it by cutting Japan
off from oil supplies, directly provoking it into launching the attack. But
Hawaii is the periphery while 9/11 struck at the heart of the empire, the
financial center in New York that drives the imperial wealth pump, and the
Pentagon, which is charged with the mission of US world domination.
Whether you believe that 19 Arabs armed with box cutters who couldn’t
fly propeller planes took down 3 World Trade buildings that plummeted straight
down at the speed of freefall in what looked like controlled demolition (yes
there were 3, look up “Building 7”), and destroyed a section of the Pentagon, or
whether you believe it was an inside job, doesn’t matter. The point is, in that
act of destruction, the wars of the empire finally came home.
What was
the result? Did these events cause us to reconsider what we are doing? Of course
not! Instead, we went all-in for war. Remember, the empire is an automaton, a
self-perpetuating organism, living on money and fear. What better way to whip up
fear than to stage, or to allow, or to simply fail to prevent, an attack on the
“homeland”—which is, by the way, a Nazi propaganda term. The purpose of war is
simply to cause more war, since it is so profitable for the badly misnamed
“defense industry.” Butler told us in 1933 that “war is a racket,” and
documented massive war profiteering during WWI. Do you know how much money
Lockheed, Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon et al. are making
from the “War on Terror”? The sums are astronomical.
 As you read these words, the empire is busy doing its
work in Ukraine. Here is how that works. First, it overthrows the elected
government in a US-backed coup. Next, it directs its local puppet regime to
unleash a military attack and organize death squads to deal with the population
in the east that won't go along with the US-backed coup, in this case using
actual Nazi-branded death squads, complete with Nazi SS Insignias. (Anyone can verify these
facts with the most cursory internet search.) And for the final, consummate
imperialist touch, it votes in the UN (together with Canada) against a resolution
condemning the Ukrainian Nazis and other racist murderers, while the Europeans
shamefacedly abstain. This sort of plan used to work really well, and so the
empire keeps repeating it over and over again, even though the results are worse
every time.
Vast numbers of Americans support the empire’s wars of
conquest because they help maintain their lavish lifestyles. They bother some of
us more than others. Many of us are adamantly against them, but only a few find
it emotionally unbearable to countenance the destruction of millions of lives in
our names and with our money. What makes them different? Who knows, you would
have to ask a psychologist.
The question for those who oppose endless
war is, What have we done about it? A mass movement in the 1960’s that added up
to an uprising by a vast segment of society perhaps had something to do with
ending the conflict in Vietnam. In spite of these protests, the empire was able
to extend the war by an extra five years all the way to 1973, when it agreed to
end it on the same terms that had been offered in 1968 to Nobel “peace laureate”
Henry Kissinger. There has been no significant anti-war protest since then, and
certainly none that succeeded in preventing or ending war. Why?
First,
the draft was ended. This put an end to the involvement of average US families
in the wars of empire, and therefore ending the requirement for consent of the
governed. The strategists realized that the draft was a disaster for the empire.
The new, much better and cheaper way to procure cannon fodder for the endless
war is to enlist the children of the underclass, by using economic oppression in
order to deprive them of any other means of advancement except military service.
Second, the military has been outsourced and privatized, requiring even
less involvement by US families in the military, and less need for their
consent. “You’re all volunteers, so shut up” is the attitude.
Third, the
vastly increased scope of domestic spying by the NSA and other government
agencies has helped keep everyone under control and stifle dissent.
Fourth is the tight government/corporate control of the US media, which
has become consummately successful in brainwashing and propagandizing the
population.
Finally, there is the war on whistleblowers and journalists
who expose the truth, from Tom Drake to William Binney, Sibel Simons, Jesselyn
Radack, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. If necessary, the police, who are
vastly more militarized than in the past, together with national guard troops,
can squash any dissent like a bug. All these measures ensure that efforts at
reform pursued through legal, nonviolent means such as voting, protest, civil
disobedience, civil resistance, etc. will have absolutely no effect. The only
action that can possibly stop the empire in its tracks is cutting off its food
supply—the tax money on which it lives. We have to starve the beast through
divestment, capital expatriation, tax resistance, tax refusal and tax revolt.
Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig told us this flat out in the 1980’s
when, being confronted with huge protests over US Central American policy, he
said: “Let them protest all they want as long as they pay their taxes.” Truer
words were never uttered by a US official. Is there any evidence to contradict
his statement? Has any other measure had any impact on the war machine? The
honest answer is no. Millions of people around the world protested before the
2003 invasion of Iraq. These protests were ignored. No amount of protest or
other efforts can stop it, because it doesn’t cut off the empire’s food supply
of money and fear. Only by cutting off its funds by not paying taxes can we stop
the empire.
