|
|
June 19, 2013
|
|
|
|
DIG DIRECTOR
Stan Goff is a retired veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces. During an active-duty career that spanned 1970 to 1996, he served with the elite Delta Force and Rangers, and in Vietnam, Guatemala, Grenada, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, Somalia and Haiti....
|
|
||||||||||||||||
Sowing the Seeds of Fascism in AmericaAuthor Stan Goff, a retired 26-year veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces, sounds a warning call that many of the historical precursors of fascism—white supremacy, militarization of culture, vigilantism, masculine fear of female power, xenophobia and economic destabilization—are ascendant in America today. When I was 18, before student tracking in the public schools had been formalized, an informal tracking system was nevertheless in place: the university track, the craft track, the poultry worker track, and the prison track. I was somewhere between the last two. Both my parents were working in a defense contractor factory, and I was left adrift in the factory-worker ‘burbs to be trained by television and alcohol. Raised on a curriculum of McCarthyism, I did the most logical thing I could think of to avoid both the factory and eventual incarceration with the ne’er-do-wells with whom I was keeping company. I joined the Army, and volunteered to fight communists in Vietnam. I tried to get out of the Army once, and it lasted for four years, whereupon I ended up doing piecework in a sweatshop outside Wilmar, Ark. Back on that public school track, I suppose, but given that the U.S. was no longer invading anyone’s country, and that I was responsible for an infant now, I went back into the Army. One thing led to another, and as it turned out I was good at something called special operations, and I ended up making a career of it. By the time I signed out on terminal leave in December 1995, I had worked in eight places designated “armed conflict areas,” where people who were brown and poor seemed to be the principle targets of these “special” operations. At some point toward the end, I had decided that plenty of people could look back and say they wished they’d lived differently; and I was just one of them; and that I might salvage something worthwhile from the whole experience by telling the people who had paid me—people who pay taxes—what their money was really being spent to do. Among other activities, I started writing books.
There was nothing more inflammatory in my first book, about the 1994 invasion and occupation of Haiti, than my assertion that Special Operations was a hotbed of racism and reaction. “Hideous Dream - A Soldier’s Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti” (Soft Skull Press, 2000) was my personal account of that operation, and I was explicit not only about the significant number of white supremacists in Special Operations but how the attitudes of these extremists connected with the less explicit white male supremacy of white patriarchal American society and defined, in some respects, the attitude taken by U.S. occupation forces in Haiti toward the Haitian population. The resistance to this allegation was particularly fierce, and not merely from those inside the Special Operations “community,” whose outrage was more public-relations stagecraft than anything else. There was outrage from people who hadn’t a moment of actual experience in the military at all. This is an affront to something sacred in the public imaginary of a thoroughly militarized United States: that we are an international beacon of civilized virtue, and that our military is the masculine epitome of that virtue standing between our suburban security and the dark chaos of the Outside. Questioning the mystique of the armed forces is tantamount to lunacy at best and treason at worst. This is the reason bad-apple-ism has been the predominant meme of the media and the Pentagon when they are compelled to discuss the stories of torture, rape and murder in Iraq and Afghanistan. “A few bad apples” committed torture. “A few bad apples” raped prisoners, fellow female soldiers, and civilians in their homes. The massacre was not descriptive of the Marine Corps, but the work of “a few bad apples.” Anyone who wants to be the skunk at this prevarication party need only ask, “How do these bad apples all seem to aggregate into the same units?” One bad apple was dispensed with on June 11, 2001. That’s when Timothy McVeigh was given a lethal injection at 7 a.m. in the death chamber of the U.S. federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Ind. Frugivorous analogies aside, McVeigh was not the product of a tree or poor storage, but of a culture. Raised in western New York by a devoutly Catholic father—an autoworker—after his parents divorced when he was 10, Tim McVeigh, like many other white youths who are socially awkward and living in times of economic insecurity, was already reading survivalist and white nationalist literature in his teens. The mythic-patriarchal absolutism of racial ideology mapped perfectly onto the consciousness of someone raised by a religiously devout male, and the fact that this ideology responded directly to the insecurities of economic and gender destabilization secured McVeigh as an early devotee. Gore Vidal said that McVeigh “needed a self-consuming cause to define him[self].” Vidal’s account, “The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh,” ominously printed in Vanity Fair just days before the 9/11 attacks expressed another “self-consuming cause,” noted that McVeigh took his cues from the very government he had worked for as a soldier. Before McVeigh’s attack in Oklahoma City, the most recent attack by Americans against Americans outside of warfare was the FBI-BATF massacre of an obscure religious commune that was demonized for destruction at Waco, Texas—which McVeigh memorialized by blowing up the Murrah Building on the Waco massacre’s second anniversary. When McVeigh was interviewed about the “collateral damage” in Oklahoma, he was asked if he felt remorse. He replied that Truman had never apologized for Hiroshima or Nagasaki. And the formative moment in Iraq for Tim McVeigh was the order by Major General Barry McCaffrey—the sociopath appointed by Bill Clinton to be the nation’s “drug czar”—to slaughter a seven-mile line of retreating Iraqi soldiers and civilians after the cease-fire in Iraq ... now called the Turkey Shoot. As the old military motto says, “Trained by the best, kill like the rest.” Much has been made of McVeigh’s affinity for “The Turner Diaries,” a neo-Nazi novel about a white nationalist guerrilla war in the U.S., written under pseudonym by the late William Pierce. Less often noted was another formative cultural product for McVey, “Red Dawn,” a silly film about American teenagers organizing an armed resistance to the Soviet occupation of the United States. While “silly” is a descriptive term for both these cultural products, we cannot assume they are irrelevant. Dig last updated on Oct. 3, 2006Advertisement New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Email to a friend
Email 
Print
Share
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.
