Month: December 2020

Forgiveness for war crimes is as American as apple pie, but it doesn’t have to be.

While Orwell comparisons have at times been overused, the accepted names for entities within the American imperial apparatus really do line up with the motto of the fictional nation of Oceania: “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” In the United States, the benign language we use for our institutions of conquest and war are reflective of a larger belief of American exceptionalism and innocence. Shattering this ethos is of paramount importance in working toward ending American empire. To that end, we can begin by changing the language that describes the imperial institutions of the most powerful and destructive empire in human history to better reflect reality.

A survey of past and current events reveals that it is the United States’ own policy that is the leading cause of hardship inflicted on US citizens by alleged foreign “enemies.“