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Randy and others,
I still continue to be baffled by a comment like
this:
"The crimes of the United States and the leading democratic western
European
colonial powers, in their colonies and quasi-colonies and protectorates, are beyond dispute by myself. I'll only say that unlike the Soviet Union, and most unlike Nazi Germany, their crimes occurred outside the boundaries of the metropole. In thats sense and that sense only, they were limited." ===========================================
Why in the world should that make ANY difference? National
boundaries, borders, are just LINES created by different ruling classes
depending on what they can get away with. Even discounting the genocide of
Native American Indians and the slavery/murder of African American slaves, which
could be said to have mainly happened before imperialism was consolidated, two
million in prison in the U.S. today is a very profound development. As Andy and
other pointed out, there's been quite a bit of terror at within the
industrialized countries also.
But more directly, if you believe that there is yet the distinct
possiblity of another major war involving "core" (Western
Imperialist) ruling classes, then it may be the case that the assumed geographic
limits of imperialism's horrors may expand quite rapidly. Bombs over New York or
chemical/biological warfare in Chicago may sound highly improbable, but social
scientists learn to "Never Say 'Never' ".
Alan Spector
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