By Socrates, October 4, 2006 at 10:22 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Note to the Editor: there is a difference between “Special Forces” and “Special Operations.” The former are mostly advisors who aid foreign military forces to overcome a foe the US gov’t doesn’t like (e.g., helping the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan overcome the Taliban). The latter include very highly skilled soldiers (the cream of the crop, e.g., Navy Seals) who conduct black-ops and other small focused missions, often involving slipping in and out of an area to “neutralize” a bite-size target undetected.
Report thisBy Dear Stan;, October 4, 2006 at 10:20 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
As felow Vetnam Combat veteran and former SFC thank you. Would you mind telling me what Country you moved to and how is it. I think it is time to leave myself with my family.
Second is Sowing the Seeds of Fascism In America a book if it is I would like to buy a copy.
Thank You,
Chris
Report thisBy Frances Greenfield, October 4, 2006 at 9:02 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Anyone who has been the least bit observant can see for themselves that this isn’t just an “American” problem. It is an ugly problem in the whole of the “white” western society in general.
I genuinely believe we are moving towards a fascist government, not only in the United States, but in all countries that are dominately white.
How sad for the world and most likely the end of civilization as we know it - fascism has been coming for a long time - it just needed the right people in the right places to institute it and to bring down the upon our collective heads Orwell’s “1984”
Report thisBy Colonel, October 4, 2006 at 8:52 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Goff wanders all over the lot, making some good points and some not so good. What he totally misses is that the “military facism” he deplores is a copy of the Israeli Defense Force mentalty. Further, the American military “facists” who Goff denounces are being used in Iraq and other regions of the Middle East primarily in the service of Israel, not U.S., interests.
Report thisBy 131488WOLF131488, October 4, 2006 at 8:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
So, Mr. Dig guy…are you FOR, or AGAINST???
Report thisYou talk of being a veteran, so you must be of an age to have seen all the twisting of our laws and constitution, the degrading of uor land, our cities/towns/neighborhoods/SCHOOLS….our MORAL CHARACTER…all at the hands of the campaigns of those people out to DESTROY us, OUR CULTURE, AND our fine Nation…along with ALL EUROPE AND THE WORLD…You write as an authority on all this knowledge…WHAT SAY YOU??? Prey, or be preyed UPON???
In The Awakening of White America…
Wolf B’Shannon
By Corporate Jesus, October 4, 2006 at 8:44 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Bukko,
Report thisGot any room on your couch?
By KISS, October 4, 2006 at 8:21 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
While Mr. Goff does mentor some thoughts that are stimulating, I must disagree on protecting our borders as being neo-fascist. We are living in a time when a radioactive bomb will fit into a suitcase and has capabilities to kill tens of thousands of people. This is not fantasy this is realistic. Is Amerika a fascist state…it seems those seeds are germinating quite well. Corporate take-over is a reality, ” What is good for the Corporations, is good for Amerika”, that is the theme in every city, county, state and federal governments through-out our land. Globalization is the new slang for One World Government that was warned about decades ago. While those that scoffed at the time are so very still now. The middle class is soon to be at an all time low and poverty is the largest growing segment of our society..with no end in sight. While we grow poorer corporation grow bigger and bigger, with the blessings of all our governments. But while my fellow man refuses to read and think why should it get beetter?
