"Nemesis" by Chalmers Johnson

One of my daughter-in-laws, now ensconced in the proverbial Deep South, brought to my attention the need to read the work of Chalmers Johnson. Knowing that any recommendation from her is worth its weight in gold, I just completed his latest book, “Nemesis” which I now urge others to read.

One could easily categorize him as radical as one would attribute term to Noam Chomsky even though Johnson’s writing is less redundant and flamboyant. But, the bottom line remains similar, viz., our nation’s founding values are eroding secondary to an expansionist military. In the process of justifying a greater need for the expansion of the military budget based on proclaimed fear of extremists, our nation is perceived itself as extreme with imperialistic objectives that erode our basic understanding our democracy envisioned by our nation’s founding fathers.

For those who criticize those of us who bring attention to the wayward tendencies of our nation as lacking basic support of our government, it is important that all of those who are highly critical of our government’s actions, as in Johnson, are basically calling our nation only to support its basic values. If not, our nation is on a road that could jeopardize our nation.

Ever so briefly, Johnson’s perspective starts from an understanding that a standing military was always a bone of contention in our nation’s history. While Washington and Hamilton wanted a standing militia in order to secure our nation, Jefferson and others argued vehemently that such a militia was inherently destructive of democratic values. However, no one ultimately would question the need of a military to protect our nation and its peoples. Johnson details the history of our military’s involvement and expansion into all parts of the world, generally with negative outcomes for those peoples. (N.B. John Perkins wrote a relevant book, "Confessions of an Economics Hitman", that details his personal experiences working for a consulting company whose task it was to paint a rosy picture for poor countries of major projects considered for funding by the World Bank or IMF. The projected scenarios never worked and, to deal with the enormous debt, these countries made deals with the United States so that our military could have bases on their land.)

He compares our present trends to those of other major nation-states, e.g., Rome and Great Britain, who expanded beyond their nation’s capacity to fund and control and subsequently, lost its power. Johnson would not be unhappy with a loss of military power, if it did not imply the loss of economic power and a beacon for democratic values.

This book may not have been written, however, if it were not for the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! Bush has not only expanded our military involvement without need and the great expense of an ancient land, he has been able to assume the role of a dictator who has disregarded the rule of law in the name of protecting our nation!

Johnson clearly is concerned that the violations of our Constitution are inherently eroding our democracy and the separation of powers! While this view is not new, his articulation is strong and alarming.

One is encouraged to read this book and hope that our next election will attempt to rectify the damage caused by Bush!