April 21
GUEST: Jacqueline Luqman, Pan-Africanist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and co-host of "By Any Means Necessary" on Radio Sputnik, talks about her work with the Black Alliance for Peace and the Pan-African Community Action.
Jacqueline Luqman - articles in Muck Rack
There are some groups, like Black Alliance for Peace, that are so far left that it feels like you are in a different universe when talking to them. Jacqueline is one of those people, and I think her for this interview.
What is most unsettling about the Black Alliance for Peace is that almost every point that they make about US imperialism is true. It is just that we, as mainstream whites, don't use the word "imperialism." I don't know why we shy away from the word. Maybe it brands us as being outside the normal perimeters of what is being thought in the general public. Is it simply because we think that talking about imperialism would make us less effective in communicating with the general public? Or is it that deep down, we can't think of our country in this way?
My Army experience in Korea helped me make the transition from a liberal to realist. The US occupation of Korea for the last 70 years is based on military imperialism, and the peace that never really comes is mostly because the US has never given up its imperial ambitions to occupy all of Asia. Like the ambition to destroy Russia, the US simply never stopped fighting the World War II. We as a country have killed millions trying to create the greatest empire the world has ever seen. It's not so much for the glory of it all, as it is for the profits of the very few. War is where the most profits are; just look at our defense budget.
So people like Jacqueline can get away with speaking the truth because our media is so good at giving us narratives that favor militarism and intervention. NPR just loves talking about human rights in Ukraine! It is simply the Pentagon controlling what Americans are allowed to think. Talking about US imperialism will never be considered reasonable discourse.
