Some Harsh Views As to Why the U.S. is Supposedly a “Failed State”

I see the U.S. as a failed state. Why? Because this war on terror … has destroyed the Constitution and the civil liberties that the Constitution embodies. The Bill of Rights has been eviscerated. The Obama regime has institutionalized the Bush/Cheney assault on American liberty. Words: 996

So said Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary US Treasury, Associate Editor Wall Street Journal, Professor of Political Economy Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC in a recent interview with Global Research (http://globalresearch.ca). In further reformatted and edited excerpts from the original interview* for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read, (Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article reposting to avoid copyright infringement) Roberts went on to say:

American Civil Liberties Have Been Curtailed
Today, no American has any rights if he or she is accused of “terrorist” activity. The Obama regime has expanded the vague definition of “terrorist activity” to include “domestic extremist,” another undefined and vague category subject to the government’s discretion. In short, a “terrorist” or a “domestic extremist” is anyone who dissents from a policy or a practice that the U.S. government regards as necessary for its agenda of world hegemony.

The “united” States Have Ceased to Exist
When the Constitution was destroyed, the U.S. ceased to exist. What exists today are power centers that are unaccountable. Elections mean nothing, as both parties are dependent on the same powerful interest groups for campaign funds. The most powerful interest groups are the military/security complex, which includes the Pentagon, the CIA, and the corporations that service them, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the oil industry that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico, Wall Street (investment banks and hedge funds), the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the agri-companies that produce food of questionable content.

These corporate powers comprise of an oligarchy that cannot be dislodged by voting. Ever since “globalism” was enacted into law, the Democrats have been dependent on the same corporate sources of income as the Republicans, because globalism destroyed the labor unions. Consequently, there is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats, or no meaningful difference.

Outsourcing Has Increased Unemployment
The “war on terror” completed the constitutional/legal failure of the U.S. The U.S. has also failed economically. Under Wall Street pressure for short-term profits U.S. corporations began, around 1990, to move their production (and, in the process, U.S. GDP and millions of well-paid U.S. jobs) for U.S. consumer markets offshore to countries, such as China and India, where labor and professional expertise are cheap.

[Now], after 20 years of [such outsourcing] which has destroyed American jobs and federal, state and local tax base, the U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by U.S. government methodology in 1980, is over 20 percent. The ladders of upward mobility have been dismantled. Millions of young Americans with university degrees are employed as waitresses and bartenders. Foreign enrollment comprises a larger and larger percentage of U.S. universities as the American population finds that a university degree has been negated by the offshoring of the jobs that the graduates expected.

Coming Weak Dollar Will Impoverish Americans
When U.S. offshored production re-enters the U.S. as imports, the trade balance deteriorates. Foreigners use their surplus dollars to purchase existing U.S. assets. Consequently, dividends, interest, capital gains, road tolls, rents, and profits, now flow abroad to foreign owners, thus increasing the pressure on the U.S. dollar. The U.S. has been able to survive the mounting claims of foreigners against U.S. GDP only because the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency. However, the huge U.S. budget and trade deficits will put pressures on the dollar that will become too extreme for the dollar to be able to sustain this role. When the dollar fails, the U.S. population will be impoverished.

U.S. Indebtedness Is Constraining Economy
The U.S. is heavily indebted – both the government and the citizens. Over the last decade there has been no growth in family income. The U.S. economy was kept going through the expansion of consumer debt. Now consumers are so heavily indebted that they cannot borrow more. This means that the main driving force of the US economy, consumer demand, cannot increase. As consumer demand comprises 70% of the economy, when consumer demand cannot increase, there can be no economic recovery.

There is No Corporate or Government Accountability
The U.S. is a failed state also because there is no accountability to the people by corporations or by government at any level, whether state, local, or federal. British Petroleum is destroying the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government has done nothing. The Obama regime’s response to the crisis is more irresponsible than the Bush regime’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Wetlands and fisheries are being destroyed by unregulated capitalist greed and by a government that treats the environment with contempt. The tourist economy of Florida is being destroyed. The external costs of drilling in deep waters exceeds the net worth of the oil industry. As a result of the failure of the American state, the oil industry is destroying one of the world’s most valuable ecological systems.

The American People Are Lost In “la-la land”
Americans have no idea that their civil liberties have been forfeited. They are only gradually learning that their economic future is compromised. They have little idea of the world’s growing hatred of Americans for their destruction of other peoples. In short, Americans are full of themselves. They have no idea of the disasters that their ignorance and inhumanity have brought upon themselves and upon the world.

Much of the world, looking at a country that appears both stupid and inhumane, wonders at Americans’ fine opinion of themselves. Is America the virtuous “indispensable nation” of neoconservative propaganda, or [is America nothing more than a failed state -] a plague upon the world?

*http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19458

Editor’s Note:
- The above article consists of reformatted edited excerpts from the original for the sake of brevity, clarity and to ensure a fast and easy read. The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered.
- Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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