Nuts and bolts of building the U.S. global empire

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2005 Editions - Apr 16, 2005


 

Book Review

Have you ever wondered how the U.S. government and big business gained global power, the nuts and bolts of it? How they were able to bypass Congress in this effort?

John Perkins gives us his story of how, as an “economic hit man” (EHM), he and other chosen men and women convinced governments and their financial institutions that it was in their best interests to take out loans from the U.S. government for development of infrastructure projects such as electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks.

A condition of such loans was that U.S. companies had to build all these projects. As a result, most of the money never left the United States. The borrower was required to pay it all back, plus interest.

As an EHM, his success was measured by how large the loan was and how impossible it was for the borrowing country to pay the loan back. When the country defaulted on the loan, the U.S. had the right to ask for favors or obligations in such matters as a vote in the UN, the installations of military bases, or access to precious resources. The debtor still owed the money, but now became a victim of the U.S. goal of global domination.

Perkins provides tangible proof for these claims by citing specific firsthand experiences in such countries as Ecuador, Indonesia, Honduras, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

If the EHMs were not successful then the “jackals,” as they were called, were sent in to murder the leaders and replace them with ones that would sit as puppets for the U.S. If the jackals failed in their mission, the U.S. would set up to invade the country by stirring up the American people with lies so that they would be in favor of an invasion.

This book gives us a glimpse of how the U.S. has been able to control other countries and why America is hated in many parts of the world. It is not that they are jealous of Americans. It is because we have gone into their country and taken away their resources, their financial base and their ability to govern for themselves.