Many have said that the US doesn’t need tax money as it
survives on endless debt. Yes, the empire lives on debt, but the ability to sell
debt is based on the bond rating of US treasury bonds. Most recently in June,
2014 S&P gave the US a AA+ rating with “stable outlook.”
If there is any doubt about the US
credit rating, the ability to sell debt to continue financing the empire comes
into question. The ability to collect taxes is what maintains the US bond
rating. Any reduction of the US bond rating, and interest rates have to go up in
order to continue attracting more investment. Then the interest on the debt
balloons out of control and becomes unrepayable—never mind the principal, which
they have no intention of ever paying back. By the way, the Tea Party’s efforts
to shut down government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling was helping this
effort for a time, although for different reasons. They thought that the welfare
system is bankrupting the country. This is a laughable claim, because welfare
spending looks negligible when compared to military spending. Still, they did
manage to lower the bond rating for a time. Shutting down the federal government
is a step in the right direction, and since in recent years only the Tea Party
has managed to do it, lets give them some credit
If the US became unable
to reliably collect taxes, then its ability to finance the empire with debt
would be diminished, and the US would have to turn to increasing taxes—another
politically unpalatable choice, especially in the age of the Tea Party, when the
empire’s main constituency is dead-set against more taxes. So it is absolutely
clear that the only thing that could stop the empire is a tax revolt. It
wouldn’t even have to be that big; the slightest question about the ability of
the federal government to collect taxes could reduce the bond rating. Even a
minor reduction could raise interest rates enough to make the US debt
unrepayable.
Let's get down to brass tacks: How do you avoid paying
taxes, when the IRS withholds our salaries, and the tables are rigged to
withhold about 15% more than necessary on average, so 80% of people get a
refund? Did you think that this is a coincidence? No, this is a one-year
interest-free loan to the empire from taxpayers. But it’s actually quite simple
not to pay taxes. Get a W-4 form, write EXEMPT in the space provided, and turn
it in to your friendly HR office. Your employer is not allowed to change it
unless directed by the IRS. Normally they have no reason to question it.
Here’s what happened last time it was tried on a big scale. In 2007,
Code Pink joined the War Resisters League to organize a national project for war
tax refusal, to “Stop Bush’s Wars.” This was not a true tax revolt, just more or
less a referendum on how many people would potentially support withholding a
portion of their taxes owed, even a token amount. The online petition asked
people if they would be willing to commit to withhold some of their taxes, even
$1, if 100,000 other people would agree to do the same. Out of the US population
of 316 million, how many people do you think signed it? About 2,000. So you see,
there is not much evidence that people will do the only thing that could stop
the empire: a true Tea Party tax revolt.
What this implies is that the
empire will continue to churn along, and debt will continue to build up, because
any other approach to paying for it is not feasible, and therefore collapse is
inevitable. The aftermath of collapse is unpredictable; maybe there will be a
soft landing, maybe not. But unless you are willing to engage in some form of
tax revolt, collapse is inevitable. You will get to live with the results: stage
a tax revolt now, or face collapse later.
Are you sure you want to take
your chances on collapse? The results of a personal tax revolt are predictable:
retribution with penalties and interest from the IRS; living in fear of having
your salary, your property, even your house seized, or worse, your door broken
down by federal agents (although these extreme measures don’t happen too often,
they happen often enough to instill fear). Perhaps there would be loss of
income, or even your job. Losing one’s job often leads to depression, divorce,
drug or alcohol abuse, etc. So you may prefer collapse after all: loss of your
savings, no heat, electricity or trash removal, shops looted or closed, armed
gangs roaming the streets... Your choice!
On the other hand, collapse
might go well! Hope springs eternal in the optimistic American heart. We are (or
used to be) the “can-do” people. Maybe we can-do collapse better than anyone
else? Doubtful though if you read Dmitry Orlov’s Collapse Gap presentation.
The results of collapse
later are likely to be worse then the effects of tax revolt now. Especially,
since the IRS takes years to catch up to exempt W-4 forms, and it would be even
harder to crack down if it were being was done en masse. But it’s perfectly
understandable if you opt to do nothing now and suffer no consequences, while
engaging in ineffective protest to assuage your conscience. You probably have a
family to support, an expensive hobby, or some other excuse. So you decide to
take your chances with collapse later. After all, collapse might turn out OK for
you! This psychology is quite understandable. I truly hope that collapse will be
as painless as you wish it will be, but somehow I doubt it. Good luck though!
Whatever happens, you will have to live with your decision for the rest of your
life—be it long or short.
Signed, expat and long-time conscientious tax
refuser, Gary Flomenhoft.
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