Report thisBy BoDo, October 4, 2006 at 7:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
A quite well-reasoned, and well-written explication of the rise of fascism, whose results we saw last week in the Congressional acceptance of the end of habeas corpus, the handing over of all power to the executive, and, to our eternal national shame, the legalization of torture and rejection of the Geneva Conventions. Unlike the earlier commenter, I don’t have the option of moving to another country, so now, though I witnessed 9/11 personally in New York City, I finally feel the fear that our fearful leaders have been demanding of us for five years now.
Report thisBy Stan, October 4, 2006 at 6:27 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Actually, I am a 24-year veteran of the Army, and retired holding the MOS of 18Z, Special Forces. Career outline and bio available at wiki.
But thanks agian, Truthdig.
Report thisBy malcolmartin, October 4, 2006 at 6:25 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Much like Charles Darwins immutable truths regarding of the origins and evolution of life, Karl Marx guided us through the reasons capitalism was born, why it would thrive and dominate for a time, and how its inherent contradictions condemn it to be replaced by a superior economic system called socialism. Marxs brilliant science-based vision can no longer be challenged on the facts. It has and is going to continue to unfold just as he forecast. Capitalism is doomed.
So now as capitalism enters its final stages, gasping desperately for life-giving profit, politically a nearly seamless transition to fascism is taking place in the US, just as Mr. Goff states. The trappings of bourgeois democracy are a brake on profits and so they are being shredded. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights are being rendered meaningless by presidential signing statements and the theory of the unitary executive, extraordinary rendition, government surveillance programs and the like. Programs based on democratic principles like the public schools, Social Security, Medicare, affirmative action and welfare are being starved to death. The mass media and electoral machinery and both major political parties are now fully under the control of those in power. Bloodless coups in 2000 and 2004 installed George W. Bush in the White House and no future election will remove the candidate of the ruling class from power.
It would take a team of psychoanalysts to catalogue the many and varied mental pathologies of George W. Bush and his henchmen in the U.S. government. The point to keep in mind is that in this time and in this place the capitalist system needed people in power capable of carrying out insane and grotesquely inhumane policies, up to and including the coming nuclear strike on Iran.
Report thisBy Miguel, October 4, 2006 at 6:22 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
‘Bukko in Australia’ paints a scary picture for the future of America. My hope is that he/she is wrong. Never the less, I’m staying right where I am, outside of the USA.
Maybe, if I live long enough, I’ll return, with others, to help rebuild America. Hopefully to help bring back the country I was born in to what it was meant to be.
Report thisBy rabblerowzer, October 4, 2006 at 5:45 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Republican voters fear the Foley scandal threatens their party’s control of government, so don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do any house cleaning. For Republicans, control is the main thing, and in fact the only thing. They dont care that their party rigs elections to win, they dont care that their party lied us into war, and they dont care that their party has given Bush dictatorial powers.
Lust for control and power is the unifying force that binds billionaires and food-stamp republicans together. Lust for control, power and dominance over others is the psychological imperative that drives all republicans, from the richest to the poorest. That irresistible craving for dominance is their defining characteristic.
Every republican is “Ming the Merciless.”
Report thisBy atheist mom, October 4, 2006 at 5:15 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
My husband and I are about to move our family out of the USA also. Ironically, we’re moving to Germany, which offers a better quality of life all around. I’m fifty, and things have never looked so bad here in my life.
Report thisBy oneyedjack, October 4, 2006 at 4:26 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Very good observation Bukko. You’re right of course, it will get a lot worse before it gets better…if it ever gets better.
Report thisBy Bukko in Australia, October 4, 2006 at 1:59 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
This is a well-reasoned, if somewhat psychologially deep and Freudian, look at the danger of fascism in the U.S. The American government has already moved a long way toward economic fascism, when the power of the state is used for the benefit of business, not the people. One of the reasons I left the U.S. was that I fear the rise of everyday fascism, as pointed out by this article.
Sorry to slag the troops, but I worry that they’ll be used to ride herd over the American people when the U.S. finally has to admit it has lost the war in Iraq. When the soldiers, airmen and Marines straggle home in defeat, in the midst of the coming depression, they’re going to want somewhere to vent their wrath. Whipped up by the rabid right-wing media, it will be easy to turn their anger on the “liberals who helped the terrorists.”
Jobless soldiers, mercenaries from Blackwater and other companies who are already being used for security inside the U.S., plus the angry downtrodden white men who carry guns and grudges, will have no trouble breaking the bones of any protesters who rally against government policies. Environmental groups, labor strikers, Democrats and anyone else who opposes the right, will be violently crushed.
America, you’re slipping into a long, dark night. Good luck.
Report thisPage 4 of 4 pages « First < 2 3 4