A Terrorist Democracy Should be Adjudged as Such

Submitted by Peter N. Kirstein (United States), Jan 30, 2005 at 13:29

While I have often believed that academia is too liberal to engage in strategic assessment of the forces that propel imperial America, I am grateful that I was able to escape the confining ideology of the vital center and move toward an intellectual dialectics of liberation.

It is essential that American power be significantly attenuated so that it will cease its brutal and murderous crusade against non-white peoples who dare defy the hegemony.

In order to establish the rule of law in the international realm, there should be indictment and prosecution of the senior leadership of this country for prima facie acts of aggressive war, torture and wanton destruction not resulting from military necessity.

Being anti-American is the highest form of global patriotism when it is directed against policy that is deleterious to the international interest. When the contours of nationalism and internationalism mesh, then nationalism may have value. When they diverge, it is the obligation of the world citizen to resist policy of her homeland regardless of the conformist pressures to obey.

The US simply lacks the progressive ethos and the notion of liberty and justice to proclaim itself worthy of global leadership. American exceptionalism is risible and of excessive hauter.

I urge all to reconsider the chasm in America between declaratory and action policy and to question critically its legitimacy and suitability to command respect and allegiance from its citizens.

I stand proud and committed to the struggle for peace and justice that lies ahead.

Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History

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